Al-Attiyah has announced that he will compete in the final WRC round of the season in Saudi Arabia this November. The last time Al-Attiyah was seen in WRC action was in the 2015 Rally Catalunya.
The legendary driver, who has won the Dakar Rally five times, will race in Saudi Arabia with an M-Sport Ford Rally1 car. This will be the first time the 54-year-old Qatari competes with a Rally1 machine.
“It’s been the last two weeks. I was thinking about Saudi. This year we had the same stages during Rally Saudi Arabia MERC in the same condition. OK, the weather will be different in November, less hot. Al-Attiyah told DirtFish.
According to Al-Attiyah, everything was arranged quickly once he had made his decision.
“I will compete in Rally1 with the Puma. I was thinking I wanted to compete, but not in Rally2. I have good relations with Malcolm (Wilson, M-Sport managing director) and I just phoned him. He said yes, they have a car available, it will cost this money. I said OK and we make the deal and now I will be part of M-Sport for the last round of the season.”
“I will test it in England just to see how it’s going. But I think maybe I can do some really proper tests before the race. If it’s allowed, we try to do our best. But I think, from my experience, it will be really not big difference.”
In Al-Attiyah’s WRC return, his co-driver will be the Spaniard Candido Carrera, who has also called the notes for Dani Sordo.
“I will have Cándido Carerra co-driving with me, he did this year with me in the Middle East and won the Middle East Rally Championship. I like to work with him.”
Al-Attiyah has won the Middle East Championship an impressive 20 times. In addition to his five Dakar victories, his achievements include four World Cup titles in cross-country rallies and the Production World Rally Championship crown from the 2006 season.
The Qatari competed regularly in the WRC between 2004 and 2015, before switching entirely to cross-country rallying. Al-Attiyah has also won an Olympic bronze medal in skeet shooting at the London Olympics in 2012.
