Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah continued to rewrite his own history by securing a comfortable victory in the Qatar International Rally on Saturday.

The Qatari and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel managed the pace perfectly over the closing stages and guided their Autotek Motorsport Volkswagen Polo GTi R5 to a winning margin of 1min 48.4sec over Abdulaziz Al Kuwari and his new Irish co-driver James Fulton.

Attiyah duly broke his own record of achieving a 15th victory in Qatar and a record breaking 77th MERC win in the 218-event history of the series. Baumel earned his 26th regional rally victory on the 41st running of the Qatar event to overhaul both Chris Patterson and Giovanni Bernacchini in the Hall of Fame. He now has his sights set on Ronan Morgan’s record of 41 successes.

“Today we did a really good job,” said Attiyah. “Leg one was a nice fight between me and Kris Meeke. It was (becoming) a nice race but when Kris get out from the race it was an easy day for us today. It was great to have some high level in the Qatar Rally. If you look this year we had seven R5s. It was an amazing race. Thanks to the QMMF. I hope to continue in this level for this championship and this year.”

Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah broke his own record by winning 15th victory in Qatar & a record-breaking 77th Middle East Racing Championship crown at Qatar International Rally. The 3-day Qatar International Rally saw the participation of 19 teams from 12 countries. #QNA pic.twitter.com/JJ6f09g291

— Qatar News Agency (@QNAEnglish) January 31, 2021

Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah during his crowning with the title of Qatar International Rally 2021 - round 1 of the 41st FIA Middle East Rally Championship. #QNA pic.twitter.com/jJyBhXVkbX

— Qatar News Agency (@QNAEnglish) January 31, 2021