The first day of racing at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge was a family affair for Nasser Al-Attiyah. While him winning a stage is far from a new story, he wasn’t the only Al-Attiyah to do so on Saturday as his younger brother Khalifa won his class too.

Nasser and Sébastien Loeb enjoyed a Dacia Sandriders double podium on the Ultimate and FIA overall sides as they respectively finished first and third, with the Toyota GR Hilux of Lucas Moraes sandwiched in between. Moraes was five seconds back of the stage winner.

Roughly 40 seconds behind, Khalifa edged out Dania Akeel for the Prologue win in Challenger by three seconds. Even then, the margin had only been so close because of a ten-second speeding penalty. While Prologue times do not count for the overall, it is technically the younger Al-Attiyah’s first career W2RC stage win.

Compared to the narrow margins in the other two FIA categories, SSV was more “lopsided” with Jeremías González Ferioli beating Khalid Al Qassimi by 21 seconds. Mansour Al-Helei had finished third and tops among points-earning SSV drivers but a two-minute penalty dropped him to last; José Nogueira moved up to third as a result while fourth-placed Enrico Gaspari topped the W2RC drier.

Still, the biggest margin of victory was in Quad—where Prologue finish is included in the final time—as Gaëtan Martinez finished 1:14 ahead of Marcin Wilkołek and 1:40 on CFMOTO teammate Antanas Kanopkinas.

Kanopkinas explained he had made a mistake that caused him to lose time. Perhaps compounding matters was the fact that CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team was debuting a new quad with a different navigation display.

“You could say I shot myself in the foot,” Kanopkinas remarked. “Tomorrow I will start 20 minutes, which means 20 competitors, later than Gaëtan. “My goal tomorrow is to ride as fast as possible so that the day after tomorrow we can start as close to each other as possible. That way, it is both safer and more comfortable.”

Saturday was the first stage of the 2025 W2RC for the Quads, who were absent from Dakar.

Like Dacia putting two drivers on the podium for the FIA overall, Honda did the same for the FIM as KTM’s Luciano Benavides was sandwiched between Tosha Schareina and Ricky Brabec. Schareina beat Benavides by four seconds and Brabec by 13.

“It was pretty good, but from the beginning I realized that the terrain wasn’t so easy to ride as it was slippery in some parts and the navigation was tricky too,” Schareina explained. “I tried to push from the beginning and to focus on the navigation, ride smooth and get the win. The focus will now be on the stages ahead because the real race starts tomorrow.”

Reigning champion Ross Branch, recovered from his Dakar crash, was fourth and 16 seconds back of Schareina. He beat Dakar winner Daniel Sanders by a second.

Rally2 rider Michael Docherty, who won a stage outright at the 204 ADDC, topped his class by 14 seconds on Konrad Dąbrowski. Dakar class champion Edgar Canet tied for fourth with Martin Ventura, 29 seconds back.

Prologue winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia Sandriders	6:23.8
Challenger	15	306	Khalifa Al-Attiyah	Nasser Racing	6:55.3
SSV	23	415	Jeremías González Ferioli*	Can-Am Factory Team	7:16.7

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	68	Tosha Schareina	Monster Energy Honda HRC	6:53.4
Rally2	8	22	Michael Docherty	SRG Motorsports	7:33.8
Quad	25	110	Gaëtan Martinez	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	9:56.7

Featured image credit: Matteo Gebbia / Edophoto