MERC – AL-ATTIYAH CLINCHES RECORD-BREAKING EIGHTH VICTORY AT THE OMAN INTERNATIONAL RALLY

SOHAR (OMAN): Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and his new Spanish co-driver Candido Carrera cruised to an emphatic 6min 13.6sec victory in the 28th Oman International Rally on Saturday afternoon.

The Qatari secured a record-breaking eighth win in the Sultanate in his Škoda Fabia RS and a staggering 87th career victory in the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) with a seventh different co-driver. He won nine of the 13 special stages, including the Power Stage finale.

Al-Attiyah said: “It has been a very good weekend. I am still tired from Dakar. We enjoyed this a lot, the new location for Oman Rally. New co-driver and we have a new car this year and it has been a good start. We decide to go flat out on the Power Stage and we had a really good time. I am happy.”

His co-driver Candido Carrera said: “The first time here. The stages were very nice and I had a nice feeling. It was the first time with Nasser, so we went going step-by-step with the pace notes and the speed. We think we did a very good job. It is a really good rally. For me, the stages are completely different (to the WRC). The surface is harder and there are no big references between notes. In Acropolis and Sardinia, it is easier to see the road. But I like it a lot.”

Rakan Al-Rashed returned to the series in impressive style by taking second overall with Portugal’s Hugo Magalhães in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2. The Saudi overcame a couple of flat tyres on Friday’s opening stage and measured his pace well once Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari had blotted his copybook on the last stage of the first day.

Al-Rashed said: “We are very happy to be in this position after coming back to this championship after a very long time. We scored really important points and to finish behind Nasser is something really special. He is a master and we are happy to be behind him here. We are learning much better and getting ready to go to Qatar. It’s a new car as well for the region and that’s another factor we are dealing with. We are still trying to see what the optimum set-up is for this car. We learned a lot this weekend and will keep learning.”

Qatar’s Nasser Khalifa Al-Attiyah and his Lebanese co-driver Ziad Chehab went largely under the radar to deliver a polished performance to snatch the final place on the podium in their Ford Fiesta. The result marked a perfect start to the veteran’s quest to win the maiden MERC Masters Cup.

A delighted Al-Attiyah said: “It was a great event for me to start the season with a podium. I played a good strategy to manage and continue this rally. It was new data for everybody and new terrain. We had some mistakes on the super special stage and we missed some corners but we are happy to be behind young people and be on the podium. The target is to fight for the Masters Cup Trophy. We are looking for that.”

Defending regional champion Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari overcame a seventh stage accident and the resultant 10-minute penalty to retain third at the start of the final day in his QMMF-backed Citroën C3. But the luckless Qatari ground to a halt with suspension issues on the penultimate stage. Irishman Lorcan Moore performed well on the pace notes.

Al-Kuwari’s cruel demise lifted Rashid Al-Muhannadi and Gary Mcelhinney into fourth place in the new Peugeot 208 Rally 4. They suffered late drama of their own when the car got stuck in the regrouping zone before the final stage and an attempt to pull it clear resulted in extensive damage to the front end.

Jordan’s Shadi Shaban and Samer Issa secured a fine fifth place in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. The Subaru Impreza crew of Abdullah Al-Zubair and Taha Al-Zadjali did the host nation proud with sixth and maximum points in MERC2.

Saudi Arabia’s Ibrahim Al-Muhanna (Can-Am) finished seventh and Abdullah Al-Rawahi and Ata Al-Hmoud benefited from four fastest times and late bad luck for some rivals to lift themselves into an unlikely eighth in the second Autotek Škoda after a cruel retirement on the first stage on Friday morning.

Shadi El-Fakih (Renault), Yosra Jazzar (Can-Am) and Zakariya Al-Aamri (Subaru) rounded off the FIA finishers in ninth, 10th and 11th positions after India’s Saneem Payyakkal and Musa Sherif stopped in the penultimate stage.

Jordan’s Ihab Al-Shorafa and Ahmad Jankout were on course for seventh until the gearbox expired on their Mitsubishi after SS12.

Zakariya Al-Ofi claimed victory in the Oman National Championship event with his co-driver Mutasim Al-Balushi.

Saturday – as it happened

Fifteen crews graced the start list for the final leg of six special stages with both Al-Rawahi and Al-Kuwari returning to the fray and chasing as many points as possible. Only Mohamed Mansoor Parol’s Subaru Impreza was missing from the list. All five crews competed in the Oman National Rally made the restart.

First on the agenda was a pass through the Al-Akak (25.20km) stage. Al-Rawahi had the bit between his teeth and the Omani stormed to the fastest time, beating an easing Al-Attiyah by 15.5 seconds but the damage had been done to his challenge the previous morning.

Because he had only missed one stage on Friday after his accident and incurred just one 10-minute penalty, starting in Rally2 enabled Al-Kuwari to remarkably move into third in the overall standings. A returning Ahmad Khaled dropped four minutes but all the crews survived the early challenge.

The Yanboa (13.45km) stage was next on the agenda. Al-Attiyah returned to winning ways and beat Al-Rawahi to the win by 2.3 seconds to increase his massive cushion over Al-Rashed to 4min 21sec. Al-Rawahi finished the stage with a slow puncture and hand brake issues.

