DEAD SEA (JORDAN): Abdullah Al Rawahi became the first Omani ever to win the Jordan Rally after a dramatic fightback by Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah was thwarted by punctures on the closing stages of a pulsating Jordan Rally on Saturday.
Al-Rawahi and local driver Ata Al-Hmoud had taken a lead of 2min 33.5sec into the final six special stages in the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley areas in their Skoda Fabia Evo.
But Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel launched a full-scale fightback during the morning and reduced the deficit to 1min 20sec at the midday service point.
The pendulum appeared to have swung in the Qatari’s favour when the Oman Rally Team crew clocked out of service three minutes late and incurred a 30-second time penalty, reducing the deficit to 50 seconds.
But Al Attiyah was forced to change a punctured tyre on the first test after the restart and then punctured again with Al-Rawahi reaching the finish 7min 04.2sec clear of the struggling defending champion.
With the pressure off on the final stage, it enabled Al Rawahi to secure his third career MERC win and Al Hmoud became the first Jordanian to win his home rally since Amjad Farrah and Khalid Zakaria prevailed on a dramatic final stage way back in 2004. Al-Rawahi’s third success drew him level with the late Björn Waldegård, Jean-Pierre Nasrallah and Abdullah Bakhashab in the regional Hall of Fame.
