Dubai: The UAE’s Shaikh Khalid Al Qasimi produced a stunning fightback to win the Dubai International Rally in sensational fashion today and snatch the FIA Middle East Championship drivers’ away from Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah.
In the most spectacular finish ever to the regional championship, Al Qasimi emerged victorious by a margin of just 0.3 seconds after a thrilling start-to-finish battle with Al Attiyah to deny his great rival an eighth successive win in Dubai and a tenth Middle East crown.
Incredibly, everything came down to the final special stage of the season, a 25.92-km section which started with the Emirati driver leading by 0.4 seconds after he had produced a brilliant surge to win the previous stage by 6.1 seconds.
Never before had the destiny of the title or the championship been so delicately balanced, and Al Qasimi, partnered by Chris Patterson in his Abu Dhabi Racing Citroen DS3, held his nerve to record his third win in Dubai and land his second Middle East triumph.
“We pushed to the limit but it was very difficult”, said an emotional Al Qasimi, who had been determined to produce a home victory ahead of UAE National Day.
“On the last stage I had a flat tyre but I got through it. If we’re going to be in the record books now it’s not just my name that’s going there, it’s also the name of Citroen because of what we’ve done together.”
Victory had looked to be in the grasp of Al Attiyah, for whom the rally signalled the end of a hugely successful six-year partnership with Italian co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini.
“We are quite happy we did a really good job here,” he said at the finish. “We are not slow but were really surprised about Khalid’s times in the afternoon. I knew it would not be easy and that we really needed to concentrate all the time.”
Finishing third in the rally and in the championship, was Qatar’s Al Kuwari, with fellow-countryman Khalid Al Suwaidi, the UAE’s Shaikh Abdullah Al Qasimi and another Qatari, Abdullah Al Kuwari, completing the top six in Dubai.
The result will undoubtedly find its way into the record books of FIA international rallying for producing the narrowest margin to decide a championship title.