The first pass through the Misyal A’sidr (19.32km) special completed a rapid-fire morning loop. Al-Attiyah extended his lead to 4min 45.8sec but Al-Rawahi was again quickest and he climbed to 11th overall.

Al-Kuwari said: “We lost only one place. This was a very good loop, nice stages. We took it easy, for sure. The target now is just to finish and take third. The gap is huge and Rakan is going good. We had a broken anti-roll bar yesterday. So, we drove this morning without the anti-roll bar.”

Al-Rawahi said: “A slow puncture at the end of one stage but we didn’t lose much with that. I lost the hand brake as well. I am struggling in the hairpins. I couldn’t turn it and we lost a lot of time. Other than that, we are just gaining experience on these stages.”

All 15 crews survived the opening loop and headed out of service in Sohar for the final three stages. Al-Attiyah was 10 seconds faster than his morning’s run and his advantage over a cautious Al-Rashed grew to 5min 19.2sec after SS11. Al-Rawahi claimed a third stage win of the day but Ahmad Khaled did not start the afternoon loop and retired.

The leading Qatari noticeably eased his pace to conserve tyres on the final pass through Yanboa and headed to the Power Stage finale with a cushion of 5min 31.2sec. Al-Rawahi earned his fourth stage win and climbed to ninth but Al-Kuwari agonizingly parked up shortly after the start of the stage with suspension issues. Saneem Payyakkal also stopped in the stage.

The final Misyal A’sidr special acted as the event’s new Power Stage and additional MERC points were awarded to the top quintet with five for the fastest time and one for fifth place. Al-Attiyah posted the target time of 10min 15.7sec and he beat Al-Rawahi by 18.5 seconds to claim the five bonus points after a dramatic three days of rallying in a superb new location in Sohar.

The MERC resumes in Qatar on February 6th-8th.

2025 Oman International Rally – positions after SS13 (unofficial @17.00hrs):
1. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Candido Carrera (ESP) Škoda Fabia RS Rally 2		2hr 12min 27.3sec
2. Rakan Al-Rashed (SAU)/Hugo Magalhães (PRT) Toyota Yaris Rally 2		2hr 18min 40.9sec
3. Nasser Khalifa Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Ziad Chehab (LEB) Ford Fiesta Mk II Rally 2		2hr 36min 32.9sec
4. Rashid Al-Muhannadi (QAT)/Gary Mcelhinney (IRL) Peugeot 208 Rally 4		2hr 45min 51.5sec
5. Shadi Shaban (JOR)/Samer Issa (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X		2hr 48min 06.7sec
6. Abdullah Al-Zubair (OMN)/Taha Al-Zadjali (OMN) Subaru Impreza		2hr 52min 30.6sec
7. Ibrahim Al-Muhanna (SAU)/Ali Hassan Obaid (ARE) Can-Am Maverick X3 (T4)		3hr 05min 07.8sec
8. Abdullah Al-Rawahi (OMN)/Ata Al-Hmoud (JOR) Škoda Fabia RS Rally 2		3hr 12min 16.3sec
9. Shadi El Fakih (LBN)/Joseph Kmeid (LBN) Renault Clio Rally 5		3hr 30min 35.6sec
10. Yosra Jazzar (SAU)/Faisal Al-Suwayh (SAU) Can-Am Maverick X3 (T4)		3hr 42min 46.0sec
11. Zakariya Al-Aamri (OMN)/Mohammed Al-Mazroui (OMN) Subaru Impreza		3hr 48min 05.6sec
Ihab Al-Shurafa (JOR)/Ahmad Jankout (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X		RETIRED – after SS12
Saneem Payyakkal (IND)/Musa Sherif (IND) Ford Fiesta Rally 4		RETIRED – SS12
Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (QAT)/Lorcan Moore (IRL) Citroën C3 Rally 2		RETIRED – SS12
Ahmad Khaled (LEB)/Samer Sfeir (LEB) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X		RETIRED – after SS10
Mohamed Mansoor Parol (IND)/Lenin Joseph (IND) Subaru Impreza		RETIRED – SS3
2025 Oman National Rally – positions after SS13:
1. Zakariya Al-Ofi (OMN)/Mutasim Al-Balushi (OMN) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX		2hr 46min 48.8sec
2. Salim Al-Tauqi (OMN)/Issa Al-Wardi (OMN) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII		3hr 14min 22.8sec
3. Haitham Al-Zadjali (OMN)/Wail Al-Shaibani (OMN) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII		3hr 30min 17.3sec
4. Bashar Al-Qassmi (OMN)/Bassam Al-Qassmi (OMN) Toyota Yaris		4hr 04min 57.8sec
Mus’ab Al-Zadjali (OMN)/Nasr Al-Qassmi (OMN) Kia Rio		RETIRED – SS9

Ends
 
For further media information: 2025 Oman International Rally, Mohammed Al-Raisi, Media Manager and PR Officer, Email: rally@omanauto.org and Neil Perkins, International Media Liaison, Email: ndppublicity@gmail.com.

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