Saturday 07 / February / 2026
LUSAIL (Qatar): Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari and his brother Nasser ended a 10-year wait for a third FIA Middle East Rally Championship victory when they secured a second win at the Qatar International Rally on Saturday.
The Qatari duo trailed runaway leader Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah for three-quarters of the event but hit the front when the defending champion suffered a broken wheel and resultant suspension damage after nine of the event’s 12 gravel stages to the north of Doha.
From then on, the Sarrazin Škoda Fabia RS duo stayed clear of trouble over the remaining three special stages to follow up their 2012 victory in Qatar at the wheel of a Mini S2000. Al-Kuwari had also notched up success on a candidate event in Oman back in 2014 and picked up maximum MERC points in Cyprus the same year. His brother only came back as a stand-in co-driver for this event after announcing his retirement from the sport last year.
The delighted Qatari had a flattering winning margin of 5min 08.8sec. He said: “Fourteen years I didn’t win the event and, 14 years, my brother was never next to me on this event. I brought him back. I said he had to retire at home. It was good to come back and win the rally. I never pushed 100%. I never had a penalty or a puncture, maybe one of the only ones. There is a limit you have to stay below. The team did a great job. Thanks to the QMMF and Sarrazin Motorsport. Now, for sure, I will ask the QMMF if I can continue the Middle East championship. I think I deserve it. I am always there.”
Nasser Al-Kuwari added: “When my brother tried to push me to come back, I had a feeling that we were going to win it. This will be my last race and we have won it. I am so happy for my brother, my father, my family, the QMMF. I am proud of my brother. This is the end of my career.”
Al-Attiyah’s goal of a 19th Qatar victory fizzled out on the road section after stage nine. The Qatari and co-driver Candido Carrera had completed the stage with a broken rear-left wheel and damaged suspension on their Autotek Škoda Fabia RS.
They were forced to change the wheel and make emergency repairs on the side of the road after the stage but the wheel was hanging at an angle and there was a small fire when they began the return to Lusail. The Qatari tried a couple of times to make further repairs and made it back to Lusail within his maximum lateness, albeit on three rotating wheels, before throwing in the towel. He admitted that he thought he had a puncture and drove to the end of the stage, not realising that the wheel had broken and damaged the suspension.
Saudi Arabia’s Hamza Bakhashab and his Irish co-driver Lorcan Moore applied the pressure on local youngster Mohammed Al-Marri and Frenchman Pierre Delorme as the leg progressed and took full advantage of a large time loss for the young Qatari on stage 10 to secure second overall in a Jameel Motorsport Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. It was the Saudi’s third ever special stage rally after the WRC event in Saudi Arabia last November and Oman last month.
Bakhashab said: “It was very good. It could have been cleaner without the punctures but we are learning a lot. I tried to manage. It was an amazing result. Thanks to Motortune for getting the car ready and to my sponsors. Without them, this would not have been possible. I feel bad for Mohammed (Al-Marri) but this is rallying.”
Al-Marri delivered a memorable performance on his first outing in a Citroën C3 Rally2 but was forced to retire after the 10th stage with mechanical problems.
Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya and Ziad Chehab finished on the final step of the podium in their Motortune Ford Fiesta and Al-Atya claimed maximum points in the FIA Master Driver category for the second event in succession.
Shaker Jweihan completely dominated the FIA MERC2 category with Mustafa Juma in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X for a second time in three weeks. Despite a bent suspension arm for the opening loop of stages on Saturday, the Jordanian finished fourth and romped to class victory by 13min 20.8sec.
Rashid Al-Muhannadi and Gary McElhinney moved into a useful lead in the FIA MERC4 category on the first stage of the morning when Khalifa Saleh Al-Attiyah was sidelined with technical problems. The defending champions increased their advantage as the day progressed in a QMMF-backed Peugeot 208 but a penultimate stage retirement with transmission issues enabled rivals Ahmad Shaheen Al-Muhannadi and Taha Al-Zadjali to take the lead.
They then rolled in the last stage and gifted victory and fifth place to Nouef Al-Sowaidi and Aisvydas Paliukenas. Ahmed Al-Kuwari and Baptiste Cerrato finished sixth in the second of the Peugeots.
The Italian duo of Christiano Gabbarrini and Alessandro Forni were seventh in a Yamaha Quaddy YXZ 1000R and the Omani duo of Zakariya Al-Aamri and Mohammed Al-Mazrui finished eighth in a Subaru Impreza N14 and picked up points for second in MERC2.
Charbel Chebly drove well on his Qatar debut with Carlos Hanna, finished third in MERC2 and ninth overall. Mohammed Mansoor Parol (Mitsubishi), Shadi El-Fakih (Renault) and Jassim Al-Muqahwi (Mitsubishi) rounded off the 12 finishers.
