Jordan set to host 2025 Jordan Rally

Lockdown TV

The region's leading drivers have arrived at the Dead Sea to tackle the 2025 Jordan Rally, which is round four of the Middle East Rally Championship.  Undisputed rally king Nasser Al-Attiyah is aiming for his 17th Jordan win, and 90th Middle East triumph, but faces stiff competition from a number of quality drivers.  This pre-event video news reports catches up with the leading drivers, and sets the scene for a dramatic weekend ahead.

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth. Below me it's 435 meters below

00:11sea level but this is one of the high points of the Middle East Championship calendar. It's

00:14the Jordan Rally, round four of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship. We've had three events

00:19so far this year in Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and this weekend Jordan Motorsport has 12 special

00:24stages. Two days, 21 entries in the FIA Championship and another nine drivers entering into the

00:30National Championship over two days. Led away by the 19 time FIA Middle East Rally Champion Nasser Aletia

00:36who this weekend is bidding for a 17th win in Jordan and an unprecedented 90th win in the Middle East.

00:43Jordan is like second home you know for me and I start the first race this was in Jordan you know in

00:5089 and still we are coming and to race here in Jordan and today what we see and yesterday

00:59during the Racky it was an amazing job you know from the Jordanian Motorsport you know it was really

01:06amazing and yeah I will try to do my best you know to win this race again. It's round number four of

01:13the Championship it's been a pretty comfortable start for you, three wins. How are you going into this

01:19weekend? Are you on your guard or are you quite comfortable that you'll be getting win number

01:23four? I will try to win this number four you know this season you know we start really good with the

01:29new Fabia Skoda. We test yesterday it was a really amazing test and we spend a few things you know to

01:39change in the setup but we have a good setup from last year you know because it's a new car for us but

01:46okay we try to do our best and to win this rally because it's my really favorite and we need to be

01:53clever because okay it's look like a little bit hot maybe some people will struggling about the weather

02:01but okay we are well prepared and we try to do our best. Alatir will face a stiff challenge to his

02:09dominance from a quality field led by reigning Middle East champion and fellow Qatari Abdulaziz Al-Khawari

02:16who is looking for his first Jordan win this weekend. I would like to thank who did the stages

02:23because so to be honest they are amazing very nice even the new stages or new parts of the stages or

02:28even the old stage like Panorama they're really class and very nice. Karama, Tal Hilali, all of them

02:35to be honest fantastic stages we just worry you know about the grip in the beginning maybe the

02:40first loop but otherwise the stages are amazing the competition will be very high and very good

02:45because I think we have seven or eight R5s for sure everybody will be looking to win this rally it's not

02:50easy for sure with Nasser with Adal Arwahi with Rakan with local drivers with Lebanese a lot of R5s will be a

02:59good competition but we are looking forward we'll push we'll try to win for sure and we'll do our best.

03:04Have you felt any extra pressure being the regional champion this season how has it been?

03:09No no there's no pressure at all you know to be honest when I play different sports like

03:13paddle or other sports everybody says like how we don't feel any pressure you look cool always

03:18after driving rallies like in this sport to be honest you don't feel pressure on anything

03:23and you get used to different stages different opponents or let's say competitors so there's no

03:31pressure at all I always try to enjoy and do my best maybe I'm not doing my best until now in

03:37this season maybe it's because of the new car I need some time I think I'm getting used to

03:42especially last day in Saudi was much faster than Thursday and the previous rallies so hopefully

03:50with more more kilometers and more mileage I'll get used more to the Citroen and I'll try to push

03:56as fast as you can this rally. Saudi Arabia's Rakan al-Rashid will be hoping to use his WRC experience

04:05to make an impact in Jordan while 2023 Jordan rally winner Abdullah al-Rawahi from Oman

04:12believes he too can push for a podium. Well this year it's been very tough for us

04:18we didn't really get the results I actually expecting but you know we've been trying really

04:25hard to push and to close the gap between me and Nasser in terms of pace because every year we go in

04:35and we try to learn more and more and more yeah the first three rallies didn't go as expected especially

04:44in Oman the first day we had to retire but we were fast in Qatar we keep on getting faster and faster

04:52in Saudi Arabia we had a lot of punctures now we're in Jordan obviously this is where I started and

05:01I think I know the stage is quite well but it's different from the other years but I love the train

05:06I love the stages they're tough we need to be very careful as well because it's very slippery

05:15and a lot of crusts so the notes should be like really precise obviously we're coming here to push

05:23try to take the win but obviously it's not going to be an easy job you have to be really focused and

05:31I think I'm prepared more than last year last year we were quite we were leading before we

05:38like we had to retire but in the end it was a positive thing to take from last year

05:45unfortunately we didn't finish the rally hopefully this year we can continue the job

05:53with two days of exhilarating action ahead of us the question remains as to who can stop Alatia

05:59the undisputed Middle East rally king from taking one step closer towards his century of wins

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