Qatari rally driver and sport shooter (born 1970)
Nasser Al-Attiyah
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/Nasser_saleh_al_attiyah2.jpg/220px-Nasser_saleh_al_attiyah2.jpg) |
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Full name
| Nasser Saleh Nasser Abdullah Al-Attiyah
|
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Born
| (
1970-12-21
)
21 December 1970
(age 53)
Doha
, Qatar
|
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Height
| 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
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Weight
| 82 kg (181 lb)
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Country
| Qatar
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Sport
| Rallying
Rally raid
Shooting
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World finals
|
- CCB 2008
- CCB 2023
- CCR 2008
- CCR 2015
- CCR 2016
- CCR 2017
- CCR 2021
- W2RC 2022
- W2RC 2023
- Dakar 2011
- Dakar 2015
- Dakar 2019
- Dakar 2022
- Dakar 2023
- P-WRC 2006
- WRC2 2014
- WRC2 2015
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Nasser Salih Nasser Abdullah Al-Attiyah
(
Arabic
:
???? ???? ???? ??????? ??????
: n??ir ??li? n??ir ?abdull?h al-?a???yah; born 21 December 1970 in
Doha
) is a
Qatari
rally driver
and
sport shooter
. He was the 2006
Production World Rally Champion
, 2014 and 2015
WRC-2
champion, an 18 time
Middle East Rally Champion
, five times winner of the
FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies
, and a five times (
2011
,
2015
,
2019
,
2022
,
2023
)
Dakar Rally
winner.
[1]
His five victories in the Dakar Rally make him the only Middle Easterner and West Asian to win the competition more than once.
[
citation needed
]
In
shooting
, Al-Attiyah won the bronze medal in the
men's skeet
event at the
2012 Summer Olympics
in London.
Career
[
edit
]
Rallying
[
edit
]
Having been inspired to start racing by
Formula One world champion
Jackie Stewart's
book
Winning Is Not Enough
, Al-Attiyah started competing in the
Middle East Rally Championship
in 2003, where he claimed 65 race wins and 13 titles.
[2]
He drove a
Subaru Impreza
until 2009 and a
Ford Fiesta
since 2010, except in 2012 when he drove Peugeot 207 in two rounds, and in 2016 when he drove a
?koda Fabia
.
[3]
[4]
Al-Attiyah also competed at the
Production World Rally Championship
from 2004 to 2009. He won the title in 2006,
[5]
his third year in the championship alongside
co-driver
Chris Patterson
, driving a
Subaru Impreza
. He gained the championship lead after finishing second in the PWRC class in the
Rally Mexico
and afterwards won the following two rounds,
Rally Argentina
and
Acropolis Rally
. He also finished runner-up in 2005 and third in 2009. He scored his first points during the
2009 season
, finishing eighth overall in the
Rally Argentina
.
[
citation needed
]
In 2010 and 2011, Al-Attiyah drove in the
Super 2000 World Rally Championship
for the Barwa Rally Team, classifying seventh overall in both years. For the
2012 season
, Al-Attiyah moved to compete in the top division for the
Qatar World Rally Team
. He secured a career-best fourth place at the
Rally de Portugal
.
[6]
In 2013 he switched to a
Ford Fiesta WRC
. He finished fifth overall at three races, and ranked 11th in the final standings.
[
citation needed
]
Al-Attiyah stepped back to the WRC-2 in 2014. Driving a Ford Fiesta RRC, he scored four wins and won the championship. In 2015 he defended the championship with three wins.
[
citation needed
]
In 2023, Al-Attyah claimed his 19th championship in the MERC. In an unprecedented case, he shared the title with Abdullah Al-Rawahi, as the pair had scored the same results across five events.
[7]
Cross-country rally
[
edit
]
Al-Attiyah debuted at the
Dakar Rally
in 2004 with Mitsubishi, finishing 10th overall. He entered the next three editions with an X-Raid BMW, finishing sixth in 2007.
[
citation needed
]
After winning the 2008
FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup
in a
BMW
, he took part alongside Swedish female co-driver
Tina Thorner
in the
2009 Dakar Rally
in
Argentina
.
