Qatar Motor & Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) President Abdulrahman bin Abdullatif Al Mannai (right) and QMMF Executive Director Amro Al Hamad (left) with other officials and top three finishers at the 2025 Qatar International Rally.
Lusail: Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and his Spanish co-driver Candido Carrera won five of the 13 special stages on the way to a resounding victory in the Qatar International Rally yesterday.
A second success of the Qatari’s 2025 campaign to win a 20th FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) title also marked his 18th in Qatar from 25 starts and gives him a strong foundation on which to build this year’s title challengein his Autotek-run Škoda Fabia RS.
The win was the 88th in his illustrious MERC career.
A delighted Al Attiyah said: “I am really happy to win this race.
It is a home rally and we did a good job. I am happy with Candido and the team.
It is a nice start for 2025. Just 0.8 (seconds) between me and Mads on the Power Stage. It was a good level.”
His new co-driver Carrera earned his second career MERC rally win in the space of three weeks.
The Spaniard said: “The start of the new partnership is very good. I am very happy with two victories with Nasser. It’s very easy to work with him. It’s good for the championship. It’s good for me because it’s a long time since I was reading the pace notes in English. It’s different rallies, very strategic, with the flags and fences. But I am very happy.”
On his fourth visit to the event, Mads Ostberg finished as runner-up for a third year in succession after failing to finish on his first appearance in 2022.
Punctures on Friday put paid to an aggressive challenge by the Norwegian and his Romanian co-driver Sergiu Itu but the crew won eight of the 13 stages, including a clean sweep of six fastest times over the final day to finish 1min 12.8sec behind Al Attiyah.
Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and Candido Carrera celebrate after winning the rally.
Ostberg said: “Eight stage wins but that doesn’t count. It takes only one stage to lose the rally. I have learned that on more than one occasion. It’s a shame, but I look at the positives. To be here and to enjoy this rally is really amazing. I take that from here and even just to fight with Nasser on these stages and compare our stage times is really an adventure. I love it. We can see that we have the speed. We just need to nail the strategy. We tried something else this year and it didn’t pay off at all. We need to go home and investigate and try again.”
Abdulaziz Al Kuwari and Lorcan Moore ceded second to Ostberg on the first stage of the morning but were able to fend off a fierce late challenge from Abdullah Al Rawahi and Ata Al Hmoud to claim the final place on the podium and a vital haul of MERC points in their Citroën C3 by just 3.3 seconds. But the Qatari was handed a five-second penalty on Saturday evening and that dropped him to fourth place.
Speaking before the penalty, Al Kuwari said: “Very close. Abdullah gave us a hard time. He was very fast. He was pushing like hell. We were pushing but not with any risks. I like to be safe. I don’t like to break the cars. Mechanics working with me like that, you know. I am very happy. It was a very difficult rally. With the Citroën, we don’t have any reference on this type of rally. It was a hard rally for the car but it performed very well, suspension, handling, everything was very good. I learned more and more. Hopefully, in Saudi and Jordan we will be a bit faster because I think the car will be better there.”
Rakan Al Rashed enjoyed his first appearance in Qatar and managed his pace sensibly over the two days of high-speed action in the northern deserts to finish fifth overall in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2 with Portuguese co-driver Hugo Magalhães.
Saad Al Harqan and Mohammed Al Marri excelled on their rallying debuts with the Qatar Motorsport Sports Academy, winning 14th and 15th overall, while Al Harqan won the Junior MERC category.
Coupled with his runner-up spot at round one in Oman, Al Rashed is now in a strong position to challenge championship leader Al Attiyah this season.
Nasser Khalifa Al Atya is chasing Masters Championship and MERC points with Lebanese co-driver Ziad Chehab in a Motortune Ford Fiesta.
He surrendered sixth overall to a hard-charging Denis Krotov and Yury Kulikov in their SRT Škoda Fabia RS but earned a second win in the new Masters Championship and collected valuable MERC points to boot with seventh overall.
Rashid Al Muhannadi guided his Peugeot 208 Rally 4 to a second successive victory in the MERC4 category.
The Qatari teamed up with Irishman Gary Mcelhinney again to finish eighth.
The battle for supremacy in MERC2 developed into a showdown between the Omani duo of Abdullah Al Zubair and Zakariya Al Aamri.
When mechanical issues sidelined Al Zubair before the penultimate stage, that opened the door for Al Aamri to claim the win and 10th overall behind ninth-placed Jordanian driver Shadi Shaban.
Jad Al Aawar and Ahmad Khaled were second and fourth in MERC2 and 11th and 13th overall with Kuwait’s Jassim Al Muqahwi sandwiched between the Lebanese duo.
Both Saad Al Harqan and Mohammed Al Marri excelled on their rallying debuts with the Qatar Motorsport Sports Academy.
The rookies guided their Peugeot 208s to 14th and 15th overall with Al Harqan winning the Junior MERC category.
The 50th anniversary rally was held under the chairmanship of QMMF President Abdulrahman Al Mannai, senior committee member Abdulrazaq Al Kuwari and the QMMF’s Executive Director Amro Al Hamad.
Sports and Youth Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, attended the start of the rally along with Minister of Municipality H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah.
The FIA Middle East Rally Championship now heads to Saudi Arabia for the first time since 2010 for the new Jeddah-based round of the series on May 1-3.
2025 Qatar International Rally – final Standings:
*denotes not registered for the MERC
