Qatar’s finest athlete continues to amaze with his daredevil rallying and the impressive results that he keeps churning out
Qatar’s greatest motorsport hero by far is Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah. A decorated athlete – he’s a bronze medal winner at the 2012 Olympic Games in skeet shooting – Al Attiyah last month won the Dakar Rally title for the fifth time in 20 starts, a staggering achievement by the 52-year-old from Qatar. From battling the rough desert terrains across the world to the calm and concentration-driven game like skeet shooting, Al Attiyah is a sport package that is hard to find in the modern era. Al Attiyah maintained his lead over Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin to take his 5th Dakar victory in Saudi Arabia after 14 gruelling stages. He now holds more titles than Ari Vatanen of Finland and is second only to Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel with 8 titles.
A revered figure in his country, Al Attiyah – behind the wheels of Toyota Gazoo Racing and Overdrive Racing – was thrilled to win the Dakar crown in the company of trusted co-driver Mathieu Baumel from France. “Still I am not feeling that I have finished as a winner. I am really so happy. I want to thank (co-driver) Mathieu (Baumel), my team and all of my sponsors,” Al Attiyah said. “We just finished and I’m so happy. It was a difficult Dakar for everyone. It’s crazy to manage to defend my title. I’m very happy to win five times, and Mathieu four… Sorry, Mathieu! I respect Ari enormously, he’s still my idol. I always want to win more and more, now I want to defend my world champion’s title. We didn’t have to attack like crazy. We managed to get through the second week and win the Dakar at the end, that’s what really matters,” he added. Al Attiyah’s previous titles came in 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2022. The affable Qatari sport star also finished runners-up in 2010, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2021.
His Excellency Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani, President of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), was quick to congratulate Al Attiyah’s grand win.
The QOC chairman said in a tweet:” The second successive win is an indication of courage and confidence that is the hallmark of our great sport hero. We are proud of your achievement and congratulate Nasser Al-Attiyah on winning the Dakar Rally title for the fifth time.”
The Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) president Abdulrahman Al Mannai hailed Al Attiyah as a ‘national hero’. “Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah is a role model for all Qatari youth, not only for those in motor sport but every sportpersons who want to go after sporting achievements and raise the name of Qatar high at all international forums,” he said. Al-Mannai said that al-Attiyah gave a distinguished performance in the Dakar Rally this year after he followed a carefully planned strategy in the early stages and led the rally by a comfortable margin and then fought the rest of the stages with the aim of maintaining the lead and not taking risks.
Al Attiyah, who has won the Middle the East Rally Championship (MERC) title a record 18 times – has a clear path in front of him – he wants to continue racing as the Qatari star has intentions of stopping just yet.
“It’s an amazing feeling to win (the Dakar Rally title) for the fifth time. We need more (titles). We just need to keep going. To win Dakar was very important for me,” Al Attiyah said last month in Saudi Arabia. “My happiness is indescribable. We wish to taste success in the upcoming stages of the World Desert Rally Championship “RAID-2023.” Winning the Dakar Rally title did not come out of nowhere, but it was a result of fierce determination and perseverance from me and my team. I want to thank all my fans and brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the region. Everyone who supported me deserves a ‘thank you’ from us. We are thrilled to be racing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Al Attiyah said. Loeb admitted Al Attiyah was difficult to beat. Loeb said: “It’s good. After the first week we had, we couldn’t have hoped for much better. It was impossible to beat Nasser head-on. He had a great race and made no mistakes. We have to be happy with what we got. Our second part of the rally was amazing, with a terrific comeback. We’re tied for the championship. We’re levelling the playing field.”
The 45th edition of the Dakar came to an end in Dammam after 14 stages that saw dramatic turnarounds in every category. Nasser Al Attiyah’s victorious campaign did not come as a surprise, but his first successful title defence earned him the fifth triumph of his career and the distinction of winning by the widest margin seen in the car race in 20 years. Second at 1 h 20, Sébastien Loeb bent the knee to the Qatari, but he also added his name to the Dakar record books with a string of six consecutive stage wins (seven in total).
