Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah drives his Volkswagen Polo GTI yesterday.
Lusail: Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini have incurred a time penalty that ruined their chance of winning this year’s Qatar International Rally.
The Qatari was reportedly seen driving on the road section from the fourth stage to the service area and regroup in Lusail with only three rotating wheels on his Volkswagen Polo GTi after he had collected a puncture. Event Stewards met to discuss the matter in detail and determined that the multiple FIA Middle East Rally Champion was considered to have retired from the leg after stage four.
Piere-Louis Loubet drives his car.
Earlier, Al Attiyah and Bernacchini held a slender lead of 5.6 seconds, but the 30-minute penalty for missing the remaining three stages of the loop means that the French crew of Pierre-Louis Loubet and Loris Pascaud will now take a lead.
They now have a lead of 22.7 seconds over their SRT Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 team-mates Mads Ostberg and Patrik Barth into the remaining six special stages today.
Loubet, like Abdullah Al Rawahi, was awarded a five-second penalty himself by the Stewards for crossing the finish line of stage four outside the yellow boards defining the beginning of the control zone.
Al Attiyah, meanwhile, plummeted to the foot of the general classification as a result of the penalty but he will restart under the Rally2 ruling this morning.
The Qatari has the right to appeal against the Stewards’ decision.
Earlier, Loubet and Pascaud belied their lack of desert knowledge and made rapid progress as the day progressed, despite punctures of their own on the SRT Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
The Frenchman added: “It was possible to get some time back but we had a puncture on the second stage of the loop. Again, it was a lot of time lost but it is quite difficult for everyone. Let’s continue and avoid the puncture. Maybe a little bit smoother tomorrow.”
Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah at the end of the fourth Special Stage.
Norway’s Mads Ostberg and his Swedish co-driver Patrik Barth were the fastest crew out on the tracks. The overnight leaders won five of the day’s six gravel stages in their SRT Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 but a two-minute stop to change a puncture on stage three proved costly and then they were handed a 15-second penalty for brushing some stage fencing during the afternoon. Remarkably, the Fabia driver still held third place before Al Attiyah's penalty, finishing 33.3 seconds behind the Qatari driver.
Ostberg said: “We had a bit of a push, for sure. It is a strange rally because you also have to avoid punctures. This is part of the game. For that, I think, we have managed really well the afternoon. We had just a slow puncture on the first stage after service and no big time loss. We are fighting back in the rally and it looked a bit darker at lunch. But now it is 18 seconds. We have caught back one and a half minutes! So that’s not bad. Today was the day that I struggled last year. Tomorrow will be the first day from last year. That’s where we had a really good time and enjoyed it the most so I hope that this good feeling will help us tomorrow.”
QMMF-backed Abdulaziz Al Kuwari and Irish co-driver James Fulton somehow avoided any flat tyres, although they lost a little time in the dust. A cautious pace by the 2012 event winner finished behind Østberg in his Sarrazin-supplied Volkswagen Polo GTi.
Al Kuwari said: “The whole rally, no flat tyres. I am driving a little bit safe trying to learn the car more. I am happy. I don’t have the confidence from when I was driving a lot. Not far from the leader. We had some issues with dust and we lose the road a little on the second stage of the second loop. But, in general, I am happy.”
Abdullah Al Rawahi and Jordanian co-driver Ata Al Hmoud sustained two flat tyres of their own during the afternoon but the Omani was pleased with his improved pace over the second loop in an Autotek-run Škoda behind Al Kuwari.
Al Rawahi said: “I’m happy to be back here (Lusail), especially with two punctures. The second loop was much better in terms of pace but we were just unlucky with the punctures. I had one in the last four kilometres of the last stage and one on the second one (SS6). Nasser and Loubet had a puncture, I think, at the same place on a jump.”
Qatar’s Nasser Khalifa Al Atya and Lebanon’s Ziad Chehab were a distant sixth in their Motortune Ford Fiesta MkII before being upgraded to fifth.
The Jordanian crew of Shaker Jweihan and Mustafa Juma were the class of the MERC field chasing production class honours. They finished behind Al Atya and 2min 27.7sec ahead of the Lebanese duo of Ahmad Khaled and Sami Sfeir. Fellow Jordanians, Husam Salim and Nancy Al Majali, were classified third of the MERC2 contenders in eighth overall and Shabi Shaban and Samer Issa ninth according to the updated standings.
Today, action concludes with two passes through the Al Khor (16.90km), Ras Laffan (15.93km) and Al Thakira (13.48km) specials before the post-event press conference, prize giving and ceremonial finish take centre stage from 18.30hrs onwards at the vibrant Lusail Boulevard.
