Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah (right) and co-driver Mathieu Baumel celebrate their win in the 2015 Cyprus Rally. (Facebook/Cyprus Rally)

By Sports Reporter/Doha

Qatari rally driver Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah continued his brilliant form this season and extended his lead in the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) by winning the three-day Cyprus International Rally yesterday.
Finishing seven seconds ahead of the current European Rally Championship leader Kaetan Kajetanowicz, the 2015 Dakar Rally champion picked up his fourth Cyprus Rally title yesterday.
On day one, al-Attiyah began well to take the opening stage but Kajetanowicz counter-attacked to pick up six stage wins and take a 13.2 seconds lead going into the second day.
Al-Attiyah then finished seventh, 22.5 seconds off Kajetanowicz’s time, on the opening stage on the second day, handing the Pole a 35.7-second advantage.
Al-Attiyah, who holds ten MERC titles, then clawed his way back and midway through the second day sounded confident about his chances when he said, “There is no problem at the moment. We are fighting for the first place overall. In the second loop, it’s going to be better for us than in the morning. In the next couple of stages we are going to try our best for the lead of the rally.”
The Qatari finally wrested the lead back from his Polish rival with a 1.3 second advantage at the end of the second last stage in Kellia.
With a 5.7 second win over Kajetanowicz in the final stage, the Qatari added yet another Cyprus Rally title to his cabinet. He had previously won the title in 2010, 2012 and 2013.
Qatar’s Abdulaziz al-Kuwari finished third overall to climb to third position (45 points) in the MERC standings behind al-Attiyah (100 points) and UAE’s Khalid al-Qassimi (51).
This year’s Cyprus Rally was the 5th round of the Middle-East Rally Championship and the 8th round of the European Rally Championship.