Nasser Al Attiyah won the Dubai International Rally, clinching the FIA’s Middle East Rally Championship for a sixth time, five times in a row. Three drivers went to the final round of series still able to be champion, Al Attiyah, his Qatari Subaru teammate Misfer Al Marri and the Saudi Peugeot driver Yazeed Al Rajhi. Nasser led the rally from the start but lost time on stage three when he hit a rock. The delay let Saudi driver Yazeed Al Rahji momentarily too the lead, but on the following stage the Saudi went off the road and the Qatari was back ahead again. This meant that Nasser was able to control the event at his pace, knowing that he and his Qatari teammate Misfer Al Marri were guaranteed to finish 1-2 in the series.

The fastest driver in the rally however was Rashid Alketbi in a Skoda Fabia S2000, but he lost some 25 minutes on the opening stage when the heater water hose disconnected and the engine discharged its water inside the car From that moment onwards the UAE driver scored fastest time on all remaining eight stages of the rally, finishing sixth overall, 19 minutes behind the winner. He is little known outside the Middle East but he used to compete under the name of Rashid bin Ghurab in an Escort WRC. All the special stages on the Dubai Rally were run in the country of Oman.

In the Pirelli Star Driver search for the MERC based driver to fill the fifth and final place in the 2010 WRC line-up, two drivers started the event eligible for consideration. These were Nick Georgiou who was unlucky not to win the title last year and Meshari Al Thafiri from Kuwait. The winner was to be finally selected by FIA personnel but Al Thafiri went off the road on the first stage of the event which spoiled his chances. Georgiou therefore cruised to the end of the rally, finishing in 11th and last place and was subsequently confirmed the award winner..

Brief details of Nicholai (“Nick”) Georgiou: Born Muscat, Oman 2 Feb 1983, based in London and Beirut, started rallying in 2006 with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI and very unlucky loser in the MERC PSD award selection process in 2008. Son of a well established MERC Nissan driver Tony Georgiou in the ‘80's.

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Final classification
1 Al Attiyah/Bernacchini   Subaru Impreza    2h23m26.4s
2 A Al Qassimi/Lancaster   Subaru Impreza    2h26m04.6s
3 M Al Marri/Patterson     Subaru Impreza    2h29m15.0s
4 Al Suwaidi/Beech         Subaru Impreza    2h35m4.5s
5 J Al Marri/Carlin        Subaru Impreza    2h41m50.2s
6 Alketbi/Alkendi          Skoda Fabia S2000 2h42m41.3s