Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and his Spanish co-driver Candido Carrera secured an easy victory at the inaugural Jeddah-based Rally Saudi Arabia.

Al-Attiyah won all but two of the two-day event’s gravel stages to the north and east of the Red Sea city to earn a record-breaking 89th career FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) rally win, as he bids for a 20th FIA Middle East Rally Championship title.

His Autotek Škoda Fabia RS suffered one time-consuming puncture on the second stage of the final day but Al-Attiyah hit back to win his third successive MERC event with Carrera by 1min 37.4sec. He now has a comfortable lead in the regional rally series with three rounds still to run in Jordan, Lebanon and Cyprus.

Al-Attiyah said: “It was nice to win the rally. But the good thing was that we had the rally back here in Saudi Arabia. I cannot wait for the next one in November. I want to do it in a Rally1 car!”

The Finnish duo of Juho Hänninen and Janni Hussi entered the event in a Toyota Yaris for test and information gathering duties on behalf of the Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT. They won two stages and finished in a comfortable second position, although they were not registered for MERC points.

Hänninen added: “It was okay. We saw all the stages and we learned a lot. From that side it was a good journey. Nasser is the king of the Middle East. I knew that before coming here. The result was not that important. We learned so many things. It’s nice to be second after Nasser. It was nice to see him again because we competed together many years ago.”

Saudi driver Rakan Al-Rashed teamed up with Portugal’s Hugo Magalhães to finish on the final step of the podium with his Toyota Yaris and picked up valuable points in his quest to hunt down Al-Attiyah in the Drivers’ Championship.

Qatar’s Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari and his Irish team-mate Lorcan Moore moved briefly into third overall during the final morning before stopping to change a flat tyre mid-stage. That time loss dropped them back to fourth, a position they held to the finish to stay ahead of Oman’s Abdullah Al-Rawahi and his British co-driver Ross Whittock. Three punctures had cost Al-Rawahi a lot of time on day one.

Hamza Bakhashab switched from the cross-country discipline to tackle his first ever special stage rally in a Can-Am Maverick R and the Saudi finished sixth with Poland’s Marcin Pasek reading his pace notes. He topped the SSV class.

Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya is chasing glory in this year’s new FIA MERC Master Driver category and the Qatari guided his Ford Fiesta to seventh and a useful haul of championship points. Oman’s Abdullah Al-Zubair dominated the MERC2 section from the start in his Subaru Impreza and moved firmly into title contention against fellow countryman Zakariya Al-Aamri.

Lebanon’s Bassel Abu Hamdan returned to action after a lengthy lay-off to take ninth overall and Qatar’s Rashed Al-Mohannadi rounded off the top 10 in his Peugeot 208 and won the MERC4 category. Young Qatari Mohammed Al-Marri finished 15th on his third ever MERC rally and was the leading Junior driver.

The final starting list saw 22 crews prepare to tackle a dozen challenging gravel special stages. The event acted as the Kingdom’s official candidate event before it joins the FIA World Rally Championship for the first time at the end of November.

Five Can-Ams entered in the SSV section withdrew before the start but the first rally of its kind to run in Saudi Arabia since 2010 saw nine Rally2 crews joined by five running in the NR4 group (MERC2), four in Rally4, three National status entrants and a solitary SSV at the rear of the field.

The rally was hosted by the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) in collaboration with the Saudi Motorsport Company. It ran under the supervision of the FIA as an official candidate rally for the WRC under the Ministry of Sport.

Three stages (1, 4 and 6) were cancelled on the opening day on safety grounds but the second day ran like clockwork with 15 of the 22 starters reaching the finish. The reduction in stage distance on day one did not affect the points allocation and full points were awarded towards the FIA Middle East Rally Championship.

Round four of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship takes place in Jordan on May 29th-31st.

2025 Rally Saudi Arabia – result:

1. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Candido Carrera (ESP) Škoda Fabia RS Rally 2                                   1hr 34min 05.5sec

2. Juho Hänninen (FIN)/Janni Hussi (FIN) Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2                                            1hr 35min 42.9sec*

3. Rakan Al-Rashed (KSA)/Hugo Magalhães (POR) Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2                           1hr 39min 08.9sec

4. Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (QAT)/Lorcan Moore (IRL) Citroën C3 Rally 2                                      1hr 40min 06.4sec

5. Abdullah Al-Rawahi (OMA)/Ross Whittock (GBR) Škoda Fabia RS Rally 2                          1hr 43min 11.8sec 

6. Hamza Bakhashab (KSA)/Marcin Pasek (POL) Can-Am Maverick R (SSV)                           1hr 47min 11.7sec

7. Nasser Khalifa Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Ziad Chehab (LBN) Ford Fiesta Mk II Rally 2                   1hr 49min 56.9sec

8. Abdullah Al-Zubair (OMA)/Taha Al-Zadjali (OMA) Subaru Impreza WRX Sti                     1hr 55min 18.9sec

9. Bassel Abu Hamdan (KSA)/Firas Elias (LBN) Škoda Fabia Rally 2                                          2hr 00min 23.5sec

10. Rashid Al-Muhannadi (QAT)/Szymon Gospodarczyk (POL) Peugeot 208 Rally 4            2hr 02min 18.0sec

11. Ihab Al-Shurafa (JOR)/Ahmad Jankhout (JOR) Škoda Fabia RS Rally 2                              2hr 02min 54.5sec

12. Shadi El Fakih (LBN)/Joseph Kmeid (LBN) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X                                                    2hr 04min 33.6sec

13. Zakariya Al-Aamri (OMA)/Mohammed Al-Mazroui (OMA) Subaru Impreza WRX Sti    2hr 09min 51.5sec

14. Shadi Shaban (JOR)/Samer Issa (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX (NAT)                             2hr 11min 38.7sec

15. Mohammed Al-Marri (QAT)/Giovanni Bernacchini (ITA) Peugeot 208 Rally 4               2hr 48min 27.0sec

Sheikh Bader Al-Fayez (JOR)/Vili Oslaj (SLO) Škoda Fabia Rally 2                                             RETIRED – SS11

Payyaakkal ‘Saneem’ Panikkaveettil (IND)/Musa Sherif (IND) Ford Fiesta Rally 4                                 RETIRED – SS9

Shaker Jweihan (JOR)/Aisvydas Paliukenas (LTU) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X                            RETIRED – SS9

Saad Al-Harqan (QAT)/Pierre Delorme (FRA) Peugeot 208 Rally 4                                          RETIRED – after SS8

Jassim Al-Muqahwi (KUW)/Suleiman Al-Helal (KUW) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X                    RETIRED – SS8

Mohammed Al-Shorafa (JOR)/Yazan Juma (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX (NAT)                                  RETIRED – SS8*

Joanna Hassoun (LBN)/Dolyne Schlink (LBN) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX (NAT)                       RETIRED – SS7*

*denotes not registered for the MERC