Middle East Rally Championship
| Category | R5 Rally2 Group N |
|---|---|
| Region | Middle East |
| Inaugural season | 1984 |
| Drivers' champion | Qatar Nasser Al-Attiyah Oman Abdullah Al-Rawahi |
| File:Motorsport current event.svg Current season | |
The Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) is a motor rally championship run under the auspices of the FIA.
History
[edit | edit source]First held in 1984 the championship encompasses a series of rallies held across Western Asia. The championship has featured long-running events like Rally of Lebanon, Rally Oman and the Troodos Rally in Cyprus as well as World Rally Championship event Jordan Rally. Many of the rallies in the region pre-date national independence, mostly from the United Kingdom.
The championship has been dominated by Nasser Al-Attiyah who has won 19 titles.
The championship features events in Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Lebanon, Cyprus, Jordan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The championship has also visited Bahrain, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
List of events
[edit | edit source]- Qatar International Rally (1984–present)
- Kuwait International Rally (1984–85, 1987–89, 1995–96, 2009–2016, 2018–present)
- Bahrain International Rally (1984, 2000–02, 2004–05)
- Jordan Rally (1984–88, 1990, 1992–present)
- Oman International Rally (1984–88, 1990–94, 1998, 2004–07, 2015)
- Dubai International Rally, United Arab Emirates (1984–88, 1990–95, 1997–2015)
- Rally of Lebanon, (1987–88, 1991–2004, 2006–present)
- UAE International Rally, United Arab Emirates (1989, 1995–2001, 2004–06)
- Tour of Cyprus, (1998–1999)
- Troodos Rally, Cyprus, (2000–2009, 2011)
- Syria International Rally, (2001–05, 2007–10)
- Cyprus Rally, (2007–08, 2010, 2012–present)
- Sharqia Rally, Saudi Arabia, (2010)
- Shiraz Rally, Iran, (2015–17)
Champions
[edit | edit source]
- Footnotes
- ^ The 2023 championship was awarded to both Nasser Al-Attiyah and Abdullah Al-Rawahi, after a perfect tie between the two could not be settled by a six-man FIA committee.[1]
Rally winners
[edit | edit source]230 Rallies (after Cyprus 2023), 39 different winners, following are the winners stats:
| Driver | Wins |
|---|---|
| Qatar Nasser Al-Attiyah | 81 |
| United Arab Emirates Mohammed Ben Sulayem | 60 |
| Lebanon Roger Feghali | 16 |
| Qatar Saeed Al-Hajri | 11 |
| United Arab Emirates Khalid Al Qassimi | 8 |
| Cyprus Andreas Tsouloftas | 4 |
| Oman Abdullah Al-Rawahi | |
| Saudi Arabia Abdullah Bakhashab | 3 |
| Sweden Björn Waldegård | |
| Lebanon Jean-Pierre Nasrallah | |
| Saudi Arabia Yazeed Al-Rajhi | |
| United Arab Emirates Suhail bin Maktoum | 2 |
| United Arab Emirates Khalifa Al-Mutaiwi | |
| Lebanon Michel Saleh | |
| Qatar Abdulaziz Al Kuwari | |
| Cyprus Charalambos Thimotheou | |
| Qatar Khalid Al Suwaidi | |
| Jordan Amjad Farrah | 1 |
| Cyprus Andreas Peratikos | |
| Cyprus Chris Thomas | |
| Lebanon Samir Ghanem | |
| United Arab Emirates Abdullah Al-Qassimi | |
| Qatar Abbas Al-Motaiwi | |
| Qatar Nasser Khalifa Al-Attiyah | |
| Qatar Hamed Bin Eid Al-Thani | |
| Lebanon Maurice Sehnaoui | |
| Lebanon Tony Georgiou | |
| Italy Alex Fiorio | |
| Italy Piero Liatti | |
| United Kingdom Russell Brookes | |
| France Alain Oreille | |
| Oman Nizar Shanfari | |
| Cyprus Nicos Thomas | |
| United Arab Emirates Rashed El-Ketbi | |
| Lebanon Nicolas Amiouni | |
| Lebanon Tamer Ghandour | |
| Lebanon Rodolphe Asmar | |
| Qatar Rashid El-Naimi | |
| Czechoslovakia Vojtěch Štajf |
Wins per nationality
[edit | edit source]Count as after Cyprus 2023
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).