DUBAI — Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi's brave bid to give the UAE victory in the 35th Dubai International Rally was frustrated Saturday as Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah survived a powerful second leg charge by the Emirati driver to win the final round of the FIA Middle East Championship. Trailing Al-Attiyah by 29.7 seconds overnight, Al-Qassimi produced a brilliant surge to win the first four of the day's six special stages in his Abu Dhabi Citroën Total DS3 and pile the pressure on the nine-time Middle East champion. But with his advantage reduced to 15.4 seconds, Al-Attiyah fought back to take the next two stages, and Al-Qassimi suffered a frustrating anti-climax when he was forced out of the event by a double puncture shortly after completing the final stage. His departure meant that Al-Attiyah, partnered by Giovanni Bernacchini in a Ford Fiesta RRC, won by 5 mins 33.6 secs from Qatar's 2010 Middle East champion, Misfer Almarri. “I had a good strategy,” said Al Attiyah. “I was careful because I didn't want to get any punctures. Khalid took the risks and I'm happy to win. It was a good fight and this is what we need for the championship to improve.” Finishing third in another Ford Fiesta was the UAE's Sheikh Abdullah Al-Qassimi, brother of Sheikh Khalid and runner-up in Dubai last year. After a ten-second time penalty on Friday's first leg had presented him with a mountain to climb, Sheikh Khalid produced the perfect response over the second leg's first loop of three stages, winning them all alongside Scott Martin in his Abu Dhabi Citroën to move within 19.8 seconds of the lead. He reached the service halt to say: “I knew I had to go flat out, but I also had to be neat in places to avoid overshooting corners. There was a very fine balance. At very high speed you can maybe gain a second here or lose a second here on the corners. We still have a lot of hard work to do.” He was looking to complete one of the biggest fightbacks in recent Middle East Championship history and become the first UAE winner of the Dubai International Rally since his own second successive victory in 2006. The fightback continued as he clawed back another 4.4 seconds on the next stages, but Al-Attiyah was not to be denied his seventh successive win in Dubai. The consolation for Al-Qassimi was in seeing the four young Abu Dhabi Racing drivers he has guided into this year's Middle East Championship all finishing in the top ten in Dubai's traditional final round of the series. With Jordanian driver Alaa Rasheed finishing fourth, Majed Al-Shamsi produced a mature drive to take fifth place overall and win the Group N production class in partnership with John Higgins. The UAE's Rashid Al Ketbi completed the top six. It was a good day also for Al-Shamsi's three other Abu Dhabi Racing teammates. Finishing seventh overall alongside Nicolas Klinger, Bader Al-Jabri was runner-up in Group N and also finished third in the category in the Middle East Championship. Mohammed Al-Sahlawi, driving an Abu Dhabi Citroën DS3 R3 2WD to 9th place overall alongside Allan Harryman, captured the Middle East 2WD and Junior titles ahead of teammate Mohamed Al-Mutawaa, who finished 10th overall and runner up in both classes with Stephen McAuley. Finishing 11th overall, Kuwait's Meshari Al-Thefiri won the Middle East Group N title. The biggest casualty of the day was Saudi Arabia's Yazeed Al-Rajhi, a WRC2 rally winner on this year's World Championship stage, whose Ford Fiesta RRC went out at the end of the day's first of six special stages after multiple punctures. — SG
