LUSAIL, QATAR – Pierre-Louis Loubet and Loris Pascaud delivered a masterclass on their desert debut, overcoming late damper problems and two penalties for touching stage fencing to win the Qatar International Rally on Saturday.
Norway’s Mads Østberg and Swedish co-driver Patrik Barth charged over the afternoon’s three short stages but missed out by just 4.6 seconds. Loubet became only the second non-Arab driver since Björn Waldegård in 1986 to win outright (after Vojtěch Štajf in 2018), as Sports Racing Technologies (SRT) claimed a 1-2 with its Škoda Fabia RS Rally2s.
We can be very pleased with what we have done. It has been a great time, a great rally and I really enjoyed it. Thanks to everybody. We had a damper issue and we are happy to be at the end. It has been tough and very demanding.
Pierre-Louis Loubet
We had to do the afternoon with a completely different setting of the car. It was really hard. Pierre (Loubet) had a problem as well. It was dramatic for both of us. We had a good afternoon and we pushed as much as we could. It was another very enjoyable weekend.
Mads Østberg, winner of nine of the 13 stages
Abdullah Al-Rawahi and Jordanian co-driver Ata Al-Hmoud showed last year’s regional title was no fluke, climbing from fifth to third in an Autotek-run Škoda and scoring valuable MERC points. For the first time since the mid-1990s, no Qatari crew stood on the home podium.
This result is good for the championship and good points. Today was fantastic. We did some small mistakes yesterday but we managed to get back from fifth to third. We pushed hard. It is a good result. The team worked really hard to give me a better car today and it worked.
Abdullah Al-Rawahi
QMMF-backed Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari and Irish co-driver James Fulton slipped to fourth in their Sarrazin Volkswagen Polo GTI, ahead of former winner Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya and Lebanon’s Ziad Chehab in their Motortune Ford Fiesta.
An overnight 30-minute penalty ended Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah‘s hopes of an 18th home win. He and Giovanni Bernacchini climbed to ninth, but a broken damper on the final stage forced the three-time stage winner to retire.
I was really disappointed with the decision (time penalty). It was completely wrong. We couldn’t really stop in the middle of the highway otherwise someone could hit you. We decided to move. I am really disappointed. It is not a professional way. We tried to make some good points. I did my best to jump at least two or three positions and to have a good time.
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah
Other categories
Jordan’s Shaker Jweihan and Mustafa Juma dominated MERC2 in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, sixth overall and 9min 04.5sec ahead of Shadi Shaban and Samer Issa. Husam Salim and Nancy Al-Majali were eighth and third in class, Qatar’s Rashid Al-Muhannadi and Oman’s Taha Al-Zadjali ninth, and Ihab Al-Shorafa and Yousef Juma 10th. Epis (Yamaha) won T4 in 11th after Khalid Al-Muhannadi retired. Emirati-based Indians Saneem Payyaakkal and Musa Sherif won the new two-wheel-drive MERC4 class in 14th in a Ford Fiesta Rally4, ahead of Khalid Al-Suwaidi and Ross Whittock, delayed by an electrical problem on Friday.
Saturday as it happened
Al-Attiyah started sixth on the road to chase points; Jassim Al-Muqahwi and Zakariya Al-Aamri did not start, and Ahmad Khaled stopped on the road section. Loubet set 8min 50.5sec on Al-Khor, Østberg took 2.8 seconds out of him, and Al-Attiyah won the stage. A five-second fencing penalty cut Loubet’s lead to 14.9 seconds.
Loubet won Ras Laffan (15.93km) by 9.9 seconds as Østberg broke a rear damper, then led after Al-Thakhira (13.48km) despite a further 10-second fencing penalty.
It was a good morning for us. We can be pleased with what we have done. Let’s hope it can continue. Now we need to be clever and do the same.
Pierre-Louis Loubet
With a new damper, Østberg cut the gap to 21.3 seconds on the Al-Khor re-run, where Al-Rawahi beat Loubet’s time to pass Al-Kuwari for third. Østberg won the second Ras Laffan pass to trail by 13.3 seconds, and beat Loubet by 8.7 seconds on the final stage – just short of victory.