Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger stayed clear of trouble on a dramatic final day of the 34th Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge to secure a crucial 2min 28sec victory in their bid to defend their FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) titles.

On a last stage where several of his closest rivals in the top 10 hit trouble, Al-Attiyah claimed the stage win in his Dacia Sandrider to also win the Ultimate category. He was able to fend off the challenge from the Toyota Gazoo Racing crews of Lucas Moraes/Armand Monleón and Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz to earn his fifth victory at the gruelling desert event to follow previous successes in 2008, 2016, 2021 and 2024. The result marked Boulanger’s third triumph after his win with Al-Attiyah last year and his maiden victory with Stéphane Peterhansel in 2022.

Second place for Moraes and third overall for Quintero enabled Toyota Gazoo Racing to remain firmly on track to retain the W2RC Manufacturers’ title after Yazeed Al-Rajhi’s victory at the Dakar Rally. 

The final start list featured 48 vehicles in the FIA section, with 21 competing in the Ultimate category, 14 in Challenger and 13 in SSV. Of those, 32 were registered for points in the W2RC. Lithuanian Rokas Baciuška was a non-starter in the Overdrive Racing team, while Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings were replaced in the Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) line-up by Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy. The replacements were not registered for the W2RC.

Young Eryk Goczal earned a memorable maiden win on the penultimate stage on his first event with Overdrive Racing in the Energylandia Rally Team Toyota. But he and navigator Oriol Mena suffered a fire in their Toyota after 37km of stage five and lost out on a potential fourth overall. That misfortune lifted team-mates Juan Cruz Yacopini and Dani Oliveras into that position. 

The American duo of Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch brought the sole-surviving Ford M-Sport Raptor to the finish in fifth and the replacement Botterill claimed sixth for TGR. 

Yazeed Al-Rajhi and his German navigator Timo Gottschalk came into the event as leaders of the W2RC but suffered engine overheating issues after 13km of the final stage. They now hold second in the championship standings.

Technical issues also cost João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro further time after a broken driveshaft on the Prologue and a puncture. But the Portuguese duo survived to take sixth place in their diesel-engined Mini JCW Rally.

Al-Attiyah topped the times on the Prologue at the Jebel Hafit Desert Park, near the start in Al-Ain, and picked up the three bonus points. Moraes and Dacia’s Sébastien Loeb followed the Qatari with the second and third quickest times. 

Moraes then hit the front on the opening stage between Al-Ain and the bivouac camp at Mzeer’ah and headed into the second loop stage with a lead of 1min 01sec over Loeb. Marek Goczal failed to finish the special in his Overdrive Racing Toyota and Al-Attiyah picked up a puncture.

Loeb won stage two from Al-Attiyah and moved ahead of Moraes into the lead with Quintero and Guillaume De Mévius holding fourth and fifth. TGR’s Saood Variawa suffered gearbox issues after 138km and Martin Prokop’s chance of earning a fifth podium finish were dented when he suffered technical problems. Al-Attiyah and Yacopini were handed one-minute time penalties for false starts. 

Days three and four constituted a new Marathon stage between Mzeer’ah and the remote Al-Qoua camp. Al-Attiyah won the opening wind-interrupted section of 237.31km by just under four minutes from Quintero to seize the overall lead from Moraes and Loeb, after the latter picked up a two-minute speeding penalty. Notional times were awarded to the remainder of the field after strong winds prevented action from continuing on safety grounds. 

The Ford M-Sport Team withdrew Mattias Ekström for medical reasons. The Swede had been feeling unwell since the start and his conditions worsened as the event progressed. 

Eryk Goczal then became one of the youngest ever winners of a stage in Abu Dhabi when he beat Moraes by 2min 29sec to claim the fastest time over the 299.61km of stage four. That success lifted the Pole into fourth in the general classification behind Al-Attiyah, Moraes and Quintero. It was a bitterly disappointing birthday for Loeb, however: he missed a waypoint by less than 10 metres and rolled his Dacia out of the event.

A mere 41 seconds separated Moraes from Al-Attiyah before the final stage between Mzeer’ah and the finish on Hudayriyat Island in Abu Dhabi. But the Qatari held on to seal his fifth victory as Al-Rajhi, Goczal and De Mévius all hit trouble. The latter managed to finish but dropped to 29th overall behind Al-Rajhi.

Aliyyah Koloc’s Buggyra ZM Racing Red-Lined Revo was sidelined after a dune crash hospitalised the driver for checks on stage four.

