Attiyah and the UAE's Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi are locked in a battle for victory in the Dubai International Rally as the 2008 FIA Middle East Championship heads for its conclusion in the UAE. At the end of a dramatic first leg in the seventh and final round of the regional series, their two Subarus were separated by just six seconds Friday, with the Middle East champion from Doha holding the advantage over his great UAE rival after a spectacular fightback from an early blow. But with five more special stages remaining on the final day of a regional championship which began in Qatar back in January, the top two Arab drivers face a tense struggle for supremacy in an event celebrating its 30th anniversary this weekend. Lying third at the end of the first leg, another two-and-a-half minutes adrift of Al-Qassimi, was Lebanese driver Roger Feghali in a Mitsubishi Evo 9. The UAE's Rashed Al-Ketbi and Sheikh Abdullah Al-Qassimi, and Oman's Nizar Al-Shanfari, all driving Subarus, completed the top six and were separated by just 52 seconds. Having already clinched the Middle East title with a victory in the recent Troodos Rally in Cyprus, Al-Attiyah was the strong favorite to record a second successive victory in Dubai, but he had a rude awakening as the event got under way. On the first of the day's four special stages, Al-Attiyah's Subaru collided with a tree, with the impact slamming the car's inductor pipe into the windscreen which shattered. The Qatari was able to complete the stage, as well as special stage two, but only with difficulty, having to rely on British co-driver Chris Patterson to shout out directions with visibility badly hindered. Fourth fastest on the stage and dropping 19 seconds to Al-Qassimi, Al-Attiyah slipped another 14 seconds off the lead on the next stage. But after a new windscreen was fitted at the regrouping he made a big move, winning stage three to move within two seconds of Sheikh Khalid and then edging ahead by taking the final stage of the day. An early casualty was Sultan Al Ameri, one of Team Abu Dhabi's young UAE drivers, who was forced to retire his Ford Fiesta on the day after breaking a gearbox on the first stage. He will take advantage of the super rally rule which allows him to resume on the second leg. The UAE's Suheil Al-Maktoum finished the day in seventh place in his City of Arabia Subaru Impreza, just ahead of Lebanese driver Nick Georgiou who looked set to overhaul Misfer Al-Marri to claim runner's up spot in the Middle East Championship after mechanical problems forced the Qatari into a first leg retirement. Abdelrahman Al-Hajri was halted when his car broke a differential on the first stage and fellow-Qatari Mubarak Al-Hajri also retired his car with a shattered fuel pump pipe on the next stage. __
