LOSAIL (Qatar): Defending regional champion Nasser Al Attiyah of Qatar took full advantage of late problems for Ulsterman Kris Meeke to hammer home his advantage after a fascinating four gravel special stages at the Qatar International Rally on Saturday.
“It was a good day for us,” said Al Attiyah. “It was not easy. Kris Meeke was pushing really hard. The level was really high so I am very happy.”
The two rivals shared a pair of stage wins apiece through the northern deserts and were separated by 10.3 seconds before the last action of the day.
Meeke and English navigator Sebastian Marshall damaged the underside of their Škoda Fabia R5 after a heavy landing over a jump and were forced to stop after the stage.
The actual time loss was only 46.9 seconds, but the radiator had failed after the impact and damaged the intercooler.
Rather than risk damaging the engine more seriously, Meeke stopped the Fabia on the road section and had to be towed back to Losail with hefty time penalties later awarded that will drop him down to sixth place on Sunday’s restart under Rally2 rules.
That drama enabled Al-Attiyah and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel to guide their Autotek Volkswagen Golf GTi R5 to the night halt with a 1min 40.6sec advantage over Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari and new Irish co-driver James Fulton in their Škoda Fabia R5.
Al Kuwari, the 2012 Qatar International Rally winner, had not been on the leading duo’s pace in the last two stages after a flat tyre and dust issues, but the Qatari finished the day comfortably clear of third-placed Khalid Al-Suwaidi and his navigator Hugo Maghalães.
“We started well on the first two stages, where the gap was not too big to Nasser and Kris,” said Al-Kuwari. “The second loop we had some problems with dust. I stopped on one hairpin, where I could not see the road at all. On the last stage we had a flat tyre, front-left. Second place is not bad though and tomorrow is longer and tougher than today. The car was good, the team did well and so did my new co-driver. It is not easy to read the roads here.”
Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya also benefited from Meeke’s issues and climbed to fourth overall with Kuwait’s Meshari Al-Thefiri driving impressively into fifth place and a comfortable lead in MERC 2.
Sheikh Suhaim Al-Thani belied his lack of rallying experience to post an impressive debut drive to sixth in the Motorsport Italia-run Škoda. Oman’s Zakariya Al-Ofi was seventh and second in MERC 2 and Saudi Arabia’s Salef Al-Saif led the FIA T4 section in his Can-Am with eighth.
Qatar’s Rashid Al-Mohannadi and Lebanon’s Ahmad Khaled rounded off the top 10. Shadi El-Fakih and MERC 3 leader Henry Kahy were 11th and 12th.
Ahmed Al-Mohannadi led the Qatar National Rally at the end of the day by 53.2 seconds in his Can-Am from Khalid Al-Mohannadi. Qatar-based Ahmed Allouh and Lebanon’s Jad Aawar were third and fourth.
