The first day from the 2012 Qatar Rally was certainly very eventful, and full of drama. Rally Champion Nasser Al Attiyah had to retire in day 1 after setting the pace due to an unfortunate accident, Leaving Abdulaziz AL Kuwari in the lead who also had problems himself but managed to take his car to the finish line on day one. Nicholai Georgiou was able to finish day 1 second overall thanks to consistent driving and good preparation for his team MotorTune. The Lebanese Driver was followed by Turkish Female Burcu Centikaya who phenomenally drove to third place shadowing many local and Arab drivers. The rally saw many problems with the R4 cars which were reported to have broke easily today. Misfer Al Marri the 2010 MERC champion had to retire too. Mubarak Al Hajiri who was driving a Subaru had to retire after SS5 due to Mechanical Problems. Nasser will start the Rally tomorrow under the Super Rally regulations. We will be expecting a huge battle tomorrow. He will restart day 2 of the Qatar Rally in 5th position under SupeRally – just 5m 29.3s behind leader Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari!!!!!!
2012 Qatar International Rally – positions after SS6:
1. Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (QAT)/Nasser Al-Kuwari (QAT) Mini S2000 1h 14m 54.9s
2. Nicholai Georgiou (LBN)/Nabil Njeim (LBN) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 1h 17m 33.0s
3. Burcu Cetinkaya (TUR)/Cicek Guney (TUR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 1h 18m 01.2s
4. Khalid Al-Suwaidi (QAT)/Abdullah Adel Hussein (QAT) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 1h 19m 48.7s
5. Meshari Al-Thafiri (KWT)/Mubarak Al-Thafiri (KWT) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 1h 21m 44.6s
6. Hani Al-Bast (HKJ)/Ata Al-Hmoud (HKJ) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII 1h 28m 39.9s
7. Edith Weiss (GER)/Vicky Psarall (GRE) Subaru Impreza 1h 28m 54.0s
8. Rasheed Alaa (HKJ)/Ramzi Mansour (HKJ) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 1h 36m 34.5s
2012 Qatar International Rally – timetable of events
Saturday, January 28
08.48hrs SS7 Nabat Lusail
09.19hrs SS8 Umm Al Hal
09.49hrs Regroup and Service D, Al Wakra football stadium
10.44hrs SS9 Wakrah
11.29hrs Service E, Al Wakra football stadium
12.14hrs SS10 Nabat Lusail 2
12.45hrs SS11 Umm Al Hal 2
13.15hrs Regroup and Service F, Al Wakra football stadium
14.10hrs SS12 Wakrah 2
15.35hrs Podium finish, QMMF, Salwa Road Doha
16.30hrs Qatar International Rally post-event press conference, QMMF
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