Qatar’s star rallyist Nasser bin Saleh al Attiyah eventually clinched the elusive Rally of Lebanon, the third round of the Middle East Rally Championship, in Zabbougha on Sunday.
This rally had been posing a big challenge to Attiyah. Crashes and dominance by local drivers, especially 14-time champion Roger Feghali, made it difficult for him to win. As a result, he could manage runner-up finish on three occasions.
However, the Qatari three-time Dakar Rally winner and his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel were determined this time around and drove their Volkwagen Polo GTi R5 to victory in the 42nd edition with an overall gap of more than 7 minutes and nine seconds against Group N winner Rodrigue Rahi of Lebanon.
After the race, Attiyah commented, “It was a tough win. We’d been waiting for it for a long time. Finally, we won it and I’m very happy to end the jinx in Lebanon. Wish to thank co-driver Matthieu for his great job. The best part of the rally was that we won 10 out of 11 stages and it requires both courage and craft.
“It’s our eighth consecutive win this year. What made the difference this year was simply a better preparation.
The competition was fair and we were all pushing to the max,” Attiyah added.
Patrick Njeim finished third, becoming the youngest Lebanese winner, in Mitsubishi Evo9.
On the third and final competitive day, four stages were to be contested and Attiyah, resuming the action with overnight five minutes and 39.1 seconds lead, continued to drive mixing aggression and caution well.
Just like yesterday, he clean-swept all the four stages ahead of Rahi and co-driver Georges Nader in Mitsubishi Evo9 to emerge the champion for the first time. Henry Massaad (Citroen DS3 R3) reached the finish line in fourth overall and first in RC3 and front-wheel drive.
Tarek Younis (Mitsubishi Evo IX) ended up third in Group N, whilst Albert Hayaeck (Renault Clio R3) and Joe Azzi (Renault Clio RS) completed the top three in RC3.
Henry Kahy ( Skoda FABIA 1.6-16V ) snatched the win in the RC4 category, while Christopher Njeim (Suzuki Swift Sport) triumphed in RC5.
Rahi said on the rally website: “The competition with Patrick was very good. I was lacking power in the first local rounds, but now I can say I got the optimal performance with this car. We insisted on winning the co-drivers championship as we weren’t able to do so in the drivers championship.”
Njeim said: “We had a strategy since the beginning. We wanted to be safe, and focus on the Championship. We sill have a big margin to improve our pace. “Thankfully we did! Thanks for Castrol Lebanon Motortune Racing Academy and Roger Feghali.”