The scenario that unfolded in the motorbike race was even crazier. In a first for the category, Kevin Benavides seized the lead on the very last day, knocking Toby Price from the top of the general standings to prevail by 43 seconds, the narrowest winning margin ever in the Dakar.
Similarly, in the SSVs, the youngest Dakar entrant ever benefited from a massive plot twist in the last stage, as the leader, Rokas Baciuška, surrendered the top spot to the 18-year-old Pole Eryk Goczał, who will share the podium with his father, Marek, in third place. A family that races together stays together.
In T3, victory went to Austin Jones, who had already brought the T4 trophy home last year, while the truck title went to Janus van Kasteren, the first Dutch winner of the race since Gerard de Rooy in 2016.
The winners and all the other competitors who showed their resolve to complete this gruelling route will be feted this evening at the podium ceremony in Ithra, at the cultural centre built by Aramco to mark the 75th anniversary of the company, which joined the Dakar as a major partner this year.
235 of the 355 vehicles that started the 2023 Dakar have made it to the finish: 80 motorbikes (out of 121), 10 quads (18), 46 T1 and T2 cars (67), 38 lightweight prototypes (47), 39 SSVs (45) and all 22 trucks, along with 80 out of 88 crews in the third edition of the Dakar Classic, the regularity race for 20th-century vehicles.
QMMF SET FOR REVISED QATAR INTERNATIONAL RALLY IN FEBRUARY
The Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) will host round two of the 2023 FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) for the second successive season on February 16th-18th.
Officials at the QMMF have laid on a slightly revised three-day format that offers 13 timed special stages and 209.69km competitive kilometres in a route of 618.52km.
The Sultanate of Oman will arrange the opening rally in the six-event series on January 26th-28th and the Qatar event will then be followed by further rounds in Kuwait (March 16th-18th), Jordan (May 18th-20th), Lebanon (September 1st-3rd) and Cyprus (September 22nd-24th).
Scrutineering facilities and the media centre will be based at the LCSC Karting Academy for the first time. After technical checks on Wednesday and Thursday (February 15th and 16th), the event will get underway with the traditional pre-event press conference and ceremonial start.
The competitive action fires into life with a new floodlit 3.27km super special stage at the LCSC Karting Academy from 20.00hrs on Thursday evening.
The demanding Qatar deserts will then play host to two days of competitive action. Two loops of three specials are planned for Friday (February 17th) with competitors tackling the challenging Al-Khor special and revised gravel tests at Ras Laffan and Al-Thakira in the north of the country
Two passes through a new stage at Waab Al-Mashrab and similar stages to last year at Al-Waab and Umm Birka are on the agenda for Saturday (February 18th) before the post-event press conference, prize giving and ceremonial finish take centre stage from 18.30hrs onwards.
The rally will be held under the chairmanship of QMMF President Abdulrahman Al-Mannai, senior committee member Abdulrazaq Al-Kuwari and the QMMF’s Executive Director Amro Al-Hamad. Portugal’s Pedro Almeida will work as the Clerk of the Course alongside his deputy, Rashed Al-Sulaiti.
“After the success of the Qatar International Rally in 2022, that attracted several exciting names from the world of rallying, we are particularly excited about hosting the 2023 event,” said QMMF Executive Director Amro Al-Hamad. “Our team has made slight revisions and improvements to the format, made the route even more compact and introduced tweaks to polish what is already viewed as one of the leading rallies in the region.”
The QMMF has also announced a series of generous concessions for international and GCC competitors keen to tackle the Qatar event. International competitors (cars and T4 entries) will be given a $6,000 shipping allowance, with GCC entrants receiving $3,000, subject to vehicles passing scrutineering and administrative checks.
