February 7, 2015 – An interview with Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah after he secured a record-breaking 12th victory at the Qatar International Rally, round one of the 2015 FIA Middle East Rally Championship, which drew to a conclusion in Doha this afternoon.
A great start to your season after the Dakar Rally, you were the only driver in the Qatar International Rally to stay out of trouble. What can you say about the rally, especially after a relatively easy victory?
I’ve won the Qatar International Rally 12 times…
There’s experience.
Not necessarily experience, the Qatar International Rally requires a certain set of skills, it’s not about speed; speed is not important here. The trick is to force others into making mistakes.
In regard to making others falter, we saw that you allowed Yazeed Al Rajhi to claw back 30 seconds, but then Yazeed made mistakes in the second loop on Saturday.
I had a 1 minute 28-second advantage before Yazeed’s stage victory (in SS10).
So you did it on purpose to put pressure on him.
Exactly, I did it (allowing him to win the stage) in order to put pressure on him, and then I managed to take 5 seconds from him after he had won, which upset him, and in the following stage he ran into trouble. This is the strategy that should be used against rivals because the Qatar International Rally requires intelligence, and the same can be said about the Kuwait International Rally.
I always say that when I successfully complete the Qatar and Kuwait rallies, I know that the Middle East Rally Championship title is mine for the taking.
Nasser, the competitors are close. Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi scored 18 points today, so he has every chance to win the title. One bad day for you can re-ignite the championship fight. How do you find this formula? It looks tough.
Of course it is tough, but we are here to perform a certain strategy in every rally. This year, we will be participating in 8 rallies, and we will not miss a single round.
So you will be present in Iran.
I will be present in Iran, Lebanon and every other round. We can secure the championship title before reaching Rally of Lebanon, and this is our target.
We’re seeing your brother Khalifa here today. Khalifa has had several attempts in rallying, and he has enjoyed some good results and had some bad ones. Today, he was driving an RRC car and he benefited from the different situations. How were you involved in getting him to the podium, we know that he’s a lot less experienced.
Khalifa made a mistake yesterday, but it wasn’t his fault, it was a problem with the car’s crossmember. His car is the older version (of the Ford Fiesta RRC) and the crossmember on the older version of the car is weaker.
He had this problem, but today, and I know that he was helped by Yazeed Al Rajhi and Abdulaziz Al Kuwari’s retirements, he was able to finish the rally and I will now help him progress.
He will have more time to practice on the car.
Of course, we have a plan to help him progress; Khalifa is one of the fast drivers, and thank God both cars were able to the reach the podium today, which brings great joy to the team.
Nasser, our final question. The Qatar International Rally had few competitors. What do you think is the reason and what is the solution for the Middle East rounds, perhaps more promotion?
Perhaps it’s because of the circumstances in the region, but we have 7 or 8 RRC cars, so we have quality instead of quantity. We have 7 or 8 RRC cars and some of them couldn’t last through all of the stages.
This race is very difficult on all competing cars.
Some drivers don’t like to take part in a difficult rally, you might see them in Kuwait Rally, Jordan Rally and Rally of Lebanon because those rallies are easier on the cars, and they are less costly.
There aren’t as much spare parts.
No, not at all. Here, we changed a lot of parts today and yesterday.
Do you fully rebuild the car after this rally?
Of course, we fully rebuild the car, but thankfully I managed to keep the car clean and we didn’t have any issues or punctures and we didn’t replace anything, which is very important.
Thank you Nasser and we’ll hopefully see you in Kuwait.