Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel cruised through Saturday’s final six gravel stages to secure a comfortable 15th win at the 2022 Jordan Rally.
Taking his Autotek Volkswagen Polo GTi R5 to victory in Jordan for the third time, the Qatari won 11 of the 12 stages around the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley and is now very close to a record 18th FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) title. It was Al-Attiyah’s 81st career MERC win and his third of the season, while his Andorra-based co-driver now has 29 victories.
I am really happy to win the Jordan Rally. I have a lot of experience and I have competed a lot here. Thanks to the organisation for making an amazing job. To win 15 times here has not been easy but the team has worked very hard. We need only two or three points from Lebanon and Cyprus. We know we can be strong in every race. We need another Nasser Al-Attiyah in the championship. We need people to continue the Middle East Championship. It is important to us.
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, who won by 9min 57.6sec
Lebanon’s Alex Feghali and Joseph Matar overcame a minor turbo scare to finish second overall and win MERC2, improving on the young driver’s third overall and second in class in 2021.
It was a pretty fun weekend and at the end of the first day we had a good of around one minute. The game plan today was just to keep the time and that’s exactly what we did. It’s nice to get the second place, my first second place ever and we won the group.
Alex Feghali
Defending MERC2 champion Meshari Al-Thefiri could not catch Feghali on the final day, but the Kuwaiti and Qatari co-driver Nasser Al-Kuwari collected valuable points, their title hopes boosted by the retirement of series leader Issa Abu Jamous with car damage.
It was good for us to finish this rally. We lost many seconds yesterday. Today I pushed to the maximum to catch what I can. We win six stages and Alex wins six. I promise next year we will fix everything to win!
Meshari Al-Thefiri
Jordan’s Khaled Juma and Tareq Al-Taher were fourth overall and won the Jordan National Rally after a fierce fight with fifth-placed Hamada Odeh and Yazan Juma, the crews separated by just half a second.
Shadi Shaban and Samer Issa, given a notional time for Friday’s fifth stage, continued on day two and finished sixth overall in their Mitsubishi.
Abdullah Al-Rawahi and Jordanian navigator Ata Al-Hmoud, second overall for the first four stages on Friday, showed strong pace again after restarting under the Rally2 rule. The Omani set the fastest time on stage nine and a string of second fastest times lifted him to seventh overall.
That finish meant Al-Attiyah could not mathematically clinch a record 18th regional title before the next round in Lebanon.
It was important to gather some points, especially as we did not finish in Kuwait. This time we had a few dramatic moments, but we managed to come back and the second day was good and the set-up for the car was much better when we went softer. The pace was there as well. Having Nasser in the championship is a great benchmark. He is a world class driver. Every time I try and get closer and closer to him and that is happening and he is always there to support as well. Hopefully in the future we can do what Nasser has been doing!
Abdullah Al-Rawahi
Kuwait’s Mohammed Al-Thefiri and Suleiman Al-Helal were eighth, and Jordanian MERC2 title contenders Ihab Al-Shorafa and Yousef Juma took valuable points in ninth. Yousef Al-Dhafeeri and Abedalrahman Shekakwa completed the top 10.
Local driver Asem Aref and Ahmad Jankhout retired their MERC3 Renault Clio RS on the penultimate stage when the studs on a front wheel sheared and the wheel came off.
Saturday as it happened
Officials reinstated Shaban in fifth after he stopped to help a fellow competitor on Friday’s stage.
Al-Rawahi was allowed to continue under Rally2 even though Jordanian rookie Shaker Jweihan had rolled at the same corner and onto the Omani’s car on Friday afternoon’s Jordan River stage. Jweihan, Qatar’s Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya and local driver Bader Al-Fayez did not restart.
Al-Attiyah kept dominating on the 12.69km Bahath stage, stretching his lead over Feghali to 6min 59.6sec. A hard-charging Al-Thefiri cut Feghali’s MERC2 lead to 37.2 seconds to set up a thrilling duel, while Al-Rawahi bounced back with another second fastest time.
MERC2 championship leader Abu Jamous retired his Mitsubishi after the opening stage with underside damage, blowing the title race wide open.
On the 11.08km Suwayma stage Al-Attiyah extended his lead to 7min 27.3sec, while Al-Thefiri trimmed Feghali’s MERC2 advantage to 32.9sec.
The Qatari reached service 7min 55.7sec ahead, but Feghali hit back by beating Al-Thefiri in Ma’in to stretch his lead to 45.6 seconds, despite worries about his Lancer’s turbocharger. Al-Thefiri lost a few seconds off the road and was also concerned about the heat, while Salamah Al-Ghammaz retired from the national rally on the last stage of the loop.
Al-Attiyah and Al-Rawahi were fastest and second fastest on the repeat runs of Bahath and Suwayma. A relaxed Al-Attiyah headed into the final Ma’in stage 9min 01.9sec ahead of Feghali, who was 30.3 seconds clear of Al-Thefiri.
Strong winds and blowing dust had been a feature of the morning, and the road from Amman to the Dead Sea was closed for safety. There were fears the final stage would be cancelled, but it went ahead and Al-Attiyah stayed out of trouble to win with the fastest time, by 9min 57.6sec.