The Peninsula
Kuwait’s Meshari Al Thefiri made the ideal start in his bid to win back the FIA MERC2 crown by taking a shock overall lead with the fastest time on the opening 3.01km super special stage of the Oman International Rally yesterday.
But the major news from the first stage of round one of the 2023 FIA Middle East Rally Championship was the surprise accident that befell pre-rally favourite Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and his Andorra-based co-driver Mathieu Baumel.
Their Autotek Motorsport-run Volkswagen Golf GTi was sporting a new livery for the 2023 season but Al Attiyah uncharacteristically crashed in the super special stage, damaged the radiator and will have to restart under the Super Rally ruling from 13th overall today with 10 minutes of penalties added to his time.
Leader Al Thefiri and his Qatari co-driver Nasser Al-Kuwari stopped the clocks in 2min 51.4sec to hold a stunning 4.1-second outright lead over the Czech crew of Petr Kacirek and Petra Riháková in their Duck Racing Škoda Fabia.
Despite picking up a 10-second time penalty for a jump start, the Oman Rally Team’s Abdullah Al Rawahi and Jordanian co-driver Ata Al Hmoud held third overall.
Al Thefiri also leads the MERC2 category by 6.8 seconds from Oman’s fourth-placed Abdullah Al Zubair and Taha Soomar. The Jordanian duo of Shaker Jweihan and female co-driver Nancy Al-Majali were third in MERC2 and fifth overall. Qatar’s Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya and Italian team-mate Giovanni Bernacchini rounded off the top six.
Lebanon’s Ahmad Khaled and Jordan’s Sheikh Bader Al-Fayez were also penalised 10 seconds for jumping the start of the stage. The event got underway with a traditional ceremonial start at Muscat Drift Arena before 13 FIA crews and 10 national teams headed to the opening stage. Jordanian driver Issa Abu Jamous dropped down to the Oman National Rally and Kuwait’s Mohammed Al Zafiri was a non-starter.
Saif Al Harthy claimed an early advantage of 1.7 seconds in the Oman National Rally, the local driver clocking a time of 3min 10sec. Haitham Al Zadjali and Jordan’s Issa Abu Jamous held second and third overall.
Mohammed Al Mazroui (Yamaha YXZ 1000 R) incurred a 10-second penalty for a jump start.
Crews will tackle two loops of three gravel stages today, with the 21.98km of Al Khoud getting the action underway from 09.30hrs. Jafnein (19.54km) follows at 10.12hrs and Saal (15.79km) rounds off the opening loop from 10.50hrs.
After a return to the Oman Automobile Association for a regroup and service stop, the three specials will be repeated from 13.13hrs, 14.15hrs and 14.56hrs, respectively.