February 6, 2016 – Nasser Al-Attiyah made history this afternoon after scoring a record-breaking 61st Middle East Rally Championship victory following a dominant performance in the Qatar International Rally alongside co-driver Matthieu Baumel in the Skoda Fabia R5.
Al-Attiyah was unchallenged throughout the event, taking the super special stage win on Thursday, five wins in six stages on Friday and four wins in six stages on Saturday to complete the event 6 minutes 14 seconds ahead of Ford Fiesta R5 driver Khalid Al Suwaidi and surpass Muhammad Bin Sulayem’s record of 60 MERC wins.
Al-Suwaidi was the only other driver to score stage wins, setting the fastest times in SS4 on Friday and SS9 and SS12 on Saturday.
Rashid Al-Naimi rounded out the top 3 and finished first in Group N onboard the Subaru Impreza; he was followed by Abdulla Al-Kuwari in the Mitsubishi Evo IX.
Qatar International Rally | the podium
Posted by Rodolphe Asmar on Saturday, 6 February 2016
Lebanon’s young Rodolphe Asmar returned for today’s action and put in a great to drive in the Mitsubishi Evo IX to finish a strong 5th overall and 3rd in Group N, thus securing a podium position and the Junior Cup on his MERC debut.
Provisional overall standings after SS13:
