2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge: Nasser Al-Attiyah defends Ultimate crown

After an up-and-down Dakar Rally, Nasser Al-Attiyah returned to form at the second round of the season. Two stage wins in the second half enabled him to hold off Lucas an onslaught of Toyota Hiluxes to secore his fifth Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge title.

The Hilux, Al-Attiyah’s former ride with which he won the 2016 and 2021 ADDCs, traded blows with him and his Dacia teammate Sébastien Loeb. After Loeb won Stage #2, Al-Attiyah claimed the next day’s leg to take the overall lead, which he never relinquished.

Loeb was knocked out by a crash in Stage #4 while Eryk Goczał and Moraes led a Toyota 1-2, giving the manufacturers’ championship leader new life. Entering the final day, Moraes trailed Al-Attiyah by just 41 seconds. However, he was unable to pass Al-Attiyah as the latter instead cemented his victory.

With a fourth at Dakar and win in Abu Dhabi, Al-Attiyah is the new points leader.

“It’s great. We have a good car and it’s a good team, very strong,” Al-Attiyah commented at the finish. “We feel sorry for Seb what happened yesterday, but this is the situation. I am really happy to win this race for Dacia Sandriders. Thanks for the team, thanks for the people. We are so, so happy to lead the world championship again.

“We came here to win, but the speed was very high from every competitor. We respect everyone, but we did a good job last three days.”

Dakar winner and original championship leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi, uncharacteristically struggling to catch the top cars and had hardly cracked the top five, was relegated to a 12th-place class finish when his engine expired on the last day.

Moraes settled for second followed by Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate Seth Quintero and Overdrive’s Juan Cruz Yacopini. Another Hilux driven by Guy Botterill, who took the place of Dakar runner-up Henk Lategan, narrowly missed the top five as Mitch Guthrie’s Ford Raptor pipped him by seven minutes. Miroslav Zapletal, in his own Ford T1+ (though an F-150), finished eighth without on-track issues but had 3:30 in time penalties added since his turbocharged engine exceeded the maximum number of overboosts permitted on four stages.

Goczał finished his Ultimate debut outside the top ten. His stage win on the penultimate day lifted him to fourth in class, but a fire caused by a catastrophic shock failure dropped him to the bottom of Stage #5. His father Marek retired due to a back compression he sustained in a bad landing in the third stage. Ford’s Mattias Ekström also exited because he was feeling sick.

Mini was the only “Big Four” manufacturer to have a 100% finish rate. Even then, X-raid’s duo was hampered by a disastrous final day as João Ferreira and Guillaume de Mévius both experienced mechanical issues.

“Without the incident, we could have finished the rally in fourth place,” Ferreira said. “That’s frustrating, but at least we managed to take some points for the championship.”

Aliyyah Koloc rolled her Red-Lined REVO+ GT-R after hitting a soft patch of sand in Stage #4, sending her tumbling down the dune. She was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure and discharged on Thursday. The crash seemed to be the cherry atop a rough week for Buggyra ZM Racing’s wallet as the team was fined twice for infractions involving team personnel in unauthorized areas.

“If you take the two hardest stages of the Dakar and repeat them every day for five days, that’s when you get the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge,” commented Koloc’s father and Buggyra boss Martin Koloc.

Results

FinishOverallNumberDriverNavigatorTeamClassTimeMargin
11200Nasser Al-AttiyahÉdouard BoulangerDacia SandridersT1+14:26:55Leader
22203Lucas MoraesArmand MonleónToyota Gazoo RacingT1+14:29:23+ 2:28
33204Seth QuinteroDennis ZenzToyota Gazoo RacingT1+14:38:51+ 11:56
44205Juan Cruz YacopiniDaniel OliveirasOverdrive RacingT1+14:56:48+ 29:53
55228Mitch GuthrieKellon WalchFord M-SportT1+14:57:57+ 31:02
66211Guy Botterill*Dennis MurphyToyota Gazoo RacingT1+15:05:47+ 38:52
77240João FerreiraFilipe PalmeiroX-raid Mini JCW TeamT1+15:13:35+ 46:40
814208Miroslav Zapletal*Michał GoleniewskiOffroadsportT1+16:57:38+ 2:30:43
915209Hernán Garcés*Juan LatrachOverdrive RacingT1+17:01:57+ 2:35:02
1020221Martin ProkopViktor ChytkaORLEN Jipocar TeamT1+18:37:52+ 4:10:57
1127213Eryk GoczałOriol MenaEnergyLandia Rally TeamT1+29:01:36+ 14:34:41
1228201Yazeed Al-RajhiTimo GottschalkOverdrive RacingT1+29:15:50+ 14:48:55
1329222Guillaume de MéviusXavier PanseriX-raid Mini JCW TeamT1+29:323:44+ 15:05:49
1431218Saood VariawaFrançois CazaletToyota Gazoo RacingT1+34:13:32+ 19:46:37
1533217Denis KrotovKonstantin ZhiltsovOverdrive RacingT1+37:18:49+ 22:51:54
1637216Ahmed El Shamy*Ali ObaidPharaohs Rally TeamT1.240:51:54+ 26:24:59
DNFDNF210Aliyyah Koloc*Sébastien DelaunayBuggyra ZM RacingT1+DNFN/A
DNFDNF214Marek GoczałMaciej MartonEnergyLandia Rally TeamT1+DNFN/A
DNFDNF219Sébastien LoebFabian LurquinDacia SandridersT1+DNFN/A
DNFDNF226Mattias EkströmEmil BergkvistFord M-SportT1+DNFN/A
DNFDNF242Daniel SchröderHenry Carl KöhnePS Laser RacingT1+DNFN/A

Stage winners

StageWinnerTime
PrologueNasser Al-Attiyah6:23.8
Stage #1Lucas Moraes2:57:34
Stage #2Sébastien Loeb3:09:35
Stage #3Nasser Al-Attiyah3:15:28
Stage #4Eryk Goczał2:52:23
Stage #5Nasser Al-Attiyah2:04:25

W2RC

Unlike Challenger and SSV, Ultimate does not have its own trophy and is instead part of a larger championship that includes all classes.

