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Tribune News Network
DEAD SEA (JORDAN)
Nasser Saleh al Attiyah may have eased his pace over the closing stages of the Jordan Rally, but the Qatari was still in inspired form and a whitewash of each of the 19 special stages was enough to give the Skoda Fabia R5 driver a staggering winning margin of 18min 18.4sec.
A 10th victory in the Hashemite kingdom and a 63rd in his FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) career was never really in doubt once eventual runner-up Abdulaziz al Kuwari left the road on Friday afternoon, before clawing his way back from fifth to second place in a second Skoda Fabia R5.
But the Qatari and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel rarely seemed to break sweat after a dominant weekend."It was important that I came here with a focus to win the rally and claim the maximum 39 points for winning both legs and the event," said Attiyah, who now has a massive MERC series lead after three rounds.
"I was able to control the race from the very start and set my own pace. Whoever wants to compete outside in the World Championship needs to first beat Nasser al Attiyah in the Middle East!"
On an event held in conjunction with the celebrations of 100 years since the Great Arab Revolt, it was fitting that two Jordanian drivers should be involved in the fight in the desert to decide the winner of MERC 2. Khaled Juma held all the aces in the pack at the start of the day, but Husam Salem returned with a vengeance and a rebuilt car and began to eat into his rival's advantage throughout the morning.
Salem was closing fast on Juma when the latter's Mitsubishi reached a real low point at the Baptism Site and spluttered to a halt in the water splash, the 17 minutes lost wrecking the local national championship's podium dream and handing Salem the lead.
But Husam lost five minutes in the penultimate stage before retiring and leaving the door open for Abdullah al Kuwari, the Qatari duly confirming a 1-2-3 podium finish. It was also the first All-Qatari podium outside Qatar in MERC history.
Khalid al Suwaidi overwhelmed Juma in the 17th stage to snatch fourth position after Salem's late demise, while the Jordanian (Juma) managed to reach the finish in fifth after Kuwait's Meshari al Thefiri withdrew three stages from the end with transmission issues.
see also page 29
