Al-Attiyah splashes and slides his way to big lead

Jordan Motorsport lost the longest stage of the Jordan Rally to inclement weather conditions in the region, but that failed to prevent Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah from storming into a comfortable lead of 4min 20.9sec after five slippery gravel stages of the opening round of the 2018 FIA Middle East Rally Championship yesterday.
Heavy overnight rain forced route modifications and the loss of the 30-kilometre Palms special that was scheduled to run twice, but the Ford Fiesta R5 driver and French navigator Matthieu Baumel won all five of the day’s timed tests that did take place to remain firmly on track for a record-equalling 12th victory in the Hashemite Kingdom.
Al-Attiyah said: “The stages got firmer as the day went on and dried and we were able to go quicker. We had no problems and will try and keep up the same pace to the finish tomorrow.”
Vojtech Stajf and Marketa Skacelova had a baptism of fire in their Skoda Fabia R5 and were never able to match the pace of al-Attiyah on the driver’s second ever gravel rally with his R5. He lost over three minutes with a puncture in the fourth stage and slipped to third overall on his Jordanian debut.
“It has not been easy,” said Stajf. “We left the road a couple of times in Baptism in the morning. Some places we were too slow. It is only my second time on gravel with the R5, but we made some notes and are learning all the time. Then we lost time with the flat tyre.”
“We only took one spare with us. On the second loop, on the Mahes stage, we had a puncture about six kilometres in from the start. There was a big rock lying in the line. I did not see it because it was at the end of the corner. Nasser said he saw it as well. We hit it with the left-front and the tyre was flat within a few hundred metres.
“We had to stop and change it but it happened in a part of the stage where we could not stop to change it and we had to drive for another two or three kilometres. So we lost even more time. Tomorrow we will fight to try and win back the second position. But I had to drive cautious on the last two stages, so as not to get another flat tyre.”
Kuwait’s Meshari al-Thefiri was the class of the MERC 2 field in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X with Qatari navigator Nasser al-Kuwari and moved up to second place after the Czech driver’s problems. Al-Thefiri won every stage in the showroom category and reached the overnight halt 3min 27.7sec clear of the Jordanian crew of Khaled and Emad Juma in a similar car.
“Trying to catch Nasser was never our goal,” said al-Thefiri. “We want to win the Group N (MERC 2), so we will take no risks and try and defend our second position on the last day.”
Khaled Juma said: “This is the first time in four years that Meshari has been quicker than me here. I need to put that right tomorrow and will be pushing for the podium. We had the wrong tyres this morning and there was a lot of water on the tracks that slowed me down.”
Ahmad and Shadi Shaban were a distant fifth overall in their Mitsubishi and third in MERC 2. Fellow Jordanians, Ihab al-Shorafa and Yousef Juma, rounded off the top six in another Mitsubishi Lancer derivative.
Lebanon’s Henry Kahy and Jordanian co-driver Musa Djiyerian held seventh overall in a Group A ?koda Fabia, while local driver Asem Aref, co-driven by Faris Tal, guided his little two-wheel drive Renault Clio RX to eighth place without fifth gear.
Salameh Al-Gammaz led the way in the Jordan National Championship category from Zeid Miqdad after Tareq al-Taher retired his Mitsubishi in the fourth stage with electrical problems.
Abdullah al-Rawahi’s experience of Jordanian stages was short-lived when the Omani slid his Subaru off the track in the middle of the first stage of the morning and retired. He will restart under Rally2 once a bumper and rear suspension arm have been replaced.
The 36th edition of the Jordan Rally is running with the support of Kroon Oil, VESTEL, Hilton Dead Sea Resort and Spa, the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Centre managed by Hilton, Guarantee travel group, Hala and Bliss FM.
The rally reaches a conclusion with a further eight special stages on Saturday, starting with a run in the 11.74km of Suwayma at 09.14hrs and passes through Rawda (12.69km), Amar (8.55km) and Ma’in (16.91km) at 09.57hrs, 10.35hrs, and 11.23hrs, respectively.
The four stages are to be repeated in the afternoon at 13.17hrs, 14.00hrs, 14.38hrs and 15.26hrs provided that recent weather conditions have not affected the stage surfaces.

Positions after SS6
1. Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Ford Fiesta R5 51min 17.3sec
2. Meshari al-Thefiri (KWT)/Nasser al-Kuwari (QAT) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 56min 38.2sec
3. Vojtech Stajf (CZE)/Marketa Skacelova (CZE) Skoda Fabia R5 57min 59.0sec
4. Khaled Juma (JOR)/Emad Juma (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 59min 05.9sec
5. Ahmed Shaban (JOR)/Shadi Shaban (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 1hr 02min 01.6sec
6. Ihab al-Shorafa (JOR)/Yousef Juma (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 1hr 07min 26.6sec
7. Henry Kahy (LEB)/Musa Djiyerian (JOR) Skoda Fabia 1hr 14min 09.9sec
8. Asem Aref (JOR)/Faris Tal (JOR) Renault Clio RX 1hr 26min 46.7sec