Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and Giovanni Bernacchini finished the Jordan Rally in cruise control to kick-start the defence of the Qatari’s regional rally championship title at the Dead Sea on Saturday.

On the 233rd event in the history of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), Al-Attiyah claimed his 85th career victory and a record-breaking 16th in Jordan since 2003. His Autotek Motorsport-prepared Škoda Fabia RS never missed a beat and he was able to try out different suspension settings over the closing stages on his way to a winning margin of 5min 31.6sec on his first appearance in the new car.

Bernacchini duly claimed his fifth victory in Jordan with Al-Attiyah and his first since 2014. A 26th MERC success moved the Italian ahead of Chris Patterson into an outright third in the MERC Co-drivers’ Hall of Fame for most wins behind Ronan Morgan (41) and Mathieu Baumel (32).

Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari is now tackling a full programme of MERC events in a QMMF-backed Škoda Fabia and second place to add to the fourth he achieved on his home event means the Qatari is the new leader of the regional championship. Briton Marshall Clarke was his co-driver on this occasion.

Shaker Jweihan delighted home fans with the final place on the podium: he and Lebanese co-driver Carlos Hanna dominated the MERC2 category from start-to-finish and the Mitsubishi driver claimed a second maximum haul of points towards the championship’s secondary category. Jweihan also moved into second place in the Drivers’ Championship behind Al-Kuwari, while the result marked a first career MERC podium for both driver and co-driver.

Denis Krotov is more accustomed to cross-country rallying in Ultimate class Minis and Toyotas but he enjoyed his MERC debut with Yury Kulikov and reached the finish in fourth overall.

Shadi Shaban continues to hold second place in the MERC2 title race after he and Samer Issa finished sixth overall and second in class in their Mitsubishi.

Husam Salem overhauled Issa Abu Jamous in stage 12 to move into sixth and third in the showroom category but then he dropped back to seventh after a late charge from Sheikh Bader Al-Fayez and his Lebanese co-driver Joseph Matar. Al-Fayez had left the road on the opening Shuna stage and diced with a reservoir in spectacular fashion before recovering strongly during the afternoon to climb three positions and finish fifth.

Ihab Al-Shorafa and Yousef Juma came home in ninth and the Lebanese duo of Shadi Al-Fakih and Samer Sfeir rounded off the top 10 in their two-wheel drive Renault Clio RS entered in the Rally5 section. Palestine’s Hamada Odeh returned to action on day two after his crash on Friday but retired from 11th place on SS13.

A mechanical breakdown accounted for Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya’s Ford Fiesta in the opening stage of the morning and a sizeable accident close to the dam on the Shuna stage put paid to Ameer Nassif’s finishing aspirations.

With defending champion Abdullah Al-Rawahi unable to start the final day with his damaged Škoda Fabia, that leaves the title race wide open heading into the summer break before action resumes in Lebanon in early September.

Saturday – as it happened

Two one-minute time penalties were handed out on Friday evening by the Stewards to Krotov and Nassif. It cost Krotov a place in the overall rankings but Nassif’s position was unaffected. Both were seen to have their balaclavas outside their race suits at the end of stage three. Abu Jamous incurred a one-minute time penalty for starting the third stage late.

Damage was such that neither championship leader Abdullah Al-Rawahi nor Khalid Al-Suwaidi could restart, although Hamada Odeh rejoined at the rear of the field after his crash on Friday.

Al-Attiyah settled any final day nerves with a confident opening run through Shuna (20.93km) and the Qatari clocked the fastest time to extend his lead over Al-Kuwari by 21.3 seconds to 1min 27.0sec.

Jweihan continued to steamroller the MERC2 opposition in his third-placed Mitsubishi but Qatar’s Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya struggled from the start, broke down and was forced to pull his Ford Fiesta to the side of the track and lose ninth place. Sheikh Bader Al-Fayez lost over five minutes in the stage and plummeted down the leader board but Nassif’s event came to an end when he rolled his Mitsubishi out of the running by the dam near the end of the special.

Al-Attiyah safely negotiated the first pass through Rawda (12.68km) in a time of 9min 48.4sec to clock yet another stage win. Al-Kuwari had settled into a cautious pace to preserve second place and provisionally snatch the lead in the Drivers’ Championship. He trailed his fellow Qatari by 1min 42.1sec. Al-Fayez began his fight back through the field with the third quickest time but a mechanical issue cost Fadi Dahshan his place in the rally near the stage finish.

The challenges of the Turki special provide Al-Attiyah with no dramas and the Qatari extended his lead to 1min 58.7sec with another stage win.

The first pass through the famous Suwayma stage preceded a midday return to the Dead Sea for service and a regrouping. There were no dramas for Al-Attiyah and he headed to the day’s halfway point with another stage win and a commanding lead of 4min 31.7sec after Al-Kuwari dropped over two minutes changing a wheel after clipping a rock.