Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah stormed back into WRC 2 title contention in the final round of the season at Wales Rally GB yesterday, thanks to some smart driving and in part due to Bernardo Souza’s retirement.
It had all seemed lost for the Qatari after a forgettable opening day on Friday when he slipped to eighth overall going into the overnight halt.
Al Attiyah was initially running in second overall on Friday, but issues with his Fiesta RRC’s transmission relegated him to eighth, one minute 34.2sec behind the only challenger for the title, Finland’s Jari Ketomaa, and needing to climb the order over the final two days.
For Al Attiyah to secure his maiden WRC 2 title this season, he must finish seventh or above given that he has a 20-point cushion over Ketomaa in the standings.
Yesterday, the Qatari began in cautious fashion and hit pedal to metal briefly to make up time. By the mid-day service break, Al Attiyah had laboriously lifted himself up from eighth in the morning to seventh going into the second loop of the stages in the afternoon.
And, as luck would have it, Portuguese Bernardo Souza hit trouble and retired from sixth, a position that Al Attiyah gladly inherited.
The Qatari though is still not out of the woods given that Ukrainian Valeriy Gorban is just 17sec off in seventh and even a slight error could cost Al Attiyah what otherwise seems a certain title in hand.
Meanwhile, in the WRC world champion Sebastien Ogier ended the second leg with a comfortable lead ahead of a thrilling battle for the remaining podium places.
He will restart to with a 58.1sec advantage after any pressure evaporated when team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala slid into a ditch yesterday.
Latvala’s mistake left Mikko Hirvonen, Kris Meeke and Mads Ostberg in a titanic fight for second place.
