Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah maintains a comfortable lead after seven stages of the Qatar International Rally.
Lusail: Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and his Spanish co-driver Candido Carrera forged into a comfortable lead of 1min 47.3sec after six challenging gravel stages through the northeastern desert at the Qatar International Rally on Friday.
The Qatari crushed his rivals through the opening three speed tests that constituted the morning’s loop and won two of the afternoon’s repeat passes in his Škoda Fabia RS Rally 2.
He said: “Very good day. We did a good job and I am happy. We had only one puncture (SS5) and the rest was good. If you have a puncture, it will be a disaster. We try to keep the pace like this afternoon. We lose two or three seconds from our pace, but I am happy.”
Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari admitted that it felt strange to be running as the first car on the road and he took some time to acclimatise.
Along with Irish co-driver Lorcan Moore, the current regional champion guided his new Citroën C3 to second place overnight.
Al-Kuwari said: “I think this is my first proper rally in the Citroën. I am very happy. It is a good car and the feeling was good. Lorcan did a very good job. It is not easy to read the roads at that speed in Qatar. I am getting confidence every kilometre. The pace is very high to be honest. Nasser’s pace is crazy high. I am really shocked when I see the stage times. Sometimes when I do almost no mistakes in a stage…I need to improve a lot. That’s all I can say...”
A double puncture during the morning and then a sixth-stage flat tyre ruined Mads Østberg’s chance of applying pressure on Al-Attiyah with his Romanian co-driver Sergiu Itu.
The Norwegian fought back from fourth place to hold third and is well-placed to attack Al-Kuwari on Saturday.
Østberg said: “Another puncture (SS6) this afternoon. It’s going a bit wrong this time, basically. We tried to be smarter from the start and it just kicked us the other way around. I think this race is about luck or no luck sometimes. With experience, like Nasser, you can see he has no punctures. He knows what he is doing. At least, for me, it makes no difference if I am pushing or not pushing, so I might as well just go...”
Abdullah Al-Rawahi and Ata Al-Hmoud sustained two slow punctures on the first stage of the morning and then two more flat tyres during the afternoon on their Škoda Fabia RS.
The Omani remained in contention for the podium, however, and held fourth place.
He said: “Another two punctures, four in total. I am just happy we made it back here and we are still in a good position to fight for at least second place. One puncture on the second stage of the loop, three kilometres from the end, and the other was on the last stage.”
Rakan Al-Rashed is making his debut in Qatar with a Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2 and Portuguese co-driver Hugo Magalhães.
He overcame two flat tyres during the afternoon to hold fifth.
The Saudi said: “As expected, it wasn’t easy at all. It’s my first time here in Qatar. Everyone was talking about how challenging this rally can be and that has exceeded my expectations. I am happy to be here at the end of the day. We had two punctures but we managed to get back. Now, we manage the race tomorrow and see what happens.”
Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya is chasing Masters Championship and MERC points and he and Ziad Chehab were sixth after another solid performance.
Denis Krotov and Yury Kulikov held seventh in their SRT Škoda Fabia RS and the Omani duo of Abdullah Al-Zubair and Taha Al-Zadjali were eighth and first in the MERC2 category in a Subaru Impreza.
Rashid Al-Muhannadi guided his Peugeot 208 to ninth and the lead in Rally4, while Jordan’s Shadi Shaban was 10th in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX.
Outside the top 10, Oman’s Zakariya Al-Aamri, Lebanon’s Jad Al-Aawar, Qatar’s Mohammed Al-Atteya, Kuwait’s Jassim Al-Muqahwi and India’s Mohammed Mansoor Parol and held 11th to 15th places and were classified second to sixth in MERC2.
Saad Al-Harqan and Mohammed Al-Marri drove well on their first appearances in the Qatar Motorsport Sports Academy Peugeot 208s and were classified in 20th and 21st.
