Local hero Meshari Al Thefiri holds shock overnight lead at Kuwait International Rally

Tribune News Network KUWAIT CITY Local hero Meshari Al Thefiri and Qatari co-driver Nasser Al Kuwari stunned their rivals to lead the 26 th Kuwait Interna...

Tribune News NetworkKUWAIT CITY Local hero Meshari Al Thefiri and Qatari co-driver Nasser Al Kuwari stunned their rivals to lead the 26 th Kuwait International Rally after six desert special stages on Friday.Driving an SRT-run Skoda Fabia R2 evo for the first time, Al Thefiri won the second and third stages, led outright at the midday service point and then regained the overnight advantage when Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah sustained a sixth stage puncture. The Kuwaiti will take a lead of 15.7 seconds into the final day.Al Attiyah and French co-driver Mathieu Baumel looked set to take a slender advantage into the night halt, but they were forced to stop and change a front puncture on the last stage of the afternoon and lost well over two minutes as a result.The Autotek Volkswagen Polo GTI driver won two of the three specials on the second loop of desert tests, south of Kuwait City, but had erred on the side of caution over the morning’s loop after sustaining two slow punctures. He holds fourth overall, 2min 13.4sec behind the leader, and faces a fascinating fight back over the remaining stages on Saturday.Qatar’s Abdulaziz Al Kuwari and Irish co-driver James Fulton had been quickest on the opening stage, but a puncture cost them vital time and Al Kuwari finished the day in third, 13.1 seconds behind second-placed Qatar’s Khaled Al Suwaidi and his Portuguese co-driver Hugo Magalhaes. The 2012 event winner was quickest overall in stage six and is well placed to challenge for a second MERC win on Saturday.MERC2 front-runner Mohammed Al Thefiri and co-driver Mubarak Al Dhafiri held fifth overall in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X and a lead of 4min 56.7sec in the showroom category.Former MERC runner-up Nasser Khalifa Al Atya teamed up with Italy’s Giovanni Bernacchini and was classified in sixth place in a Motortune-run Ford Fiesta.Kuwait’s Jassim Al Muqahwi and the Jordanian duo of Shadi Shaban and Issa Abu Jamous rounded off the day’s finishers in seventh, eighth and ninth overall.Engine issues sidelined the MERC2 series-leading Jordanian Ihab Al Shorafa, Oman’s Zakariya Al Aamri suffered gearbox woes and a heavy landing after a high-speed jump cost Abdullah Al Rawahi his fifth place with front damage and a broken radiator on his Skoda Fabia R2 evo.On Saturday, crews will tackle two runs through two special stages. Action commences with the 18.60km of the Al Zour stage from 11.05hrs and continues with a shorter 12.66km special from 11.58hrs. The two timed tests will be repeated at 14.23hrs and 15.16hrs, respectively.