Notwithstanding his PCWRC disappointment, Nasser Al Attiyah scored his seventh win on the FIA’s Middle East rally championship Troodos Rally, in Cyprus and has taken the lead in the series. Championship leader Yazeed Al Rajhi (Peugeot 207 Super 2000) went off the road on the first stage, and on the second day when hoping to gain bonus day-points the Saudi driver crashed again. Al Attiyah meanwhile had many problems on the first day. He punctured on stage 3 which damaged the steering arm, dropping him to third place, letting Roger Feghali ahead. He retook the lead only for gearbox problems to intervene on stage four, which let Feghali back into the lead overnight. Third place for almost all the rally went to Nicos Thomas , the 2009 MERC world championship Pirelli Star Driver. With two more rounds of the MERC to go (Jordan and then Dubai) two points separate the top three contenders. The Qatari driver Nasser has already won the MERC five times including the last four years.

3mmm

Final classification
1 Al Attiyah/Bernacchini    Subaru Impreza        4h18m17.2s
2 Feghali/Arena             Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4h18m57.8s
3 Thomas/Loizides           Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4h21m37.6s
4 Tingirides/"Chips"        Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4h26m44.9s
5 Al Mari/Patterson         Subaru Impreza        4h30m02.7s
6 Kyriacou/Aristidou        Subaru Impreza        4h34m11.1s