A Skoda Fabia R5 for Al-Attiyah

Category title holder WRC-2, Nasser Al-Attiyah will change mounts for the next round of the World Rally Championship, in Germany (August 21-23). After having trusted the Ford Fiesta RRC for a long time, the winner of the 2015 Dakar will move on to the news Skoda Fabia R5.

“I have been thinking about trying an R5 car in the WRC for a while. The car showed from its first rallies that it combines speed and reliability. They also have advantages over the FIA ​​regulations over the RRCs and seem to be the future of the WRC-2, so we had to try one as soon as possible. » explains the 44-year-old pilot.

The Qatari, co-driven by the Frenchman Matthieu Baumel, was able to observe the very good dispositions of the latest addition to the Mlada Boleslav workshops in the Czech Republic during the last Rally from Finland, where Esapekka Lappi and Pontus Tidemand scored the double.

“I'm looking to move forward so I'm not afraid to change the car. We showed last year by winning the WRC-2 crown that we are very fast, and now we are ready to adapt quickly to the Skoda Fabia. As we are 10 points behind the championship leader (Lappi, Editor's note), we decided that it was the right time to upgrade to the R5. »

Al-Attiyah has already won twice this year in the category in Mexico and Portugal.

You can still find the full report of the Rally Finland, in issue 2023 of AUTOhebdo, available in digital version and on newsstands.