Al Attiyah Equals Ben Sulayem's Long-Standing Record of 12 Victories in Jordan Rally

Amman, April 28 (QNA) - Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah matched another major milestone in the history of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship by equalling Mohammed Ben Sulayem's 12 victories at the Jordan Rally on Saturday. Al Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel began the final day with a lead of 4min 20.9sec and reached the Dead Sea finish of a rally that had been modified because of freak heavy rains on Thursday evening with a winning margin of 8min 03.2sec. The success was Al Attiyah's record-breaking 67th in MERC history and a 16th for Baumel, who drew level with John Spiller as the fourth most successful co-driver in regional history behind Ronan Morgan (41 wins) and a tying Giovanni Bernacchini and Chris Patterson (25 wins apiece). A delighted Al Attiyah said: "I think we did a clever race. I am happy with the performance and to equal the record of wins here is a nice feeling. We already have the record of winning the most number of Middle East rallies. We will try and get the new record for the Middle East Championships this year." Rally officials were unable to use the two runs through the Rawda stage of 12.69km because of the heavy rainfall that had fallen in the region on Thursday evening. (QNA)