Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger (Prodrive Hunter T1+) won the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the second round of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship. The two-time Rally-Raid world champion beat the Toyota squad ahead of next month’s BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal. South African Aaron Mare (Hero) won in the Bikes category.
After the sands of the Dakar, the World Rally-Raid Championship continued in Abu Dhabi, where Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger overcame the strong Toyota armada. The Prodrive Hunter driver was strongly opposed by the Japanese cars throughout the six-day event, but the fire suffered by Brazilian Lucas Moraes’ Toyota on the third stage, and the time gained by Al-Attiyah over all the competition on the fourth stage, contributed decisively to the final outcome.
The Qatari driver took his fourth victory in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, in the first race in which he had Boulanger at his side. The French co-driver, who replaced Mathieu Baumel, had also won the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge with Stéphane Peterhansel in an Audi in 2022.
The battle for second place between Seth Quintero and Yazeed Al-Rajhi went in favor of the Saudi driver, while the young American got his first podium with an Ultimate car. There were two Can-Am Challenger category (ex-T3) drivers in the top five overall, the American Austin Jones (4th) and the Lithuanian Rokas Baciuska (5th).
In the SSV category (ex-T4), Portuguese João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro (Can-Am) won the first stage, but were then forced to abandon due to a crash. The category was won by another Can-Am, Mansour Al-Helei, from the United Arab Emirates.
With these results, and with the absence of the official Audi team in Abu Dhabi, Al-Attiyah moved closer to leader Carlos Sainz in the World Rally-Raid Championship, ahead of the debut of BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal at the beginning of April.
Mare arrived and won on the bikes
Called up at the last minute to replace the Portuguese-German Sebastian Bühler in the official Hero team, Aaron Mare beat the competition in the motorcycle race, ahead of Konrad Dabrowski (KTM) and Jean-Loup Lepan (KTM). Without the official Honda and KTM stars, Ross Branch (Hero) was fourth in Abu Dhabi and is the new leader of the World Championship.
The motorcycle squad will also be in Portugal from April 2 to 7 for the European round of the World Championship, the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal.
