Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah, right, celebrates the WRC2 title win with French co-driver Mathieu Baumel after finishing third in the Rally RACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada in Salou, Spain, yesterday.
Three weeks. Three titles.
That’s just how Qatari superstar Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah rolls.
The indefatigable 44-year-old finished third in Spain’s Rally RACC Catalunya-Costa Daurada yesterday to win his second consecutive WRC2 title.
This was after he sealed his 11th FIA Middle East Rally Championship title in Jordan on October 17 and his second Cross-Country Rally World Cup in Morocco the weekend before that.
Al-Attiyah had started the year with a second Dakar Rally title win.
Yesterday, Sweden’s Pontus Tidemand, after snatching the lead from al-Attiyah and his French co-driver Mathieu Baumel on Friday, won the four-day event near Barcelona by 10.7 seconds in his Skoda Fabia R5 ahead of Jan Kopecky,
With Tidemand’s win, al-Attiyah needed a third-place finish in his Fabia R5 to win the title, and despite coming under pressure from Armin Kremer, he managed to do so.
Al-Attiyah finished almost four minutes behind Kopecky, who struggled with a slipping clutch. Yuriy Protasov’s Ford Fiesta RRC and Jaroslaw Koltun’s Fiesta RRC completed the top six.
Eric Camilli retired his Fiesta R5 from third after a mechanical problem.
Enrico Brazzoli won the Production Cup within WRC 2 in a Subaru Impreza after leader Joan Carchat retired his Mitsubishi Lancer this morning.
Al-Attiyah is not just done for the year yet.
The Olympic bronze medallist only needs one victory to overhaul driving icon Mohamed bin Sulayem’s record of 60 regional wins and he has two MERC races in hand this
season to do so — Oman and UAE.
Besides, the multi-talented sports icon, who has dabbled in powerboating before, will get behind the wheel of a Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 in his World Touring Car Championships debut on November 27 at Qatar’s Losail International Circuit. The championship finale will also be the first WTCC race to be held under floodlights.
