Al-Attiyah takes a nine-point lead to the ultimate round of the ongoing season in Morocco.

Decorated Qatari rally driver Nasser Al-Attiyah will be in pole position to clinch his fourth World Rally-Raid title as he heads to the ultimate round of the ongoing season as the championship leader.

A win in Stage 4, followed by a second-place finish in Stage 5, saw Al-Attiyah clinch fifth place at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal. It helped the Qatari veteran preserve a nine-point lead at the top of the drivers’ tally in the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (WR2C).

Toyota Gazoo Racing duo Lucas Moraes and Henk Lategan finished first and second in Portugal to seal the manufacturers’ championship ahead of the Morocco round.

Lategan and Moraes are also the ones challenging Al-Attiyah in the championship table, with 131 and 130 points respectively.

Al-Attiyah and his Belgian navigator, Fabian Lurquin, encountered several mechanical problems during the initial stages of the rally, in addition to a blockage in the stones during Stage 2, which put the two out of contention in Portugal.

“The last two days were good for us,” Al-Attiyah told Cross-Country Rally News after completing the Portugal rally. “We had a lot of trouble with the brakes in the first three days. But we are still leading in the World Championship.”

Lurquin had hailed Al-Attiyah’s “unrivalled determination” after the Dacia Sandriders duo won the penultimate stage.

“He drove 150 km with just the handbrake, because the front axle brakes were no longer working. What he was able to do was simply exceptional,” Lurquin told Autohebdo.

The positive end in Portugal also stretched to Rally Raid Portugal for Al-Attiyah, whose team, Nasser Racing, clinched the title with Bruno Jacomy and Goncalo Guerreiro at the helm.

The competition now heads to Rallye Du Maroc for a 2277-kilometre-long stretch from October 10 to 17.

Al-Attiyah won his third FIA W2RC last year, following a win in Morocco with his co-driver Edouard Boulanger.