Drivers

RankDriverPointsMargin
1Nasser Al-Attiyah96Leader
2Yazeed Al-Rajhi73– 23
3Lucas Moraes63– 33
4Seth Quintero60– 36
5Henk Lategan55– 41
6Mattias Ekström45– 51
7Mitch Guthrie44– 52
8Juan Cruz Yacopini42– 54
9João Ferreira39– 57
10Mathieu Serradori25– 71
T-11Dania Akeel18– 78
T-11Guillaume de Mévius18– 78
T-11Martin Prokop18– 78
14Saood Variawa17– 79
15Rokas Baciuška16– 80
16Pau Navarro15– 81
T-17Nani Roma12– 84
T-17Yasir Seaidan12– 84
19Adam Kuś11– 85
20Sébastien Loeb10– 86
21Nicolás Cavigliasso9– 87
T-22Enrico Gaspari8– 88
T-22Eryk Goczał8– 88
T-22Denis Krotov8– 88
T-22Eduard Pons8– 88
26Khalid Al-Jafla7– 89
T-27Michele Cinotto6– 90
T-27Claude Fournier6– 90
T-27Cristina Gutiérrez6– 90
T-27Puck Klaassen6– 90
T-27Alexandre Pinto6– 90
T-27Daniel Schröder6– 90
T-33Khalifa Al-Attiyah5– 91
T-33Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari5– 91
T-33Manuel Andújar5– 91
T-36Lionel Baud4– 92
T-36Jean-Luc Ceccaldi4– 92
T-36Mário Franco4– 92
T-36Roger Grouwels4– 92
T-36Gonçalo Guerreiro4– 92
T-36Dave Klaassen4– 92
T-36Corbin Leaverton4– 92
T-36Sara Price4– 92
T-36Guoyu Zhang4– 92
45Pedro Gonçalves3– 93
T-46Mansour Al-Helei2– 94
T-46Rui Carneiro2– 94
T-46Diego Martinez2– 94
T-46Carlos Sainz2– 94
T-46Carlos Vento2– 94
T-46David Zille2– 94
T-46Fernando Álvarez2– 94
53Marek Goczał1– 95

Navigators

RankNavigatorPointsMargin
1Édouard Boulanger96Leader
2Timo Gottschalk73– 23
3Armand Monleón63– 33
4Dennis Zenz60– 36
5Brett Cummings55– 41
6Emil Bergkvist45– 51
7Kellon Walch44– 52
8Daniel Oliveiras42– 54
9Filipe Palmeiro39– 57
10Loïc Minaudier25– 71
11Oriol Mena24– 72
T-12Viktor Chytka18– 78
T-12Stéphane Duplé18– 78
14François Cazalet17– 79
15Mathieu Baumel16– 80
T-16Álex Haro12– 84
T-16Michaël Metge12– 84
18Dmytro Tsyro11– 85
19Fabian Lurquin10– 86
T-20Jan Rosa Viñas9– 87
T-20Valentina Pertegarini9– 87
T-22Jaume Betriu8– 88
T-22Konstantin Zhiltsov8– 88
24Andrei Rudnitski7– 89
T-25Henry Carl Köhne6– 90
T-25Charan Moore6– 90
T-25Pablo Moreno6– 90
T-25Bernardo Oliveira6– 90
T-25Lisandro Sisterna6– 90
T-30Bruno Jacomy5– 91
T-30Cadu Sachs5– 91
T-32Nasser Al-Kuwari4– 92
T-32Lucie Baud4– 92
T-32Sean Berriman4– 92
T-32Alberto Bertoldi4– 92
T-32Delphine Delfino4– 92
T-32Rui Franco4– 92
T-32Bernardo Graue4– 92
T-32Tessa Klaassen4– 92
T-32Antoine Lecourbe4– 92
T-32Rudolf Meijer4– 92
T-32Fausto Mota4– 92
T-32Xavier Panseri4– 92
T-32Taye Perry4– 92
T-32Grégory Revest-Arnoux4– 92
T-32Yicheng Wang4– 92
47Hugo Magalhães3– 93
T-48Khalid Al-Kendi2– 94
T-48Jorge Brandão2– 94
T-48Sebastian Cesana2– 94
T-48Lucas Cruz2– 94
T-48Maurizio Dominella2– 94
T-48Ola Fløene2– 94
T-48Patrick Jimbert2– 94
T-48Sergio Lafuente2– 94
T-56Maciej Marton1– 95
T-56João Miranda1– 95

Manufacturers

RankManufacturerPointsMargin
1Toyota228Leader
2Dacia158– 70
3Ford139– 89

Featured image credit: Helena Clancy / Edophoto

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