Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah on way to victory in Jordan last year.
Dead Sea, Jordan: Nineteen-time FIA Middle East Rally Champion Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and his Spanish co-driver Candido Carrera will be aiming to extend their perfect winning start to the season with victory in this weekend’s Jordan Rally.
The fourth round of the regional rally series gets underway from the Royal Automobile Club of Jordan (RACJ) in Amman today.
Al-Attiyah and Carrera are chasing a fourth successive win this season after victories in Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.While Carrera chases a maiden regional rally title, Al-Attiyah will be hoping that a staggering 90th MERC event win would also net him a record-breaking 17th success in the Hashemite Kingdom and yet another win with an Autotek-run Škoda Fabia RS.
The Qatari arrived in Amman from South Africa, via a brief pit stop in Doha, and has been mentally preparing himself in Amman away from the punishing heat at the Dead Sea.
The team carried out a brief shakedown test on Tuesday afternoon, although the Qatari is aware that he has strong competition over a dozen challenging gravel stages in the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea areas this weekend.
“Jordan is like a second home for me. My first race was in Jordan in 1989 and still we are coming to race here. We have seen from the recce that the organisers have done an amazing job. I will try my best to win the race again," Al-Attiyah said.
“We started the season well with the new Fabia. We tested on Tuesday and it was a useful test. We changed a few things on the set-up but we had a good base to build on from last year. This is my favourite rally but we need to be clever. It’s going to be hot and maybe some people will struggle.
“Candido is a really professional co-driver and I have known him a long time. He doesn’t just co-drive, he does all the plans for every race. I have been surprised about his performance.”
Fresh from a strong result at the recent WRC Rally of Portugal, Rakan Al-Rashed will be hoping to build upon that experience to continue his push for a first ever MERC event win in a Toyota GR Yaris.
The Saudi and his Portuguese co-driver Hugo Magalhāes picked up points for second place in Oman and Saudi Arabia and fourth in Qatar to hold second in the title race, albeit 31 points behind Al-Attiyah and Carrera.
Oman’s Abdullah Al-Rawahi won the event outright on his way to the regional title in 2023 and will also benefit from the experience of local co-driver Ata Al-Hmoud this weekend. Al-Rawahi is third in the Drivers’ Championship with points for second place in Qatar being his best result of the season so far.
Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari is the defending regional champion and also won last year’s Jordan National Championship.
The Qatari has enjoyed more seat time this season in rallies and cross-country events and showed with a pair of third-place finishes in Qatar and Saudi Arabia that his Citroën C3 is more than capable of challenging for the win.
Consistent finishes have lifted Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya into fourth in the points’ standings in his Ford Fiesta, although the Qatari veteran is also chasing glory in the inaugural FIA Master MERC Championship for Drivers.
Three maximum points scores have given Al-Atya a 42-point cushion in that new championship. Sheikh Bader Al-Fayez, Ihab Al-Shorafa and Bassel Abu Hamdan complete the line-up of drivers in the Rally2 category in three Škoda Fabias.
2025 Jordan Rally Entries (selected)
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Candido Carrera (ESP) Škoda Fabia RS Rally 2
Abdullah Al-Rawahi (OMA)/Ata Al-Hmoud (JOR) Škoda Fabia R5 Rally 2
Nasser Khalifa Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Ziad Chehab (LBN) Ford Fiesta Mk II Rally 2
Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (QAT)/Lorcan Moore (IRL) Citroën C3 Rally 2
Rashid Al-Muhannadi (QAT)/Gary McElhinney (IRL) Peugeot 208 Rally 4
Saad Al-Harqan (QAT)/Pierre Delorme (FRA) Peugeot 208 Rally 4