Marek Goczal teamed up with Maciej Marton in the second of the Energylandia Rally Team Toyotas but incurred a maximum time penalty on the first stage. The Pole then suffered a back compression injury over a cut dune shortly after the start of stage three and was forced to retire on medical grounds. 

History-making Akeel and Duplé secure hard-earned Challenger victory 

Saudi Arabia’s Dania Akeel became the first woman since the launch of the W2RC in 2022 to win a category outright and she also finished eighth overall. Akeel teamed up with French navigator Stéphane Duplé to see off a fierce challenge from the young Spaniard Pau Navarro and his navigator Jan Rosa Vinas in the Challenger category with her BBR Motorsport Taurus T3 Max.

Saudi rival Yasir Seaidan won the last stage but delays earlier in the week had cost him and Michael Metge dearly. They recovered strongly to finish third of the W2RC crews behind the Brazilian duo of Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea. The result gave BBR Motorsport a clean sweep of the top four places.

Poland’s Adam Kus and his Ukrainian navigator Dmytro Tsyro finished fourth of the registered crews with Spaniard Eduardo Pons coming home in fifth with Jaume Betriu. Emirati Khalid Al-Jafla was sixth and the Argentinian duo of Nicolas Cavigliasso and Valentina Pertegarini – who had won the category at the opening round - were sixth after a first stage accident and retain the category lead after two rounds.

Qatar’s Khalifa Saleh Al-Attiyah had been the quickest of a Taurus-dominated Challenger category on the Prologue. He beat Akeel by 13 seconds and Seaidan by 16. 

Cavigliasso blotted his copybook on the opening stage with an accident after 83km, although the car was repairable and they were able to continue.

Akeel topped the times on the opener from Seaidan and Navarro with Puck Klaassen in fourth and Al-Attiyah in sixth. Seaidan beat Akeel on stage two to grab the advantage to take into the two-day Marathon stage but both Klaassen (engine) and Al-Attiyah (fuel pump) ground to a halt with mechanical woes after 180km and 189km, respectively. Mario Franco did not start the stage in his Yamaha and Klaassen was later handed a 20-hour time penalty for an engine block change.

Seaidan stopped near the start of the first part of the two-day Marathon, where Navarro topped the times from Cavigliasso and moved up to second place behind Akeel. The Saudi hit back strongly to win the second part of the Marathon stage but Akeel took a 4min 45sec lead over Navarro into the final stage and held off the Spaniard to seal victory by 3min 28sec.

SSV category win for Can-Am Factory Team’s Ferioli and Cesana; maximum W2RC points for Gaspari and Lecourbe

Argentina’s Jeremias Ferioli and José Sebastian Cesana dominated the SSV section in their Can-Am Factory Team Maverick R but they were not registered for the W2RC. That meant that second-placed Enrico Gaspari, who had picked up points for second place at the Dakar Rally, claimed the SSV laurels with French co-driver Antoine Lecourbe.

Neither third-placed José Nogueira nor local veteran Yayha Al-Helai were registered for points and second place amongst the W2RC crews went to the Italian Michele Cinotto and his navigator Maurizio Dominella in the CST Xtreme Plus Polaris RZR Pro R Sport. 

Portugal’s Alexandre Pinto and Bernardo Oliveira led the category after the Dakar Rally and finished third of the registered crews in their Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR to maintain their leads in the title race. French veteran Claude Fournier was fourth but turbo problems hampered Mansour Al-Helai and he was further delayed on the final stage. 

Ferioli topped the SSV times on the Prologue, the Can-Am driver finishing 21 seconds ahead of Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi. He then won the opening stage by 6min 39sec from Mansour Al-Helai, although the Liwa Team UAE driver was the highest-placed of the W2RC-registered men.

The Argentine then topped the times again on SS2 by 13min 47sec from Gaspari with Cinotto the second registered driver home and Al-Helai setting the sixth quickest time after losing half an hour. Ferioli was awarded the win on the first half of the wind-affected Marathon stage and retained his lead from Gaspari.

Ferioli narrowly beat Mansour Al-Helai to the win on stage four and began the final stage with a massive cushion of 1hr 11min 38sec over Gaspari. Al-Helai stopped with turbo issues after 111km and that opened the door for Ferioli to seal a comfortable victory by 1hr 26min 44sec.

The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge was held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler’s Representative Court in Al-Dhafra Region. Supported by the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, it was also backed by ADNOC Distribution, the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi and other governmental entities, in addition to Al Futtaim-Toyota and DHL.

Round three of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship takes teams to South Africa for the new Sun City-based South African Safari Rally on May 18th-24th. 

More information and all results available on the 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and W2RC websites.