Middle East Rally Championship

Category	R5 Rally2 Group N
Country	Middle East
Inaugural season	1984
Drivers' champion	Nasser Al-Attiyah Abdullah Al-Rawahi
Current season

The Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) is a motor rally championship run under the auspicies of the FIA. First held in 1984 the championship encompasses a series of rallies held across Western Asia. The championship has featured long-running events like Rally of Lebanon, Rally Oman and the Troodos Rally in Cyprus as well as World Rally Championship event Jordan Rally. Many of the rallies in the region pre-date national independence, mostly from the United Kingdom.

The championship has been dominated by Nasser Al-Attiyah who has won 19 titles.

The championship features events in Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Lebanon, Cyprus, Jordan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The championship has also visited Bahrain, Syria and Saudi Arabia.

List of events

• Qatar International Rally (1984–present)
• Kuwait International Rally (1984–85, 1987–89, 1995–96, 2009–2016, 2018–present)
• Bahrain International Rally (1984, 2000–02, 2004–05)
• Jordan Rally (1984–88, 1990, 1992–present)
• Oman International Rally (1984–88, 1990–94, 1998, 2004–07, 2015)
• Dubai International Rally, United Arab Emirates (1984–88, 1990–95, 1997–2015)
• Rally of Lebanon, (1987–88, 1991–2004, 2006–present)
• UAE International Rally, United Arab Emirates (1989, 1995–2001, 2004–06)
• Tour of Cyprus, (1998–1999)
• Troodos Rally, Cyprus, (2000–2009, 2011)
• Syria International Rally, (2001–05, 2007–10)
• Cyprus Rally, (2007–08, 2010, 2012–present)
• Sharqia Rally, Saudi Arabia, (2010)
• Shiraz Rally, Iran, (2015–17)

Champions

Year	Driver	Car
1984	Saeed Al-Hajri	Porsche 911 SC RS
1985	Saeed Al-Hajri (2)	Porsche 911 SC RS
1986	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Toyota Celica CTC
1987	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Toyota Celica CTC
1988	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Toyota Celica CTC
1989	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165
1990	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165
1991	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165
1992	Mamdouh Khayat	Lancia Delta HF Integrale
1993	Hamed Al-Thani	Mitsubishi Galant VR4
1994	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Ford Escort RS Cosworth
1995	Abdullah Bakhashab	Ford Escort RS Cosworth
1996	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Ford Escort RS Cosworth
1997	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Ford Escort RS Cosworth
1998	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Ford Escort WRC
1999	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Ford Focus RS WRC
2000	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Ford Focus RS WRC
2001	Mohammed Ben Sulayem	Ford Focus RS WRC
2002	Mohammed Ben Sulayem (14)	Ford Focus RS WRC Subaru Impreza WRC
2003	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Subaru Impreza WRC
2004	Khalid Al Qassimi	Subaru Impreza WRX STI
2005	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Subaru Impreza WRX STI
2006	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Subaru Impreza WRX STI
2007	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Subaru Impreza WRX STI
2008	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Subaru Impreza WRX STI
2009	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Subaru Impreza WRX STI Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X
2010	Misfer Al Marri	Subaru Impreza WRX STI
2011	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Ford Fiesta S2000
2012	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Ford Fiesta RRC Peugeot 207 S2000
2013	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Ford Fiesta RRC
2014	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Ford Fiesta RRC
2015	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Ford Fiesta RRC
2016	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Škoda Fabia R5
2017	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Ford Fiesta R5
2018	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Ford Fiesta R5
2019	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
2020	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
2021	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
2022	Nasser Al-Attiyah (18)	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
2023	Nasser Al-Attiyah (19) Abdullah Al-Rawahi [N 1]	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo

Footnotes

Rally winners

230 Rallies (after Cyprus 2023), 39 different winners, following are the winners stats:

Driver	Wins
Nasser Al-Attiyah	81
Mohammed Ben Sulayem	60
Roger Feghali	16
Saeed Al-Hajri	11
Khalid Al Qassimi	8
Andreas Tsouloftas	4
Abdullah Al-Rawahi
Abdullah Bakhashab	3
Björn Waldegård
Jean-Pierre Nasrallah
Yazeed Al-Rajhi
Suhail bin Maktoum	2
Khalifa Al-Mutaiwi
Michel Saleh
Abdulaziz Al Kuwari
Charalambous Thimotheou
Khalid Al Suwaidi
Amjad Farrah	1
Andreas Peratikos
Chris Thomas
Samir Ghanem
Abdullah Al-Qassimi
Abbas Al-Motaiwi
Nasser Khalifa Al-Attiyah
Hamed Bin Eid Al-Thani
Maurice Sehnaoui
Tony Georgiou
Alex Fiorio
Piero Liatti
Russell Brookes
Alain Oreille
Nizar Shanfari
Nicos Thomas
Rashed El-Ketbi
Nicolas Amiouni
Tamer Ghandour
Rodolphe Asmar
Rashid El-Naimi
Vojtěch Štajf

Wins per nationality

Count as after Cyprus 2023

Driver	Wins
Qatar	100
United Arab Emirates	74
Lebanon	27
Cyprus	9
Saudi Arabia	6
Oman	5
Sweden	3
Italy	2
Jordan	1
France
United Kingdom
Czech Republic