Abdullah Al-Rawahi retired before the restart. The Omani had suffered several time-consuming punctures during leg one and had back pain as a result of his injury in Lebanon last year.
Saturday – as it happened
Twenty of the original 23 entrants returned for the final morning’s action with three crews reappearing under the Rally2 ruling.
Sami Fleifel’s run to 12th overall and second in MERC2 came to an end in the service park at Lusail on Friday evening when the Jordanian discovered terminal engine issues on his Mitsubishi Lancer.
The longest stage of the rally was Umm Birka at 22.98km and that was first on the agenda in cool and cloudy conditions. Runaway leader Al-Attiyah opened the road and clocked the target time of 11min 29.6sec. That run was 22 seconds quicker than Al-Kuwari’s and the defending champion increased his lead to 1min 54sec.
Bakhashab began to eat into Al-Marri’s hold on third place. He trimmed the Qatar’s advantage by 5.1 seconds to 1min 14.1sec. Jweihan extended his MERC2 lead over closest rival Al-Aamri to 4min 56.5sec with the fastest time, despite bending a suspension arm near the start.
The four-way tussle for Rally4 honours had been the highlight of Friday afternoon’s action. Khalifa Saleh-Attiyah began the day with a 3.2-second lead over Al-Muhannadi but succumbed to mechanical issues in the stage and retired. Al-Muhannadi grabbed the lead and extended his advantage over Al-Sowaidi to 24.6 seconds.
Payyaakkal Saneem had retired during day one with electrical issues on his Ford Fiesta and pulled out again before the opening stage on day two.
Ras Laffan is better known as Qatar’s primary hub for natural gas production and export but the desert tracks near the ‘gas capital of the world’ hosted stage eight that ran for 16.73km.
Al-Attiyah increased his lead over Al-Kuwari to 1min 58.9sec with the fastest time. Al-Marri continued to defend his final place on the podium and only ceded 2.9 seconds to Bakhashab. Jweihan and Al-Muhannadi continued to lead the MERC2 and MERC4 categories.
Al-Thakira (15.28km) was the last stage of the early morning loop. Al-Attiyah suffered his first major time loss of the entire weekend with a broken rear-left wheel and finished the stage 48.5 seconds slower than Al-Kuwari. He retained a lead of 1min 10.4sec on the return to Lusail for the mid-leg regroup and service. Bakhashab was second quickest behind Al-Kuwari, despite a slow puncture, and trimmed Al-Marri’s hold on third place to 49.7 seconds. Al-Marri missed one corner and lost valuable seconds.
But Al-Attiyah was forced to change the wheel and make emergency repairs on the side of the road. The rear suspension was also damaged, the wheel was hanging at an angle and there was a small fire when he began the return to service. He retired at Lusail.
Al-Kuwari said: “I was going much faster and getting more mileage in the car. The first stage, I passed the finish line too fast after a big jump. We went left and came back to enter the boards and we lost 10 or 12 seconds. The pace was good. The second one, we were only five seconds behind Nasser. We won the last stage, but bravo to Hamza and Mohammed (Al-Marri), their pace is very good. Still too early to think about the win, but I will be a taxi driver for the last three stages!”
The re-run of Umm Birka was first up for the road-opening Al-Kuwari. Italy’s Marco Marotta (Yamaha) failed to start the final loop and lost 14th overall.
Al-Kuwari safely negotiated the stage six seconds quicker than his morning’s run. Bakhashab took full advantage of time delays for Al-Marri to snatch second place. The Qatari dropped 1min 50sec to the Saudi and slipped 57.7 seconds behind the Toyota driver.
Al-Aamri lost six minutes in the stage but maintained second in MERC2 behind Sweihan but Al-Marri was forced to withdraw after the stage with mechanical problems and was also joined on the growing list of retirements by Mirko Carrara (Can-Am).
Ras Laffan 2 was the penultimate stage. Al-Kuwari eased his pace to avoid problems and headed to the final stage with a lead of 4min 37.9sec. But the drama continued when Rashid Al-Muhannadi was sidelined with transmission gremlins and relinquished his MERC4 lead to Ahmad Shaheen Al-Muhannadi.
Al-Kuwari was clean through Al-Thakira 2 and duly confirmed a second victory on his home event with 14 years between the two wins. Maiden stage winner Bakhashab and Al-Atya rounded off the podium places with Jweihan taking MERC2 honours. But there was more drama in MERC4 when new leader Ahmad Shaheen Al-Muhannadi rolled his Peugeot and gifted victory to Al-Sowaidi.
The FIA Middle East Rally Championship resumes with the Jordan Rally on May 14th-16th.
