Oman’s Al Rawahi third as Loubet and Pascaud secure narrow victory in Qatar International Rally
Lusail, Qatar - Oman’s Abdullah al Rawahi and his Jordanian codriver Ata al Hmoud proved that winning last year’s regional title was no fluke as they climbed from fifth to the bottom step of the podium in an Autotek-run Skoda in the Qatar International Rally on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Pierre-louis Loubet and Loris Pascaud delivered a masterclass performance on their desert debut and overcame late damper issues and a couple of time penalties for contact with stage surround fencing to secure a memorable victory.
Norway’s Mads Ostberg and his Swedish co-driver Patrik Barth delivered a late charge over the afternoon loop of three short stages but missed out on the win by just 4.6 seconds.
Al Rawahi, who picked up valuable MERC points into the bargain, was delighted with his effort.
Al Rawahi said: “This result is good for the championship and good points. Today was fantastic. We did some small mistakes yesterday but we managed to get back from fifth to third. We pushed hard. It is a good result. The team worked really hard to give me a better car today and it worked.”
The result meant that no Qatari crew featured on the podium on their home event for the first time since the mid1990s.
Qmmf-backed Qatari Abdulaziz Al Kuwari and Irish codriver James Fulton slipped back from third to finish fourth in their Sarrazin-supplied Volkswagen Polo GTI. Former event winner Nasser Khalifa al Atya and Lebanon’s Ziad Chehab were a distant fifth in their Motortune Ford Fiesta MKII.
An overnight 30-minute time penalty obliterated Nasser Saleh al Attiyah’s chance of winning his home event for an 18th time but the Qatari and his co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini pushed hard to climb through the tail end of the field. Nasser made it as far as ninth overall but the finish in Lusail Boulevard was a bridge too far and the winner of three stages broke a damper and retired on the last stage to cap a miserable weekend.
The Jordanian crew of Shaker Jweihan and Mustafa Juma completely dominated the MERC2 category in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. They finished sixth overall and 9min 04.5sec ahead of their nearest production class rivals, Shadi Shaban and Samer Issa.