February 5, 2016 – Nasser Al-Attiyah kicked off the 2016 Middle East Rally Championship by dominating the first leg of the Qatar International Rally today in his Skoda Fabia R5.
The Qatari champion won the super special stage yesterday in Doha and clocked the fastest time in five of today’s six special stages, with Khalid Al-Suwaidi taking the stage victory in SS4 onboard the Ford Fiesta R5.
We rolled and retired form Qatar Rally ? but me and @marshallclarke are OK pic.twitter.com/S4ZBZjEyzI
— Abdulaziz Al-kuwari (@Azizsaadon) February 5, 2016
Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari’s first race in the Skoda Fabia R5 didn’t go according to plan as he rolled the car in today’s second special stage (SS3); fortunately, him and co-driver Marshall Clarke escaped with no injuries.
Lebanon’s Rodolphe Asmar retired in SS6 due to a mechanical problem; he was running in a strong 7th overall and 5th in Group N before his retirement, but will return for tomorrow’s action.
The mechanical problem we faced was unavoidable due to the rough road we traversed, forcing us to retire from today’s race.We will hopefully be able to fix it and get back on track tomorrow!
Posted by Rodolphe Asmar on Friday, 5 February 2016
