Middle East rally king Nasser Al-Attiyah completed a sublime second day of driving to clinch the Jordan Rally for a record 17th time, and his 90th regional series win.
The Qatari held off the overnight threat from Oman's Abdullah Al-Rawahi to win by nearly three minutes.
The weekend also saw two of the regional categories crown their champions with two rounds to go.
00:00Nasser Al-Atiyah has powered to a record 90th Middle East Rally Championship win after claiming this weekend's dramatic Jordan Rally for the 17th time.
00:19Along with his Spanish co-driver Candido Carrera, the Qatari blazed a trail of glory through the sensational stages of the Jordan Valley on the second and final day.
00:32He extended his 13.5 second overnight lead from Oman's Abdullah Al-Rawahi to a near 3 minute winning margin.
00:42He increases his lead at the top of the regional series after four wins from four championship ranks so far this year in his Autotech run Skoda Fabia RS.
00:54I am really so happy to win again here in the Jordan Rally 17 times, 17 wins.
01:01It means a lot of me and yeah, we are really so happy. This year we start from Oman, we win Qatar also Saudi and now we are here.
01:16It looks like a pretty good year, you know, leading the Middle East Championship, leading the world champion in cross country.
01:23Yeah, still we can give. And in general for this rally I will give 10 by 10.
01:31A-Rawahi and his Jordanian co-driver Atta Al-Hamoud can take heart from another weekend of fearless driving.
01:40And if it hadn't been for a puncture on the first stage of the day that cost him around 30 seconds, the outcome could well have been a lot closer here in Jordan.
01:49It was a long two days for us. The first day was quite good for us and especially with our pace and we were very close to Nasser.
02:01Unfortunately today we had a few punctures that we had to lose a bit of time because of them.
02:11But overall we are very happy with our performance. I think it's been the closest to like longest battle for us and very close to Nasser which is a good indication.
02:26Especially that we don't really have enough seat time with the car because like for example after this rally I have like three months off or two.
02:36And I'm not really driving my car. And another thing is the car, the old generation.
02:45For sure there's few bits here and there and obviously the experience difference between me and Nasser.
02:54That's why it's good for him to be in the championship because it always helps us to push and get closer to him.
03:00So I'm happy with whatever results we got today, finishing second on the podium. Still good. Obviously we wanted to win but yeah we're happy.
03:13Abdulaziz Alkawari powered to third place with Irish co-driver Lorcan Moore to clock up vital championship points.
03:21Elsewhere, Oman's Abdullah Alzeber took the honours in the MERC2 category by finishing fifth overall.
03:32We're very happy with this result. Very, very difficult race. Very hard, very tough. It's very hot.
03:39Our first time here. The guys have so much experience. We tried to keep up the pace. First day we were flat out. We won every stage. Today we took it slow.
03:51We have a good lead. And we tried to maintain that lead. And strategy paid off. And thank God third win in this championship. And hopefully two more to go.
04:05And 2025 has seen its first regional champions crowned in Jordan with Qatari veteran Nasser Khalifa Al-Attiyah celebrating the newly formed Middle East Masters category.
04:17And Rashid Al-Mohanadi clinched the MERC4 with two rounds still to go.
04:23The teams were presented with their awards by His Royal Highness Prince Faisal Al-Hussein, the chairman of Jordan Motorsport.
04:32And while the attention now turns to September's next round in Lebanon, organisers here can look back at another superb event that will live long in the memory.
