+ A
A -
Tribune News Network
DOHA
Qatar's sporting icon Nasser bin Saleh of Attiyah retired early into the final day of the Rally of Lebanon but was assured of the 12th FIA Middle East Rally Championship crown on Sunday.
In a dramatic turn-around, Lebanese Tamer Ghandour claimed his first ever MERC win. He finished 1 minute and 51.7 seconds behind dominant Abdo Feghali, also from Lebanon, after 11 stages, but the ex-Pedder Skoda driver was awarded a five-minute penalty by the Automobile and Touring Club of Lebanon stewards at the end of the event for driving on a wheel rim after a double puncture.
This deprived Abdo of following 12-time rally winning brother Roger into the history books after the latter suffered a misfire on the opening leg.
With the cancellation of the rallies in Oman and Dubai in November, the season end with the Cyprus Rally next month, but Attiyah has now confirmed his 12th title in low-key fashion, having an unassailable lead in the standings.
The penalty demoted Abdo to the third place and fetched the title to Ghandour ahead of Rodrigue Rahi.
Abdo however announced that he will appeal the ATCL's decision to the FIA."We were given a 5-minute time penalty because we drove on a road section on a wheel with no rubber, but it is unclear why the penalty was 5 minutes. We're going to appeal the decision to the FIA. However, I believe Tamer deserves the victory as much as we do," Abdo explained at the post-rally drivers' press conference.
Feghali and co-driver Marc Haddad lost the super special stage to Attiyah by half a second on Friday, but retaliated with a jaw-dropping performance on Saturday, winning all six special stages to end the day with a very comfortable 1-minute, 21-second lead.
The Fabia R5 crew hit trouble on Sunday as two punctures cost them 3 minutes and 30 seconds. The retirement for Attiyah and a massive gap to Tamer Ghandour, which reached 4 minutes and 22 seconds before the punctures, meant that they needed to maintain first place and eventually score their first ever triumph. And they did exactly that before the ruling by the stewards shocked Abdo and his co-driver.
Tamer Ghandour and Salim Jleilaty finished 2nd overall, followed by Rodrigue Rahi and Georges Chahwan who rounded out the top 3. Rahi also won the Group N category, while newly-crowned Group N champion Eddy Abou Karam and his co-driver Joseph Kmeid finished 2nd in the category and 4th overall.
Rodolphe Asmar and Ziad Chehab completed the top 5. In addition, Bassel Abou Hamdan won the RC3 category, Patrick Njeim claimed the RC4 category win and his younger brother Matthias Njeim reached the finish line to take the RC5 class win.
