It’s been an amazing season for the Franco-Qatari crew which has tallied 14 wins from 22 starts so far this year.
Two weeks ago, their fifth victory in the Mini ALL4 Racing/Michelin (Sealine Cross Country Rally, Rallye des Pharaons, Italian Baja, Hungarian Baja, Rallye Oilibya du Maroc) clinched top FIA Cross-Country honours.
Then, on October 18, a fifth MERC victory (Qatar International Rally, Kuwait International Rally, Shiraz Rally, Cyprus Rally, Jordan Rally) sealed the Qatari’s 11th Middle-East crown, this time in a Ford Fiesta/Michelin, edging him closer to Mohammed Bin Sulayem’s record of 14 titles.
Today, Nasser Al-Attiyah collected his second straight WRC2 title thanks to third place in Spain behind Skoda Motorsport’s Tidemand and Kopecky.
It looked like the outcome would be settled next month in Wales until Eric Camilli retired from third place on the last day to hand Nasser the podium finish he needed to pocket the title this weekend. It was close, though, since fourth-placed Armin Kremer finished just one-tenth back.
Nasser has notched up three WRC2 class wins in 2015 so far (Mexico, Portugal and Australia).
His extraordinary season kicked off with first place on January’s Dakar in an Mini ALL Racing/Michelin. Nasser and Matthieu will now be able to relax a little before the FIA prize-giving ceremony and the 2016 Dakar where they will meet up with WRC buddies Sébastien Loeb, Mikko Hirvonen and Martin Prokop…
(*) subject to the publication of the official results by the FIA