2019 Middle East Rally Championship
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The 2019 Middle East Rally Championship was an international rally championship sanctioned by the FIA. The championship was to be contested over five events held in five Middle East countries from March to November. One event, the Cyprus Rally, is shared with the 2019 European Rally Championship. The season-ending Kuwait International Rally was cancelled.
Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah won his fifteenth MERC championship and his ninth consecutively. Al-Attiyah won all four rallies contested. Fellow Qatari driver Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari was second in the championship but scored less than half the points Al-Attiyah scored. Al-Kuwari was second in Qatar and Jordan but would score only four points for the rest of the season. Kuwaiti driver Meshari Al-Thefiri was again third in the championship.
The 2019 MERC was as follows:[1]
| Round | Rally name | Podium finishers | Statistics | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Driver | Car | Time | Stages | Length | Starters | Finishers | ||||
| 1 |  Manateq Qatar International Rally(14–16 March)[2] |
1 | Nasser Al-Attiyah |
Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 1:56:18.8 | 11 | 203.72 km | 22 | 14 | ||
| 2 | Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari |
Škoda Fabia R5 | 1:59:48.4 | ||||||||
| 3 | Hamed Al-Thani |
Ford Fiesta R5 | 2:07:22.4 | ||||||||
| 2 |  Jordan Rally(25–27 April)[3] |
1 | Nasser Al-Attiyah |
Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 3:00:48.5 | 21 | 244.09 km | 22 | 11 | ||
| 2 | Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari |
Škoda Fabia R5 | 3:04:56.7 | ||||||||
| 3 | Marouf Abu Samra |
Ford Fiesta R5 | 3:08:27.6 | ||||||||
| 3 |  Rally of Lebanon(30 August–1 September)[4] |
1 | Nasser Al-Attiyah |
Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 2:06:19.3 | 11 | 215.94 km | 24 | 15 | ||
| 2 | Rodrigue Rahi |
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX | 2:13:28.6 | ||||||||
| 3 | Patrick Njeim |
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX | 2:14:55.6 | ||||||||
| 4 |  Cyprus Rally(27–29 September)[5] |
1 | Nasser Al-Attiyah |
Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 3:02:51.3 | 12 | 199.76 km | 53 | 34 | ||
| 2 |  Chris Ingram |
Škoda Fabia R5 | 3:06:42.2 | ||||||||
| 3 |  Mikko Hirvonen |
Ford Fiesta R5 | 3:07:25.3 | ||||||||
| 5 |  Kuwait International Rally(31 October–2 November) |
Cancelled | |||||||||
