The 2021 Qatar International Rally starts the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) at Katara on Friday evening.
Held in unprecedented times, one of the region’s most famous motorsport events has been organised under strict Covid-19 safety guidelines, and the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) has prepared a challenging route through the northern deserts.
Competitors passed scrutineering and technical checks for FIA homologation compliance on Friday morning at the Losail Sports Centre. They were joined by drivers of lightweight prototypes in the T3 class, which can compete in the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies but not in MERC rounds; they will run in a separate Qatar National Rally category behind the main field in their uprated Can-Am and Polaris machines.
T4 joins the MERC
The FIA has, however, allowed FIA T4 vehicles on this season’s gravel MERC rounds in Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Cyprus and Kuwait. They lack the performance upgrades of their T3 counterparts but featured strongly at the recent Dakar Rally, where T3 Can-Am Maverick X3s took the top three places in the combined SSV category, Chile’s Francisco Lopez holding off America’s Austin Jones and Poland’s Aron Domzala.
Usually seen battling the toughest off-road terrain in the world, these durable, windscreen-less machines should be an interesting spectacle on the MERC’s shorter special stages.
Kris Meeke contested the SSV T3 section at the Dakar for the first time and is a contender for outright victory this weekend in a conventional Škoda Fabia R5. Saudi Arabia’s Saleh Al-Saif, a front-runner for several days in Dakar’s SSV T4 category, competes at the rear of the international field.
Al-Saif is one of the best-known drivers on the Middle East cross-country scene. Last year he won the T3 category at the Ha’il International Rally in February and topped the podium in both Ha’il Bajas in December. His co-driver, Spaniard Oriol Vidal from the village of Llambilles in northern Catalonia, is a performance engineer in the Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) as well as competing in Dakar-type events.
They face Lebanese crew Jad Al-Aawar and Vicken Kanledjian. Qatar-based Al-Aawar is a regular in the Lebanese national rally series with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX and drives a Can-Am this weekend. His best result was fifth and third in Group N at the 2019 Jezzine Rally in Lebanon, and he has also competed in Qatar speed tests and Lebanese hill climbs. Kanledjian’s best result is second overall at the 2017 Cedars Rally with Joseph Hindi.
Al-Aawar is part of a four-car Lebanese Team AMT entry with MERC 3 front-runner Henry Kahy and MERC 2 drivers Ahmad Khaled and Shadi El-Fakih, managed by 2001 Lebanese rally champion Doumit bou Doumit.
The Can-Am Maverick X3 is the most popular T4 vehicle worldwide, but Polaris and Yamaha are also heavily involved with their RZR 1000 and YXZ 1000R models, and several teams are focusing on FIA T4 race programmes around the world. Many insiders see T4’s arrival in the MERC as a positive step to attract young, lower-budget talent.
Saturday
Crews tackle two loops of two demanding gravel stages north of Doha. Eraida (20.13km) goes live at 10.25hrs, followed by nearby Al-Thakira (20.34km) at 11.00hrs. After a regroup and 30-minute service at the Losail Sports Centre, both stages are repeated at 13.10hrs and 13.45hrs.
The rally is held under the chairmanship of QMMF President Abdulrahman Al-Mannai, senior committee member Abdulrazaq Al-Kuwari and QMMF Executive Director Amro Al-Hamad.