The fifth and final stage of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge was the shortest at just 167 kilometers in timed sections. Even then, the adage of “to finish first, you must first finish” remains undefeated.

Despite its length, many drivers were struck by mechanical issues or crashes that ruined otherwise solid outings. W2RC points leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi barely made it past the start before his engine grenaded.

His Overdrive colleague and Stage #4 winner Eryk Goczał was probably the most notable victim of Stage #5 when the back of his Toyota Hilux caught fire at KM 37. Between stages, Goczał swapped his damaged shock absorbers with the ones from his father Marek’s Hilux following the latter’s retirement. As it turned out, Marek’s shocks were also worn down and the one on the left rear exploded; oil trickled into the exhaust and ignited, sparking the fire. Goczał and Oriol Mena managed to put it out with their extinguishers and sand before reaching the finish, albeit at the bottom of the order.

Both of the Minis had a rough Thursday too. João Ferreira stopped after 40 kilometers and had to replace the driveshaft, costing him half an hour and killing his top-five effort. Guillaume de Mévius’ Mini had a mechanical slightly further down the line while running top ten. Ferreira finished the stage 12th in class while de Mévius was last.

Dacia wasn’t entirely safe either as Nasser Al-Attiyah lost his safety net Sébastien Loeb, who crashed on Wednesday and sustained too much chassis damage that he wasn’t allowed to do the final stage. Despite going at it solo, he simply cruised to the stage win ahead of Lucas Moraes to secure his fifth ADDC title.

Tosha Schareina was the fastest bike, but could not close the gap to Daniel Sanders as he only beat Sanders—who finished fourth—by 3:07 when he had to make up 9:11.

“With the times so close after yesterday, I tried to push to win the stage and I came away with third place overall,” said Schareina. “It was not an easy rally as it was outside of my comfort zone in the dunes. Yesterday, I lost too much time opening the stage, but it’s part of the game and we’ll go for it at the next race. We don’t have this kind of terrain in Spain and Europe, but if you want to be world champion you have to be fast on all kinds of terrain, so I have to adapt and improve.”

In Rally2, Konrad Dąbrowski and Tobias Ebster had no answer for Michael Docherty as the latter completed the clean sweep. Ebster was already facing virtually insurmountable odds as he trailed by 49 minutes entering Thursday, so he was just focused on completing the race and holding off Ruy Barbosa for second in the stage. He achieved both, settling for second and beating Barbosa by 1:49.

Dąbrowski was fifth but claimed class runner-up in the overall.

“I caught up to Ruy like within 25 kilometers because I was pushing good,” Ebster explained. “I thought I was doing good and then suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard again a noise. On Stage #1, I had an engine change because the gearbox broke. They put in a used new one and it broke again today. I was like, ‘Nah, please this cannot be it.’

“Good thing was I was with Ruy so I could just follow him because we were separated by 32 seconds. Third place for Rally2, I’m happy.”

Marek Łój’s hopes of an overall win died due to a six-hour penalty, but he still ended the race on a high note with his maiden W2RC stage win.

Miroslav Zapletal, for the fourth time, was penalized for exceeding the maximum turbo pressure twice. This time, he got a one-minute penalty.

Stage #5 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia Sandriders	2:04:25
Challenger	8	309	Yasir Seaidan	BBR Motorsport	2:12:00
SSV	17	415	Jeremías González Ferioli*	Can-Am Factory Team	2:19:39

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	68	Tosha Schareina	Monster Energy Honda HRC	2:03:27
Rally2	8	22	Michael Docherty	SRG Motorsports	2:10:34
Quad	17	115	Marek Łój	Poland National Team	2:45:19

Overall winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia Sandriders	14:26:55
Challenger	8	310	Dania Akeel	BBR Motorsport	15:44:25
SSV	11	415	Jeremías González Ferioli*	Can-Am Factory Team	15:58:21

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	14:20:56
Rally2	8	22	Michael Docherty	SRG Motorsports	14:46:04
Quad	22	103	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	20:23:02

Featured image credit: Edoardo Bauer / Edophoto