Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah in action yesterday.
Lusail: Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah saw off a fierce first day challenge from Norwegian rival Mads Ostberg to lead the Qatar International Rally after seven special stages.
The Qatari won four of the day’s speed tests in his Autotek Volkswagen Polo GTI and overcame a lunchtime deficit of 4.2 seconds to take a 8.1-second advantage into the night halt in Lusail. The 16-time event winner and his Andorra-based co-driver Mathieu Baumel stayed clear of trouble and tyre issues and will need to defend their advantage from first place on the road today.
Autotek boss Ken Skidmore with Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah.
The Qatari said: “We keep the same plan and tried to make no mistake and push in the afternoon. We did a good job. We need to keep this pace tomorrow. I am happy. To race the top drivers in Europe, you need to have a good pace. This is a new race for Andreas and Emil, but Mads has been here before. Tomorrow, it will be longer and a little bit more rough.”
Ostberg teamed up with Sweden’s Patrik Barth and was able to call upon the experience he gained last year. He won stages three and four but punctured in the first speed test after the regroup and was somewhat disappointed to be so far behind after the second loop.
Ostberg said: “The plan this year was not to lead after day one but I would like to be closer. I didn’t purposely give him eight seconds. But we had a puncture on the first stage (SS5) after service and we, maybe, dropped 10 seconds. It was not ideal. On the last, he was very fast. I tried to regain a bit of time but I couldn’t. We are happy with the day. I have to say that it is according to plan but three or four seconds more would be perfect. It’s a long day tomorrow and I don’t think those few seconds will be as important at the end of the day. I wanted to be behind Nasser to see his lines and see where he is going. I didn’t want to end up in the same situation as last year where I was opening the line and he can follow me!”
The Norwegian pairing of Andreas Mikkelsen and Torstein Eriksen soon realised that high-speed desert rallying was not going to be a walk in the park, although a third stage puncture and a lack of confidence with the tyres hindered the 2021 FIA WRC2 champion. He ended the day in third.
Mikkelsen added: “We did better driving than the first loop. I was a bit too careful in the dips. The second loop was better. I think it’s more the stability (of the tyres). They are on Michelin and their soft is harder than this one. We will try that tomorrow some harder tyres. It should be better.”
Like his SRT Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo team-mate, Finland’s Emil Lindholm had an early wake-up call to the pace needed to achieve success in Qatar. He relished the challenge with co-driver Reeta Hämäläinen and has taken a lot of information on board heading into the final day. The 2022 FIA WRC2 champion is fourth, 20 seconds behind Mikkelsen.
Qatar's Abdulaziz Al Kuwari drives on the opening day.
The first of two Qatari-Irish pairings, Abdulaziz Al Kuwari and Lorcan Moore, overcame a morning misfire to regain fifth place during the afternoon. They head into the final day just 6.5 seconds ahead of Khalid Al Suwaidi and Niall Burns, with both crews looking far more confident after the afternoon’s loop of stages.
Veteran Nasser Khalifa Al Atya held seventh with Italy’s Giovanni Bernacchini in his new Ford Fiesta R5.
The eighth-placed multiple MERC2 champion Meshari Al Thefiri and his Qatari co-driver Nasser Al Kuwari dominated the MERC2 category again and returned to Lusail with a commanding 4min 04.5sec lead over fellow Kuwaiti Yousef Al Dhafeeri and his Lebanese co-driver Carlos Hanna. Qatar’s Abdullah Al Rabban and Emirati co-driver Hassan Ali Obaid rounded off the top 10 and held third in MERC2.
Mechanical issues side-lined Jordan’s Sheikh Bader Al Fawaz and Lebanon’s Shadi Sheban on the fifth stage.
Today, the final day sees crews tackle a further two loops of three stages, starting with a pass through the 15.28km of Waab Al Mashrab from 08.48hrs. Al Waab (14.91km) follows at 09.16hrs and the morning loop is completed by the 24.45km of Umm Birka – the longest stage of the event – from 09.51hrs.
After a return to Lusail for a regroup and service, the three stages are repeated at 12.43hrs, 13.11hrs and 13.46hrs, respectively, before the post-event press conference (18.30hrs) and podium finish (19.00hrs) take centre stage on Al Maha Island.
