Qatar’s Attiyah wins rain-soaked Jordan Rally

DEAD SEA — Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah on Saturday was crowned champion of the opening round of the 2018 FIA Middle East Rally Championship, Jordan Rally in an event that witnessed a cancellation of Al Nakheel stage, the longest stage in the rally due to the weather conditions.

Attiyah and his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel clocked 1hr56min30.3sec in their Ford Fiesta R5 achieving an extraordinary feat by equaling Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s 12 victories at the Jordan Rally.

Czech Vojtech Štajf and co driver Markéta Skácelová settled in the second place after clocking 2hrs 04min 33.5sec in their Škoda Fabia R5 followed by Kuwait Meshari Al Thefiri and co driver Nasser Al Kuwair in the third place after clocking 2hrs06min 50.3sec in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.

Jordan’s Khaled Juma and co-driver Emad Juma finished fourth in 2hrs14min16.1sec in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo and Ahmed Shaban and co-driver Shadi Shaban came in fifth place (2hrs18min45.2sec) in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.

Attiyah’s win is his 67th in MERC, a record breaking victory.

“I think we did a clever race. I am happy with the performance and to equal the record of wins here is a nice feeling. We already have the record of winning the most number of Middle East rallies. We will try and get the new record for the Middle East Championships this year,” Attiyah, who also reigned the first day, said.

“The stages got firmer as the first day went on and dried and we were able to go quicker. We had no problems despite the weather conditions,” he added.

The Czech duo faced a puncture on the first day which led to a loss of time but managed to regain and settle in the second place overall.

“The priority is the Czech Championship for my sponsors and I always try and find some more rallies that are interesting. This rally was a part of the World Rally Championship and I heard great things about the stages. I could not believe that we did the race in temperatures of 37°C and sun and then the stage by the Jordan River was cancelled because of the bad weather,” Štajf said. 

“The first leg was very hard because we had never driven an R5 car in such harsh conditions. The pace notes were not perfect and I was not able to trust them. We had to play catch up but we are happy to finish second. It’s a good start to the MERC for us. On some events I would like to try and catch Nasser on some stages. He is a fast guy and a good measurement for me,” he added.

The Kuwaiti team competing in MERC 2 class were satisfied with the third spot:

“It has been a good rally, big gap, about five minutes. We start the second day in second overall. But the Czech driver was very fast. Third is a good start for me and a good step for the championship,” Thefiri said.

Despite Jordanian teams giving the rally all they had it was not enough but it opened the way for future participation.

 “We had a small problem and we had to change the plan to make sure that we finish the rally in fourth overall. We now lead the Jordan Championship. Maybe we will go to Kuwait and Qatar at the end of the year,” Juma said.

Friday’s competition was plagued with heavy rain in which Jordan Motorsports had to cancel the longest stage, Al Nakheel due to the slippery gravel conditions and while Attiyah cruised smoothly others had to face the challenge with the Czech duo losing over three minutes with a puncture in the fourth stage.

Othman Naseef, Jordan Motorsports CEO said that the rally was an excellent event despite the weather.

“It was really a challenging rally and the rainy weather made it ever harder. We had to cancel the longest stage and work on the damage resulting from the rain. This was the first time the Jordan Rally was held as the opener for MERC,” he said.