Kuwait’s Meshari Al-Thefiri made the perfect start to his bid to regain the FIA MERC2 crown, setting the fastest time on the opening 3.01km super special of the Oman International Rally on Thursday afternoon to take a surprise overall lead.
The big news from the first stage of round one of the 2023 FIA Middle East Rally Championship, though, was an accident for pre-rally favourite Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and his Andorra-based co-driver Mathieu Baumel.
Their Autotek Motorsport-run Volkswagen, wearing a new livery for 2023, crashed uncharacteristically on the super special and damaged its radiator. Al-Attiyah will restart under Super Rally rules from 13th overall on Friday with 10 minutes of penalties added to his time.
Al-Thefiri and his Qatari co-driver Nasser Al-Kuwari stopped the clocks in 2min 51.4sec to lead by a remarkable 4.1 seconds from the Czech crew of Petr Kačirek and Petra Řiháková in their Duck Racing Škoda Fabia.
Despite a 10-second penalty for a jump start, the Oman Rally Team’s Abdullah Al-Rawahi and Jordanian co-driver Ata Al-Hmoud were third overall.
Al-Thefiri also leads MERC2 by 6.8 seconds from fourth-placed Omanis Abdullah Al-Zubair and Taha Soomar. Jordan’s Shaker Jweihan and co-driver Nancy Al-Majali were third in MERC2 and fifth overall, and Qatar’s Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya and Italian Giovanni Bernacchini completed the top six.
Lebanon’s Ahmad Khaled and Jordan’s Sheikh Bader Al-Fayez were also given 10-second penalties for jumping the start.
The rally began with a traditional ceremonial start at Muscat Drift Arena before 13 FIA crews and 10 national teams headed to the opening stage. Jordan’s Issa Abu Jamous moved down to the Oman National Rally, and Kuwait’s Mohammed Al-Zafiri did not start.
Local driver Saif Al-Harthy took an early 1.7-second lead in the Oman National Rally with a time of 3min 10sec, ahead of Haitham Al-Zadjali and Issa Abu Jamous. Mohammed Al-Mazroui (Yamaha YXZ 1000 R) received a 10-second jump-start penalty.
Friday
Crews tackle two loops of three gravel stages on Friday. The 21.98km Al-Khoud stage starts the action from 09.30hrs, followed by Jafnein (19.54km) at 10.12hrs and Saal (15.79km) from 10.50hrs.
After a regroup and service at the Oman Automobile Association, the three specials are repeated from 13.13hrs, 14.15hrs and 14.56hrs.