[8]
He was among the frontrunners until he got disqualified on 8 January 2009 after he had missed 9 checkpoints, the rules stating that 4 missed checkpoints are the maximum.
[9]
He finished second in the
Rally dos Sertoes
from
Goiania
to
Natal
in
Brazil
(24 June-3 July 2009) behind
Carlos Sainz
of Spain.
[10]
In the
2010 Dakar Rally
, Al-Attiyah finished second, 2'12" behind
Carlos Sainz
, the smallest gap in the history of the race.
[11]
On 15 January 2011, Al-Attiyah won the legendary Dakar race ahead of fellow Volkswagen drivers Sainz and
Giniel de Villiers
,
[12]
making him the only Arab to ever win the difficult race.
[13]
The driver claimed the
2015 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup
with five wins and the
2015 Dakar Rally
, driving a Mini All4 Racing X-Raid, and the
2016 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup
for Toyota with six wins.
[
citation needed
]
In 2019 Al-Attiyah won the
Silk Way Rally
driving Toyota Hilux for the
Toyota Gazoo Racing
team. He finished second place in the 2019
Baja 1000
.
[14]
He also won the
2019 Dakar Rally
.
[
citation needed
]
In 2022 he won the
2022 Dakar Rally
in
Saudi Arabia
,
[15]
making him the only Arab to win the Dakar rally on Arab soil, ahead of 9 time
World Rally
Champion
Sebastien Loeb
(co-driver
Fabian Lurquin
). He would also win the inaugural FIA
World Rally-Raid Championship
title.
[
citation needed
]
In 2023, Al-Attiyah won
2023 Dakar Rally
, winning the rally for the fifth time in his career, again finishing ahead of
Sebastien Loeb
.
[16]
With two further victories, the Qatari would defend his W2RC title.
[17]
During the same season, he and co-driver
Mathieu Baumel
would also clinch the
World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas
.
[18]
Ahead of the 2024 campaign, Al-Attiyah would leave Toyota to partner
Sebastien Loeb
at
Prodrive
.
[19]
Extreme E
[
edit
]
Al-Attiyah signed with
Abt
Cupra
XE to race in the
2022 Extreme E Championship
, first alongside
2001 Dakar Rally
winner
Jutta Kleinschmidt
[20]
and later with
Klara Andersson
. The team scored a win in Chile and a third place in Chile, ranking 6th in points. Al-Attiyah and Andersson continued together at Abt Cupra for the
2023 season
. Al-Attiyah raced the first four rounds of the season and was replaced by Sebastien Loeb and
Adrien Tambay
in Rounds 5?8 and 9?10 respectively as he focuses on the
Baja World Cup
.
[21]
[22]
Shooting
[
edit
]
Nasser Al-Attiyah (
left
) posing for a picture with
Mutaz Essa Barshim
after winning bronze at the
2012 Summer Olympics
In shooting, Al-Attiyah came in fourth place in the
2004 Olympic Games
in
clay pigeon shooting
[23]
and 15th overall in the
2008 Olympic Games
, missing out on qualification for the final round by 2 points.
[24]
In the
2012 Olympic Games
he won the bronze medal after a shoot-off against
Valeriy Shomin
.
[25]
[26]
Career results
[
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]
Circuit racing career summary
[
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]
WRC results
[
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]
PWRC results
[
edit
]
Al-Attiyah drives a
Subaru Impreza WRX STI
at the
2006 Acropolis Rally
SWRC results
[
edit
]
Al-Attiyah drives a
Ford Fiesta S2000
at the
2010 Rally Finland
WRC-2 Results
[
edit
]
ERC results
[
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]
Dakar Rally results
[
edit
]
Al-Attiyah's Hilux from 2017
Complete World Touring Car Championship results
[
edit
]
(
key
) (Races in
bold
indicate pole position) (Races in
italics
indicate fastest lap)
Complete World Rally-Raid Championship results
[
edit
]
(
key
)
Complete Extreme E results
[
edit
]
(
key
)
References
[
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]
External links
[
edit
]