The World Rally Championship promoter and Saudi Arabia last year announced an impressive ten-year deal to host a WRC event. The country has virtually no rallying tradition, but this weekend a WRC candidate rally is being organised in one of its major cities, Jeddah.
The rally, held in Jeddah on the Red Sea coast near Mecca, attracted a total of 22 crews. The number is not particularly high, but the Middle East rally series in general has also struggled with entry numbers. The season opener in Oman featured 15 crews, and a couple of weeks later in Qatar there were 21 entrants.
The Rally Saudi Arabia candidate event got off to a subdued start on Friday, with three of the six special stages not being run. At least according the official papers, the reason for the cancellations was safety concerns. Tomorrow, Saturday, six more special stages are scheduled to be driven in Saudi Arabia.
Nasser Al-Attiyah, multiple Dakar Rally champion and winner of the season’s first two rallies, also leads the candidate rally after the opening day. Juho Hänninen, co-driven by Janni Hussi in a Toyota, holds second place. The gap to Al-Attiyah, driving a Škoda, is 24.2 seconds. In third place is Saudi driver Rakan Al-Rashed.
Hänninen and Hussi are gathering crucial experience for Toyota in Saudi Arabia, learning about the roads and local conditions. The country will host its first-ever WRC event as the final round of the season on 27–30 November.
Rally Saudi Arabia MERC, standings after SS6/12:
| POS. | Driver | Car | Time |
| 1. | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Skoda | 29:56,1 |
| 2. | Juho Hänninen | Toyota | +24.2 |
| 3. | Rakan Al-Rashed | Toyota | +1:16.2 |
| 4. | Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari | Citroen | +1:43.3 |
| 5. | Abdullah Al-Rawahi | Skoda | +4:04.3 |
| 6. | Abdullah Al-Zubair | Subaru | +4:21.4 |
