The 2013 edition of Rally of Lebanon held plenty of surprises: the Super Special Stage made a return to the event after a long absence, Roger Feghali unexpectedly dominated the event in what was supposed to be a tough battle and Abdo Feghali clinched the Lebanese Rally Championship title. We’re going to go through what happened last year in hopes of a similarly exciting rally this year.
With Nasser Al-Attiyah confirming his 36th Rally of Lebanon participation, everyone in their right mind thought that it would be a tightly locked battle between the Qatari and his Lebanese rival Roger Feghali, but it wasn’t.
Nasser drew first blood by winning the super special stage (SS1) on Thursday, but lost momentum during the next two days, and thus dropped tens of seconds behind Roger, stage after stage, as the latter’s dominance reached its peak on Sunday morning’s Kefraya stage (SS9), finishing the 27.9-kilometer course ahead of Al-Attiyah and extending his lead to 57 seconds – not exactly thrilling news for the Dakar Champion.
Nasser began reducing the gap to Roger on Sunday with only four stages to go (out of 13 in total), shaving 7 seconds off the lead in SS10, and then 9.2 seconds, 2.2 seconds and 8.8 seconds in the ensuing final three stages to finish 30 seconds behind the 11-times Rally of Lebanon champion.
It wasn’t quite the “epic battle” everyone was expecting, more of a masterful and commanding drive by Roger. Nasser’s underwhelming pace definitely took us by surprise; the Qatari claimed that he couldn’t get the right setup until the final day, when he began closing the gap.
Was Nasser’s recovery down to his improved setup, or was it more down to Roger’s relaxed approach on Sunday’s afternoon loop? We will never know.
Away from Roger and Nasser was another interesting but less exciting duel: the battle for the Lebanese Rally Championship title between Abdo Feghali and Gilbert Bannout. All Abdo had to do was finish ahead of his rival, which he did so easily. The MINI RRC driver finished third overall, over 7 minutes clear of Bannout who wasn’t feeling comfortable in his Fiesta R5. Abdo went on to clinch his fourth Lebanese Rally Championship title and his first since 2006.
In the Group N class, things were looking good for Nicolas Amiouni after clocking some amazing stage times on the Lancer Evolution X, consistently beating Gilbert Bannout and sometimes even Abdo Feghali, who both were in superior machinery, until engine trouble on Saturday blew his chances of a good result and killed his Group N title hopes. In the end, victory went to Tamer Ghandour, while Chafic Boulos benefited from Amiouni’s withdrawal to take the Lebanese Rally Championship Group N title for a second consecutive year.
Robert Aaraj broke the curse that had been haunting him since 2011 (he retired from the 34th Rally of Lebanon and finished 2nd in the 35th running of the event) by winning the front-wheel drive class in Rally of Lebanon for the first time in his not-so-long career, proving indeed that the third time’s a charm.
All in all, the biggest surprise in 2013 was Nasser Al-Attiyah’s lack of pace compared to Roger. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to see the two drivers fight it out for the win this year as Nasser Al-Attiyah’s FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup engagement means that he won’t be able to make it.