ALL eyes will be on Qatar for the World Cup in November. The home team gets a free pass and I bet you a pint they won’t get past the group stages. Qatar is not a nation famed for its football ability. But they do have a sporting hero as big as David Beckham. You’ve […]
ALL eyes will be on Qatar for the World Cup in November.
The home team gets a free pass and I bet you a pint they won’t get past the group stages.
Qatar is not a nation famed for its football ability.
But they do have a sporting hero as big as David Beckham.
You’ve probably never heard of him but Nasser Al-Attiyah is the absolute G.O.A.T in that corner of the world.
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I’ll run you through his CV:
4 x Dakar Rally wins
5 x Dakar Rally runner-up
1 x Dakar Rally 3rd
(That’s ten podiums from 17 starts in the world’s toughest endurance race)
17 x Middle East Rally Champion
1 x Production World Rally Champion
2 x WRC2 Champion
Oh, he also picked up Olympic bronze at London 2012 for men’s clay pigeon shooting.
Qatar even gives schoolkids books on Nasser’s achievements — that’s how big he is.
It’s also worth noting that this is the man who kept one of Britain’s most cherished motorsport teams in business back in 2013.
When Ford pulled out of the WRC, M-Sport was in the doggy do.
But Nasser sorted backing from the State of Qatar to help fund a string of rookie drivers including Brit ace Elfyn Evans.
Which proves he’s a top bloke as well as a top-line driver.
We caught up with Nasser, his dog Dakar, and a toy box of Toyotas at his second home in Spain.
As you might expect, his back garden is one big rally course. There’s not a rose bush in sight.
First up, flying lessons in his Dakar-winning Gazoo Racing Hilux pick-up truck, powered by a monster 5-litre V8.
Nasser, we have lift-off.
The acceleration is no surprise — but the way it does everything else rewrites what you think you know about physics.
It handles like a hot hatch, absorbs jumps like falling on a bed of pillows, and the brakes are insane. It’s a ballet-dancing hippo.
Of course, your standard workaday Hilux is nails but this Dakar racer gets hammered to within an inch of its life for two weeks straight.
Which brings me nicely to our second plaything, the new range-topping Hilux GR Sport, coming to a dealership near you soon.
It’s got all the usual motorsport tinsel — sporty seats, red stitching, aluminium pedals, and so on — as well as retuned suspension to improve handling and on-road comfort.
The 2.8-litre diesel engine is matched to a six-speed paddle-shift auto and produces 204hp and 500Nm.
You won’t go far wrong with any Hilux. It’s a brilliant, honest, unstoppable 4×4.
But if you want all the bells and whistles, the Hilux GR Sport costs £37,551 excluding Vodka and Tonic.
Finally, we come to the GR Yaris Iberian Cup rally car.
I want one.
When we tried a GR Yaris in 2020, we said it was the new darling of performance car fans.
Small, light, trick suspension, four-wheel drive, limited-slip differentials on both axles and the most powerful three-cylinder engine in any production car in the world. All for £31k.
We said it was the perfect clubman’s rally car.
We have been proved right.
The GR Yaris Iberian Cup consists of nine rallies in Spain and Portugal and a race-ready car costs £55k. Let’s hope there’s a UK series one day.
Much of the car is stock but with the addition of a roll cage, fire extinguishers, competition seats, race exhaust and roof air intake.
I say, you won’t find anything as much fun for the money — and Nasser clearly agrees.
He said: “It’s very nicely done. Even an amateur driver can feel comfortable very quickly. And it’s a very good price. It’s a special little car.”
Nasser won’t stop racing until he rewrites Dakar history, much like Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1 and Sebastien Loeb in WRC.
Nasser said: “The Dakar record is seven wins. My target is to beat that — and then switch to trucks.
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“Qatar is a small country. It’s a special feeling to be an ambassador for my country and to fly the flag. I get a lot of support. They keep telling me, ‘Until we find the next Nasser, you can’t stop’.”
We’ll probably see him next in the No9 shirt.
