Lusail, Qatar, February 3rd-8th, 2025
This year marked the 50th anniversary of the Qatar International Rally. That first rally in 1975 was won by British driver Peter Austin and his Qatari co-driver Hameed Abdel Rahman in a Mazda 929 Coupe.
This was my 35th Qatar Rally – although I also did the 2021 edition from a convid quarantine facility in Doha, so I guess I can say number 36!
From that small acorn in 1975, the joint third oldest rally in the Middle East has become one of the most popular events in the whole of Asia.
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah has 17 victories on his home rally. The list of previous winners is an impressive one: current FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem won on nine occasions, local legend Saeed Al-Hajri claimed six wins and the defending MERC champion, Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, prevailed back in 2012.
As far as co-drivers are concerned, Irishman Ronan Morgan holds the record with eight wins, Mathieu Baumel and Chris Patterson partnered Al-Attiyah to six and five successes apiece and Giovanni Bernacchini claimed four victories with the Qatari between 2010 and 2014.
Two of the most surprising wins came with victories for Group N/MERC 2 cars. Oman’s Nizar Al-Shanfari teamed up with the late Tom Steele to stun his rivals with victory in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V in 1999 and Rashid Al-Naimi and Hugo Magalhães secured a shock win in 2017 with a Subaru Impreza WRX STi.
From my side, I attended as a staff writer with Motoring News in 1988 and 1989 and was then offered the Press Officer’s job by Rally Manager David Evans when I went freelance in 1990, a job I continued to do until 1992 when I also worked with the triumphant Samarec Rally Team.
After a year in paid employment in 1993, I attended the event again as Media Officer from 1994 through to 2005 – missing the next event when there was a management change and I was working as a sub-editor on the news desk at the 2006 Asian Games in any case in Doha.
From 2007 onwards, I have worked as the event’s Media Officer with the exception of 2021 when I tested ‘positive’ for convid during a mandatory week’s quarantine at the Radisson Blu and was forced to work from an isolation facility in Doha.
During those 36 events, we were based at the Ramada Hotel (now Radisson Blu) for many years, before switching offices to the nearby QMMF pyramid in the noughties.
Since then, the headquarters moved to the Ritz Carlton and then to the Lusail Sports Centre and the Lusail International Circuit with officials staying at the Ritz Carlton, the Ezdan Palace, the Ezdan Hotel and Suites, the Mondrian, the Century Marina and the Grand Hyatt this year.
