Nasser Al Attiyah remained firmly on course for an unprecedented 12th victory after taking a commanding lead of the Qatar International Rally, the opening round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship, yesterday.
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The Qatari leads the 13-stage event by 1min 17.50sec over Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi and third-placed Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi of Abu Dhabi Racing, who slipped down the order after suffering a flat tyre.
“It’s a nice position to be in at this point with a good lead and six stages to go,” said Al Attiyah.
“But I was a little fortunate this morning. I was pushing quite hard and managed to avoid the punctures that affected the others and cost them time.
“I do have a good lead, but one puncture tomorrow and that can all be lost. I need to manage the race carefully now.”
Punctures wrecked the challenge from both of his major rivals. Sheikh Khalid was forced to stop and change a wheel on the second of the day’s specials and the delay cost him 3min 50sec.
Al Rajhi complained of handling issues on the first stage, but the Saudi driver settled into an impressive pace from then on to hold third place and move up to second on the last test of the day.
Qatar’s Abdulaziz Al Kuwari completed 8km of the second stage on a flat tyre and lost half a minute.
The Qatari held second at the midday regroup and looked set to reach the overnight halt in a similar position until he punctured again on the last stage and dropped nearly four minutes to slip to fourth place.
Kuwait’s Salah bin Eidan is in sixth place and led the Group N category from Iranian Ali Mesgarha until the last stage. But Eidan too hit trouble and surrendered the class lead to Mesgarha .
Al Qassimi said of his misfortune, which has virtually wrecked his chances of a first win on Qatari soil: “After about two or three kilometres, in a tight right-hand corner, a rock had been pulled out into the track and we clipped it.
“I carried on a little, but we knew there was a problem and decided to change the front wheel. But there was also some damage under the car and we had to jack it up from the back. This cost us even more time.”
Today, crews tackle special stages starting with 20.90km starting at 09:38 UAE time. Runs through the 15.33km of Salwa and a QMMF-backed 27.56km special precede a regroup and service stop.
The three specials will be repeated 12:52 UAE time. After a final service, cars then return to the QMMF for the ceremonial finish and prize giving ceremony.
