Attiyah, Bernacchini dominate Jordan Rally
DEAD SEA: Nasser Saleh Al Atiyah and Giovanni Bernacchini finished the Jordan Rally in cruise control to kick-start the defence of the Qatari’s regional rally championship title at the Dead Sea.
On the 233rd event in the history of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), Atiyah claimed his 85th career victory and a recordbreaking 16th in Jordan since 2003.
His Autotek Motorsport-prepared Skoda Fabia RS never missed a beat and he was able to try out different suspension setings over the closing stages on his way to a winning margin of 5min 31.6sec on his first appearance in the new car.
Bernacchini duly claimed his fith victory in Jordan with Atiyah and his first since 2014.
A 26th MERC success moved the Italian ahead of Chris Paterson into an outright third in the MERC Co-drivers’ Hall of Fame for most wins behind Ronan Morgan (41) and Mathieu Baumel (32).
Abdulaziz Al-kuwari is now tackling a full programme of MERC events in a Qmmf-backed Skoda Fabia and second place to add to the fourth he achieved on his home event means the Qatari is the new leader of the regional championship. Briton Marshall Clarke was his co-driver on this occasion.
Shaker Jweihan delighted home fans with the final place on the podium: he and Lebanese co-driver Carlos Hanna dominated the MERC2 category from start-to-finish and the Mitsubishi driver claimed a second maximum haul of points towards the championship’s secondary category. Jweihan also moved into second place in the Drivers’ Championship behind Kuwari, while the result marked a first career MERC podium for both driver and co-driver.
Denis Krotov is more accustomed to crosscountry rallying in Ultimate class Minis and Toyotas but he enjoyed his MERC debut with Yury Kulikov and reached the finish in fourth overall.
Shadi Shaban continues to hold second place in the MERC2 title race ater he and Samer Issa finished sixth overall and second in class in their Mitsubishi.
Husam Salem overhauled Issa Abu Jamous in stage 12 to move into sixth and third in the showroom category but then he dropped back to seventh ater a late charge from Sheikh Bader Al-fayez and his Lebanese co-driver Joseph Matar. Al-fayez had let the road on the opening Shuna stage and diced with a reservoir in spectacular fashion before recovering strongly during the aternoon to climb three positions and finish fith.
Ihab Al-shorafa and Yousef Juma came home in ninth and the Lebanese duo of Shadi Al-fakih and Samer Sfeir rounded off the top 10 in their two-wheel drive Renault Clio RS entered in the Rally5 section. Palestine’s Hamada Odeh returned to action on day two ater his crash on Friday but retired from 11th place on SS13.
A mechanical breakdown accounted for Nasser Khalifa Al-atya’s Ford Fiesta in the opening stage of the morning and a sizeable accident close to the dam on the Shuna stage put paid to Ameer Nassif’s finishing aspirations.