Mechanical problems hinder Jordan bid for Qatar Open podium finish

AMMAN — Husam Salem and co-driver Nancy Majali, the only team representing the Kingdom at the Qatar International Rally, first round of the Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), faced mechanical problems on Saturday in the Special Stage 10  (SS10) and had to settle for fifth position.

“We were doing fine and hovered around third place but in SS10 we faced some mechanical issues to the car which we had to stop and move to the service park,” Salem told The Jordan Times.

“It took us a lot of time to take the car to the service park which costs us a lot of precious time and we were considered out of the rally,” he added.

According to Salem the rally was a very challenging one.

“We had a great time driving and the level of competition was really high and we had excellent competitive edge but we were unlucky towards the end of the rally. In rallying anything could happen,” he said.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah broke the record of the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Sulayem of 60 wins and was crowned champion of the Rally and said: “Thanks for this win I registered a new record with 61 wins. The Qatar Rally is always special due to the great efforts carried out by everyone.”

Attiyah and co-driver Matthiew Baumel clocked 2h03m50s followed by Qatar’s Khaled Sweidi and co-driver Giovanni Banacchini (2h09m34.6s) and Qatar’s Rashed Naimi and co-driver Nicola Arena (2h20m42.5s). 

Fifteen teams representing Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Germany, Sweden and Italy took part in the rally.