Nasser reigns supreme in Dubai

Dubai:  Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah survived a powerful second leg charge by Emirati driver Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi to win the final round of the FIA Middle East Championship and his seventh successive Dubai International Rally, yesterday. 
With Al Attiyah taking a 29.7 second overnight lead, Al Qassimi produced a brilliant surge to win the first four of the day’s six special stages in his Abu Dhabi Citroën Total DS3 and pile the pressure on the nine-time Middle East champion.
But Al Qassimi suffered a frustrating anti-climax when he was forced out of the event by a double puncture shortly after completing the final stage in which Al Attiyah claimed the next two stages.
His departure meant that Al Attiyah, partnered by Giovanni Bernacchini in a Ford Fiesta RRC, won by 5 minutes 33.6 seconds ahead of Qatar’s 2010 Middle East champion, Misfer Almarri. 
Al Attiyah said: “I had a good strategy. I was careful because I didn’t want to get any punctures. Khalid took the risks and I’m happy to win. It was a good fight and this is what we need for the championship to improve.”
Finishing third was the UAE’s Sheikh Abdullah Al Qassimi, brother of Sheikh Khalid and runner-up in Dubai last year.
After a 10-second time penalty on Friday’s first leg had presented him with a mountain to climb, Sheikh Khalid produced the perfect response over the second leg’s first loop of three stages, winning them all alongside Scott Martin in his Abu Dhabi Citroën to move within 19.8 seconds of the lead.
He said: “I knew I had to go flat out, but I also had to be neat in places to avoid overshooting corners. There was a very fine balance. At very high speed you can maybe gain a second here or lose a second here on the corners. We still have a lot of hard work to 
do.”
He was looking to complete one of the biggest fightbacks in recent Middle East Championship history and become the first UAE winner of the Dubai International Rally since his own second successive victory in 2006.
The fightback continued as he clawed back another 4.4 seconds on the next stages, but Al Attiyah was not to be denied his seventh successive win in Dubai.
The consolation for Al Qassimi was in seeing the four young Abu Dhabi Racing drivers he has guided into this year’s Middle East Championship all finishing in the top 10 in Dubai’s traditional final round of the 
series.
With Jordanian driver Alaa Rasheed finishing fourth, Majed Al Shamsi produced a mature drive to take fifth place overall and win the Group N production class in partnership with John Higgins. 
The UAE’s Rashid Al Ketbi completed the top six.
It was a good day also for Al Shamsi’s three other Abu Dhabi Racing team-mates. 
Finishing seventh overall alongside Nicolas Klinger, Bader Al Jabri was runner-up in Group N and also finished third in the category in the Middle East Championship.
Mohammed Al Sahlawi, driving an Abu Dhabi Citroën DS3 R3 2WD to 9th place overall alongside Allan Harryman, captured the Middle East 2WD and Junior titles ahead of team-mate Mohamed Al Mutawaa, who finished 10th overall and runner up in both classes with Stephen McAuley. 
The biggest casualty of the day was Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi, a WRC2 rally winner on this year’s World Championship stage, whose Ford Fiesta RRC went out on the first of six special stages after multiple 
punctures. THE PENINSULA