(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Qatar's rally star Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah confirmed a record-breaking dusty dozen wins in the QMMF Qatar International Rally, round one of the 2015 FIA Middle East Rally Championship, which drew to a conclusion in Doha yesterday.
The defending regional champion and his French navigator Matthieu Baumel won all but two of the 12 special stages in their Ford Fiesta RRC and controlled the pace of the rally from the start.
Baumel duly earned his fourth MERC success and Al-Attiyah's 12th win at home in 13 years also marked his 55th career MERC win. The recent Dakar Rally winner is now just five Middle East rallies short of the 60 wins set by Dubai's Mohammed Ben Sulayem between 1984 and 2002.
"It's obviously always a special feeling to win here in Qatar and to make a winning start to the defence of my Middle East title was important," said Al Attiyah.
"It's been a great start to the year, with the win in Dakar and my 12th win on this rally. But this is a busy season and I must remain focused and take each event as it comes."
Saudi Arabia's Yazeed Al Rajhi and Ulster co-driver Michael Orr needed to finish the event to get off to a clean start in their challenge for the regional title and they were on course for the runner-up spot until rear suspension damage intervened on the penultimate Salwa stage.
Abu Dhabi Racing's Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi and Ulster co-driver Chris Patterson began the day in third in the only Citroën DS3 RRC on the entry list, but they dropped a minute on the second stage with a broken front drive shaft and lost even more time on the 10th special. But Al Rajhi's demise played into the Emirati's hands and the Abu Dhabi driver snatched an unlikely second place, albeit 5min 53.20sec behind Al Attiyah at the finish.
"I suppose after the time I lost with the tyre on Friday, the best I could hope for was second place and I am quite happy with that under the circumstances. It was important to score points here," said Al Qassimi.
After two time consuming wheel changes on Friday, Qatar's Abdulaziz Al Kuwari and Irish team mate Killian Duffy found a good pace on the first two specials of the final day. But they hit terminal engine trouble on the 10th stage and retired after moving into third place after stage nine.
The Qatari duo of Khalifa Al Attiyah and Adel Hussein proved that it is possible to climb back to the podium from a Rally2 situation and they reached the finish in a fine third place in another Ford Fiesta RRC. Salah Bin Eidan's mechanics worked hard to repair his Mitsubishi's broken suspension on Friday evening and the Kuwaiti was able to finish in fourth position and confirm maximum points in the Group N Trophy. The Iranian pairing of Ali Mesgarha and Vahidreza Vahdatinikzad put in an impressive showing on their Qatar debut to finish sixth and second in Group N.
Qatar's Khalid Al Suwaidi and Irish co-driver John Higgins restarted under Rally2 and reached the finish in fifth overall. Qatar's Abdullah Al Kuwari and Irish team mate Enda Sherry struggled to seventh after a catalogue of problems and a determined Edith Weiss came home eighth with her Greek co-driver Vicky Psarakis and won the Ladies' category for the second year running.
Kuwait hosts the second round of the 2015 FIA Middle East Rally Championship on March 12-14.
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