Loubet, Pascaud secure narrow win at Qatar International Rally

Pierre-Louis Loubet and Loris Pascaud delivered a masterclass performance on their desert debut and overcame late damper issues and a couple of time penalties for contact with stage surround fencing to secure a memorable victory at the Qatar International Rally on Saturday.
Norway’s Mads Ostberg and his Swedish co-driver Patrik Barth delivered a late charge over the afternoon loop of three short stages but missed out on the win by just 4.6 seconds.
Loubet became only the second non-Arab driver since Bjorn Waldegard in 1986 (Vojtech Stajf - 2018) to win the event outright. Sports Racing Technologies (SRT) duly earned a 1-2 finish with their Skoda Fabia RS Rally2s.
Loubet said: “We can be very pleased with what we have done. It has been a great time, a great rally and I really enjoyed it. Thanks to everybody. We had a damper issue and we are happy to be at the end. It has been tough and very demanding.”
Ostberg won nine of the 13 special stages. He added: “We had to do the afternoon with a completely different setting of the car. It was really hard. Pierre (Loubet) had a problem as well. It was dramatic for both of us. We had a good afternoon and we pushed as much as we could. It was another very enjoyable weekend.”
Abdullah al-Rawahi and his Jordanian co-driver Ata al-Hmoud proved that winning last year’s regional title was no fluke and they climbed from fifth to the bottom step of the podium in an Autotek-run Skoda, the Omani picking up valuable MERC points into the bargain.
The result meant that no Qatari crew featured on the podium on their home event for the first time since the mid-1990s. QMMF-backed Qatari Abdulaziz al-Kuwari and Irish co-driver James Fulton slipped back from third to finish fourth in their Sarrazin-supplied Volkswagen Polo GTi. Former event winner Nasser Khalifa al-Atya and Lebanon’s Ziad Chehab were a distant fifth in their Motortune Ford Fiesta MkII.
An overnight 30-minute time penalty obliterated Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah’s chance of winning his home event for an 18th time but the Qatari and his co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini pushed hard to climb through the tail end of the field. Nasser made it as far as ninth overall but the finish in Lusail Boulevard was a bridge too far and the winner of three stages broke a damper and retired on the last stage to cap a miserable weekend.
Al-Attiyah said: “I was really disappointed with the decision (time penalty). It was completely wrong. We couldn’t really stop in the middle of the highway otherwise someone could hit you. We decided to move. I am really disappointed. It is not a professional way. We tried to make some good points. I did my best to jump at least two or three positions and to have a good time.”
The Jordanian crew of Shaker Jweihan and Mustafa Juma completely dominated the MERC2 category in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. They finished sixth overall and 9min 04.5sec ahead of their nearest production class rivals, Shadi Shaban and Samer Issa.
Husam Salim and Nancy al-Majali came home in eighth and third in MERC2 and Qatar’s Rashid al-Muhannadi teamed up with Omani Taya al-Zadjali to finish ninth. The Jordanian duo of Ihab al-Shorafa and Yousef Juma rounded off the top 10.
After Khalid al-Muhannadi withdrew with broken front suspension on his Polaris and Stefano Marrini (Can-Am) stopped for a time in SS12, Filippo Epis (Yamaha) pressed on to snatch victory in the T4 category from his Italian rival. He finished 11th overall.
Emirati-based Indian Saneem Payyaakkal and his co-driver Musa Sherif have registered for the MERC and are competing in the new MERC4 category for two-wheel drive machines in their Ford Fiesta Rally4. They finished 14th, one place ahead of the QMMF-backed Khalid al-Suwaidi and Ross Whittock, who had retired with electrical issues early on Friday and were too far back to mount a serious challenge on Saturday.

Final positions
1. Pierre-Louis Loubet (FRA)/Loris Pascaud (FRA) SkodaFabia RS; Time: 1hr 46min 37.9sec
2. Mads Østberg (NOR)/Patrik Barth (SWE) SkodaFabia RS; 1hr 46min 42.5sec
3. Abdullah al-Rawahi (OMN)/Ata al-Hmoud (JOR) SkodaFabia Evo; 1hr 48min 18.5sec
4. Abdulaziz al-Kuwari (QAT)/James Fulton (IRL) Volkswagen Polo GTI; 1hr 48min 50.2sec
5. Nasser Khalifa al-Atya (QAT)/Ziad Chehab (LEB) Ford Fiesta Mk II; 2hr 01min 12.4sec
6. Shaker Jweihan (JOR)/Mustafa Juma (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X; 2hr 06min 56.0sec
7. Shadi Shaban (JOR)/Samer Issa (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX; 2hr 16min 00.5sec
8. Husam Salim (JOR)/Nancy al-Majali (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X; 2hr 16min 11.6sec
9. Rashid al-Muhannadi (QAT)/Taha al-Zadjali (OMN) Subaru WRX-STI; 2hr 20min 59.0sec
10. Ihab al-Shurafa (JOR)/Yousef Juma (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX; 2hr 22min 32.9sec
11. Filippo Epis (ITA)/Gabriele Zanni (ITA) Yamaha YXZ 1000R (T4); 2hr 22min 36.0sec*
12. Fabid Ahmer (IND)/Milen George Cherian (IND) Subaru WRX-STI; 2hr 25min 09.5sec
13. Stefano Marrini (ITA)/Stefano Tiraboschi (ITA) Can-Am Maverick X3 (T4); 2hr 25min 54.2sec
14. Saneem Payyaakkal (ARE)/Musa Sherif (IND) Ford Fiesta Rally 4; 2hr 33min 41.0sec
15. Khalid al-Suwaidi (QAT)/Ross Whittock (GBR) Volkswagen Polo GTI; 2hr 36min 59.4sec
16. Mohamed al-Atteya (QAT)/Savvas Laos (CYP) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X; 2hr 48min 01.4sec