Qatar’s Nasser Saleh crushes competition, seal easy Kuwait win
FINTAS: Ace Qatari driver Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah sealed a record sixth straight win in the Kuwait International Rally on Saturday.
The 11-time FIA Middle East rally champion won all 13 timed special stages in the second round of the regional series. He reached the finish line first with a winning margin of 11min 24.9sec.
Nasser and his French navigator Matthieu Baumel controlled their pace at the three-day rally from start-to-finish to deliver yet another faultless team performance.
It was a record 62nd MERC rally win for the driver and 11th for his navigator.
“It was important that I won here and collected the maximum points, but I wasn’t really pushed on this rally,” said Al Attiyah.
“I would like to see my rivals come back on the next rallies. The car was fantastic and we managed to win every stage on an event that I enjoy very much,” he added.
Newly-crowned Kuwaiti national champion Meshari Al Thefiri finished second overall and earned outright victory in the hard-fought MERC 2 category. His winning margin was 1min 28.2sec.
Partnered by Qatar’s Nasser Al Kuwari, he became only the second Kuwaiti in MERC history to reach the podium and the first to record a second-placed finish.
The regional series will now move to demanding special stages near the Dead Sea in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan at the start of May.
