Ross Branch’s title defense is not off to a promising start. After crashing halfway through the Dakar Rally, he left the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge still without any points.

After finishing fourth in the Prologue and Stage #1, Branch was knocked out of the race on Monday by a clutch failure shortly after refueling. His Hero teammate José Ignacio Cornejo, who went on to finish second, was too far ahead to help him.

While Abu Dhabi is only the second round of the season, Branch is running low on chances to catch the leaders given it’s a five-race season. Atop the standings, Daniel Sanders dominated Stage #2 from start to finish.

“We changed a few things on the bike last night to get a bit more comfortable. On day one it was too stiff and we ended up losing a lot of time. I was back into the rhythm today,” said Sanders. He had finished sixth in Stage #1, even behind the Rally2 bike of Michael Docherty.

Docherty continued his strong start to the ADDC by winning his class on Monday, beating fellow championship contenders Tobias Ebster by three-and-a-half minutes and Konrad Dąbrowski by over five minutes. Even with the stage win, Docherty felt it was an off day as he “didn’t ride all that well until refuel” and his navigation tower broke off, the latter forcing him to ride the final 50 kilometers while holding it in place with one hand.

Ebster had to deal with far too soft suspension and suffered “two small falls”, but he certainly won’t be upset about a runner-up finish. He, Docherty, and Dąbrowski are jockeying to steal the points after Edgar Canet’s retirement in the first leg.

Attrition, even among the frontrunners, was not an uncommon theme in Stage #2. Race organizers explicitly warned everyone to “never trust this desert” in their briefing for the stage due to the high rate of broken dunes and sabkhas.

Four-time defending Quad winner Abdulaziz Ahli’s hopes of another title went out the window due to a battery failure after 60 kilometers. Antanas Kanopkinas briefly stopped to help him before taking off to keep the pursuing Marek Łój at bay. Kanopkinas’ teammate Gaëtan Martinez endured a misadventure of a day in which he suffered “at least four different situations.”

“First, I failed to notice a marked danger zone on the track and took a heavy hit, which even triggered the airbag in my jacket,” he began. “Then, I stopped to help Ahli, who couldn’t restart his quad. I tried towing him with a rope, but unfortunately, it didn’t work. Later, I had some kind of gearbox failure and was left with only front gear, which is how I reached the finish. And for the last 60 kilometers, I started feeling motion sickness from riding over the dunes, so I just maintained a pace that would get me to the finish.”

Martin Prokop had a broken driveshaft and a hydraulic failure when using the jacks in the soft sand, costing him two hours to fix. To add insult to injury, Prokop also received a 30-minute penalty and a suspended disqualification because he opened the sealed pouch containing his phone to call he team for help without informing race control.

After his fuel pump problems on Sunday, Alex McInnes was knocked out Monday by a broken swingarm bolt and axle. He stopped every five kilometers to hammer the axle back into place, but it damaged the chassis until the bike had to retire.

Even Nasser Al-Attiyah wasn’t safe. He had finished second in FIA behind Dacia colleague Sébastien Loeb, but was demoted to third because of a one-minute penalty that he got for false starting. His brother Khalifa and Puck Klaassen both had mechanical issues plague their Tauruses.

Nicolás Cavigliasso managed to earn himself a stage point by finishing fifth in Challenger. His hopes of winning outright were dashed by a rollover in Stage #1, so his focus now is on accumulating bonuses.

Marek Goczał also rejoined the race after his DNF on Sunday, finishing 13th in Ultimate. He had lost time in the closing stretch, where he had to completely let off the brakes to safely reach the finish.

“This section was not for Toyota. I have to admit, it was tiring,” commented Goczał. “Most of the time, we were driving in third gear at most.”

Miroslav Zapletal received another 30-second penalty for exceeding the turbocharger boost limit. He got a minute tacked on for Stage #1 for doing so thrice.

Stage #2 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	219	Sébastien Loeb	Dacia Sandriders	3:09:35
Challenger	12	309	Yasir Seaidan	BBR Motorsport	3:22:54
SSV	17	415	Jeremías González Ferioli*	Can-Am Factory Team	3:30:03

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	3:01:35
Rally2	8	22	Michael Docherty	SRG Motorsports	3:15:43
Quad	15	103	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	4:06:25

Leaders after Stage #2

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	219	Sébastien Loeb	Dacia Sandriders	6:08:10
Challenger	13	309	Yasir Seaidan	BBR Motorsport	6:34:14
SSV	15	415	Jeremías González Ferioli*	Can-Am Factory Team	6:42:41

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	6:09:02
Rally2	8	22	Michael Docherty	SRG Motorsports	6:21:40
Quad	15	103	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	8:11:23

Featured image credit: Edoardo Bauer / Edophoto