Sohar, Oman – Qatar’s Nasser al Attiyah stormed to a comfortable victory in the 29^th Oman International Rally on Saturday.

Partnered by Spanish navigator Candido Carrera – who sealed his sixth MERC victory alongside the Qatari – Al Attiyah won 10 of the event’s 13 gravel stages on his way to a 92^nd career MERC win and a record-breaking ninth success in Oman to follow his sensational sixth Dakar Rally success just seven days ago.

His Autotek Škoda Fabia RS suffered three slow punctures during the course of the three-day Sohar-based opening round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) through the awe-inspiring Hajar mountains. But time-consuming flat tyres for his Omani rival Abdullah al Rawahi gave Al Attiyah a winning margin of 2min 08.8sec.

Al Attiyah said: “Another record. I hope there will be a lot of records. We are very happy to be here in Oman and to help the Middle East Championship and to continue. We did a great race without any mistakes. We saved the tyres on the first two stages this afternoon to push on the Power Stage.”

Al Rawahi and his Jordanian co-driver Ata al Hmoud won the third, 11^th and 12^th stages and pushed Al Attiyah close on several other speed tests, despite the two-time event winner being out of the sport for over half a year through injury. Three costly punctures ruined the Omani’s challenge but he managed to finish as runner-up.

Al Rawahi said: “I think we had a good pace. We didn’t have much time to prepare for the new car and, coming back from injury, I wasn’t quite ready. I didn’t want to miss this rally. I’m quite disappointed to lose time with punctures but we can be satisfied with the comeback.”

Veteran Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya, attempting to defend his FIA MERC Master Driver title, and his co-driver Ziad Chehab got their campaign off to the perfect start with the final place on the podium in a Motortune Ford Fiesta.

Jordan’s Shaker Jweihan and Mustafa Juma finished fourth and dominated the MERC2 category in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. They finished 11min 16.5sec in front of the fifth-placed Kuwaiti crew of Jassim al Muqahwi and Sulaiman al Helal.

The Jordanian pairing of Sami Fleifel and Ibrahim Ali were sixth and second of the registered MERC2 crews. Mohammed Al-Shorafa and Yazan Juma completed all 13 stages to earn seventh.

Meanwhile, overnight leader Zakariya al Ofi stopped in the first stage of the morning and his demise lifted Saif al Harthy into the lead in the Oman National Rally. The Can-Am Maverick driver held on to earn a flattering winning margin of 7min 07.sec over Salim Al-Touqi’s Mitsubishi. Fahad al Balushi rounded off the podium finishers in a Can-Am.