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Al Attiyah wins Jordan Rally to extend lead over UAE's Al Qassimi
Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah secured a comfortable victory in the 2013 Jordan Rally, round three of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), on Saturday and further consolidated his lead at the top of the standings.
The Qatari duly clinched his 48th career MERC victory and seventh in Jordan by a margin of 1min 42.2sec to take a 24-point championship lead over Abu Dhabi Citroen Total driver Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi going into the summer break.
"This was never going to be an easy rally and, for sure, this is the toughest event in this championship,” said Al Attiyah. “Now I have three wins in three rallies and 75 points. The target at the start of the year was the championship, but now I would like to win every rally this season – the Grand Slam!”
A string of fastest stage times enabled Lebanese driver Roger Feghali to sneak past Al Qassimi to secure second place while the Abu Dhabi driver had to be content with third overall.
Abdulaziz Al Kuwari were never able to match the pace of the leading trio and the WRC 2 leader finished fourth with Sheikh Abdullah Al Qassimi completing the top five.
Abu Dhabi Racing’s Bader Al Jabri and Jordanian Zeid Dahshan were separated by one tenth of a second after 12 special stages and the latter went on to win the Group N category in his Mitsubishi.
Mohammed Al Mutawaa won the 2WD category in a Citroen DS3, the young Emirati also claiming the Junior category win.
Eighteen of the original 26 starters finished day one and they were joined by a further six cars on the restart list for the final day under Rally2, although Jordanian driver Yousef Al Asmar decided not to restart from 17th position.
After his much-publicised dice with a cliff face in Suwayma, Abu Dhabi Racing’s Mohamed Al Sahlawi restarted at the rear of the field.
With the Syria round in doubt to due political unrest in that country, Al Attiyah is in a solid position in the championship with just three more rounds to go.
The fourth round, Rally Lebanon, takes place from September 6-8.
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