Nasser Al-Attiya is on track for his tenth victory at the Cyprus Rally and the 21st Middle East Championship title of his career, following the first day of our national rally. He won four of the six special stages and leads Simos Galatariotis—who won one special stage—by 53 seconds. Both lost nearly two minutes on the day’s final special stage due to a flat tire.
This gave Al-Rawahi from Oman the opportunity to close the gap on Galatariotis to 1 minute and 12 seconds. Al-Rawahi is hoping to claim the championship title.
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In fourth place are last year’s champions, Yagou and Nikolaou, in a Hyundai i20, who overtook Poseidia and Pambos Laos (Renault Clio), who dropped to fifth and are leading the Rally 3 class. In sixth place are the Turkish Cypriots Sukuroglu / Topcuoslu in a Volkswagen Polo. Zenonos / Christofis (Ford Fiesta) are seventh, and Manolis / Petros Laos (Peugeot 208), who lead the 2WD (two-wheel drive) class, are eighth.
Ten of the 16 crews that started this morning completed the first leg of the Cyprus International Rally, while the Jordanian duo Jweihan / Juna in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, who started on Friday (10/23), stated that they would race only on the second day.
Among the most notable retirements were those of Al-Atya / Chehab, who went off the road in their Fiesta on the first stage; Bakhashab / Matar in their Fabia, who withdrew on the final stage; as well as K. Laou / Stylianou and Prodromos / Episkopos, both in Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Xs. Also, Parellis / Papandreou (Opel Corsa) dropped out on the first stage.
In this race, which is of only local interest and features older-model race cars, eleven cars started, and only four finished the day. Kokias/Konstantinou (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) are in the lead, followed by Hapelis/Chrysanthou (Subaru Impreza) and Christodoulou/Nestoros (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII). Trikomitidis / Nikolaou (Suzuki Vitara) are in fourth place.
On Sunday (10/25), the special stages at Doriforiko, Vavatsinia, and Stavrovouni, near Pyrga, will take place. The second run through Stavrovouni (3:13 p.m.) is also the race’s Power Stage, covering a total of 657.74 km, of which 183.92 km consist of the 12 gravel special stages.
The finish and the crowning of the new Middle East Champion will take place at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday at Europe Square in Larnaca.
The Municipality of Larnaca is hosting the race’s official ceremonies.
