Eighth home victory for Nasser Bin Saleh Al Attiyah

A QMMF Release
Qatari drivers repeated their 2008 performance and locked out the podium of the Qtel Qatar International Rally on Saturday (January 23, 2010).

Nasser Bin Saleh Al Attiyah, using the Super Series car for the first time, won the event, run on the new course in the south of Doha. Twice runner-up and QMMF-backed Misfer Al Marri and Sheikh Hamad Bin Eid Al Thani picked the second and third places in the rally.

Two Italian co-drivers were also on the podium - Giovanni Bernacchini with Al Attiyah and Nicoal Arena with Al Marri. Yousef Mohammed of the UAE was the co-driver of Sheikh Hamad and relished his first podium with him.

Barwa World Rally Team's Al Attiyah ended as the winner with more than 11 minutes gap. But he had to suffer a five-minute penalty for losing the track, which reduced his winning margin to 6 minutes and 26.0 seconds.

Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation President Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Attiyah congratulated the winners and their co-drivers for their gusty efforts on the new course. "The rally had the fast drivers and fast cars. Qatari drivers showed their abilities and won the entire podium. I extend my heartiest wishes to you all for putting up a wonderful show.

"I also thank the sponsors Qtel and Qatar National Bank for their support. I want to thank my team which worked tirelessly and prepared the new route. I hope all the drivers would back next year and make the rally even more successful," said the QMMF president.

The second day, with six special stages on the menu, was more interesting than the first one. In a battle of two Super Series cars at the top, Al Attiyah, who started with an overnight lead of 32.6 seconds, was first to get a blow. He suffered a puncture on the ninth stage and handed the overall lead to Team Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi by 2 minutes and 49.1 seconds.

But Al Qassimi tried to increase the pace in a bid to widen the overall lead and sustained a puncture over the Al Negian stage and lost a considerable time. As if that was not enough, the Emirati had more of his bad luck hurting him. Two more tire failures in the closing stages blew up his long-cherished hopes of winning a rally in the region for another year.

With his chief rival getting stuck, Al Attiyah cut down the speed and focussed on a clear path, taking his car past the finish post safely without any more moments of anxiety.

"I'm delighted to win the rally for the eighth time. It is victory my Ford Fiesta also as this was its first race. My management team M-Sport must be quite pleased with my effort as its two Ford cars won at two places (Mikko Hirovonen won in the Monte Carlo Rally).

"I was keen to win here not because it was my home race. It was important for me to collect maximum points here for I'd not be doing the Kuwait Rally in March. At the same time, I'd be contesting the Mexico Rally in the WRC Cup for the S2000 cars," added Al Attiyah.

His co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini was also delighted with a winning start here. "The winning start was very important for us. It was a difficult day for us. We had a puncture on the very first stage but we managed to overcome our problems and win the rally, for which I'm very happy," said the Italian, who had started co-driving for Al Attiyah since last year.

Misfer Al Marri was aware that the presence of the Super Series cars would make the rally faster and tougher. "My plan was to finish on the top of the Group N cars. Our finish was quite exciting. A puncture had slowed down but we kept pressing the accelerator. As a result, the suspension of my Subaru 2009 broke and we stood still with the finish line in front of us.

"Luckily the car restarted and we managed to push it through. We were penalised but that was not enough to affect our second-place finish," added Al Marri. "It will be difficult to match pace with the Super Series cars in upcoming rallies. If the federation hands me a Super Series car, it would be wonderful for me,"commented the reigning two times FIA MERC runner-up.

His bespectacled co-driver Arena said he relished the rally, despite troubles that hit the pair. "We had a big scare when our car stopped with the finishing tape just a few metres in front of us. But the efforts to restart the engine worked and we managed to pass the finish line. Overall, the rally was quite thrilling and I enjoyed every moment of it."

For Sheikh Hamad, it was a long time since he savoured the podium. He was naturally greatly excited with his third place. Last time, he was on the podium in 1993. In the intervening period, he raced in the Baja rallies and won a couple of times.

"I'm quite pleased with my third place. I love rallying and I always like to participate in the Qatar rallies. It was a great result for me. Competing against much stronger cars, I'd not expected to be on the podium. We also had our problems but we wanted to finish the rally with minimum difficulties. That really paid us," said a smiling Sheikh Hamad.

His co-driver Mohammed was ecstatic with his first career podium in the FIA MERC. "I've been with Sheikh Hamad for three years. This is my best moment. We also had flat tires but we did not give up. Sheikh Hamad is a brilliant driver and I hope we'll pull off more podiums in time to come," said the UAE co-driver.