LUSAIL, QATAR – Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah has made a last-minute entry for the Qatar International Baja, boosting a huge international field of cars, motorcycles and quads for this weekend’s three-day event at Lusail International Circuit.
Competitors from 33 countries will contest round five of the FIM Bajas World Cup and key rounds of the FIA World and Middle East Baja Cups.
New partner, new car
Al-Attiyah teams up for the first time with Spain’s Pablo Moreno – usually co-driver to his Dacia team-mate Cristina Gutiérrez – in a Nasser Racing Team Taurus T3 Max in the Challenger category. With his desert knowledge and the pace of these lightweight prototypes, the multiple event winner could start among the favourites.
His Qatar record is unmatched: he won the first event in 2004 with Didier Le Gal (Chevrolet Pro Truck), again in 2005 with Alain Guehennec (BMW X5), and in 2011 with Lucas Cruz (SAM Mercedes 35CC) when the event returned as an FIA candidate. As a World Cup round from 2012 to 2020, he won in 2012, 2014–2017 and 2019–2020 – five times with Toyota and twice with X-Raid Mini. He won again in 2022, when it was a Middle East Cup round, and last season as a World Cup event.
It was not the plan to do this but the event is special to me.
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah
I try to be with the Nasser Racing team to manage these things. I had an extra car in Spain at my camp there and the Federation (QMMF) gave me the chance to compete. I win many times and maybe we try to win. Why not? The Qatar Baja always has a big surprise. It doesn’t always mean a T1+ wins. Look at what happened at Portalegre in Portugal recently. This year, Challenger beat the T1+. It will not be easy to fight but I am trying to get a better set-up for the future for my clients.
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah
Pablo is with our Dacia team. My usual co-driver Edouard (Boulanger) is having an operation to remove the metal from his back. It’s a good time for this for him to recover before the Dakar. I talk with Dacia and Prodrive and we agreed to take Pablo. He knows the cars well and it’s good experience for him in Qatar as well.
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah
QMMF’s five-car team
The QMMF fields five cars, three registered for the FIA Middle East Baja Cup: Al-Attiyah’s brother Khalifa with Brazilian navigator Enio Bozzano, new FIA Middle East rally champion Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari with his brother Nasser, and Nouef Al-Sowaidi with Lithuania’s Aisvydas Paliukenas – all in Taurus T3 Max cars.
I came back to the sport in Morocco this year. Three years away for me. This is a very important event for us. I enjoyed Morocco and the plan will be to do Jordan and Dubai after this and then the Dakar in January.
Khalifa Saleh Al-Attiyah
Rashid and Ahmad Al-Muhannadi also drive T3 Max cars with co-drivers Szymon Gospodarczyk and Tamer Al-Hijazdeen. Ahmed Al-Kuwari runs a new Yamaha YXZ 1000R for Quaddy Racing with Manuel Lucchese, defending his Middle East Cup lead; Abdullah Al-Rabban targets Stock in a Nissan Patrol, and Mohammed Al-Atteya and Abdullah Al-Khelaifi drive Can-Ams in SSV.
Route tweaks
The QMMF has made minor changes: Friday’s opening stage grows to 246.41km and Saturday’s southern stage to 251.10km, for 497.51 competitive kilometres. Admin and scrutineering run throughout Wednesday at Lusail, followed by the press conference at 18:00. Action starts with the 9.9km Prologue from 13:45 on Thursday for the motorcycles.