Nasser Al Attiyah draws first blood at Jordan Rally

AMMAN — Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel held a small advantage after the opening Abdali super special stage of the Jordan Rally on Thursday afternoon, according to the Jordan Rally news service.

Driving a Skoda Fabia R5, the defending regional champion beat Abdulaziz Al Kuwari by 9.5 seconds to reach the end of the first section of leg one with the bragging rights. Thousands of spectators witnessed the action in Amman’s new downtown district, as the organising Jordan Motorsport took the action to the centre of the capital before heading down to the Dead Sea region for the weekend.

“I finished second here last year but second is like being last as far as I am concerned,” said a determined Abdulaziz Al Kuwari. “There are maybe five new stages. We have to push. I have to put Nasser under pressure. We rarely see him under pressure. My goal for the next two days should be to attack.”

The Jordanian crew of Husam Salem and Nancy Al Majali set the third fastest time of 3min 38.7sec in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX to claim the early initiative in what promises to be a fascinating tussle for MERC 2 honours. Current MERC 2 championship standings remain provisional pending the outcome of fuel sample checks taken by the FIA at the Kuwait Rally in March.

The Jordanian quartet of Khaled Juma, Asem Aref, Ihad Al Shorafa and Lina Hadadi held fifth, 11th, 13th and 15th overall.

Cars were flagged away from the start by HRH Prince Feisal, chairman of Jordan Motorsport, in the presence of a number of visiting VIPs.

Attiyah, Kuwari, Lina Hadadi, Husam Salem, Meshari Al Thefiri and Rakan Al Rashed had earlier attended a pre-event Q&A session on the podium that had been beamed live around the region.

“This is my first time here in Jordan and I have been very impressed,” said Rakan Rashed, who settled into 14th overall. “I spoke to Nasser before the start and he told me the stages were not in a class of the Middle East. He told me they were world class. That made me really think that I needed to be careful. Of course, I want to finish and I don’t want to make any mistakes.”

On Friday, teams tackle 10 special stages, split into two repeats of specials at Ma’in, Syagha, Rama, Bahath and Suwayma. With service not permitted at the Dead Sea until after the fifth of the timed tests, it will be imperative that drivers do not inflict damage on their cars over the early competitive kilometres. The five specials are then repeated in the afternoon.