Sunday, 18 January 2015

Nasser Khalifa Al Attiyah VP of the FIA in the Middle East and Chief of the Qatar Motorsport Federation wins the 2015 Dakar Rally

(Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)

Nasser Khalifa Al Attiyah, the Vice President of the FIA in the Middle East and the man behind Qatar’s bid to host a Formula One race has been crowned 2015 Dakar champion. 

Al Attiyah, won the event driving for Mini in the car class. It was Al Attiyah’s second Dakar crown, his first came in 2011.

Al Attiyah is hoping that Qatar will follow Bahrain and Abu Dhabi as puts plans together for a Formula One street race in the Qatari city of Lusail which has been named as a host city for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. 

Al Attiyah has stated that government want everything done in order to ensure that a race happens in Lusail as it would help promote the city ahead of the World Cup.

It had been thought that the race could happen in 2016 but it believed that this would not give the authorities enough time to organise the race.

It is now thought that the race could potentially happen in 2017. Any race in Qatar would firstly have to be approved by Bahrain and it is believed that the Bahrain race organisers are dead set against the idea of a third Formula One race in the Middle East.

© Ben Johnston 2015

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