In an unexpected turn of events, Abdo Feghali scored his second victory of the season at the 2013 Cedars Rally amid drama for his brother Roger; the latter was dominating the event until a mechanical problem on his Fiesta R5 forced him to retire just before the start of SS7, thus handing first place to Abdo.
Abdo lost momentum when he suffered from a tyre puncture near the end of SS9, but it simply wasn’t enough to make him surrender the lead; he maintained his position and ultimately crossed the line in first place with a 15-second gap to second-placed Nicolas Amiouni who had to fend off strong pressure from MINI driver Gilbert Bannout throughout the rally.
Gilbert settled for a third-place finish, just 3 seconds off of Nicolas. Chafic Boulos came home in fourth, more than a minute behind the top three while Robert Aaraj, who finished 9th overall, took the front-wheel drive category win on his Renault Clio R3.
Overall standings after SS12:
