Francisco Barreto arrived at the Dubai International Baja with all the momentum in the FIA World Baja Cup after being the overall WBC winner at the last two rounds in Portugal and Qatar. Unfortunately, his chances slipped away on the very first day.

Barreto was disqualified from the Prologue after a social media recap video inadvertently revealed he didn’t use the mandatory driving notes provided by the organizer and instead relied on his own. Even if his notes offered more clarity, they were considered an unfair advantage as everyone else used the same ones given by the Emirates Motorsports Organization.

Under Article 14.2.6 of the FIA’s Cross-Country Rally Sporting Regulations, personal notes are only allowed if they come from a section of the course that had already been used in a previous stage. For example, if SS1 included a passage from the Prologue, it would’ve been fair game. Given this happened on the Prologue, no reference obviously exists.

Art. 14.2.6 reads:

The only documents allowed in the vehicle are:

• The official roadbook
• The modifications done by the Official Opening Car, which may be integrated into the roadbook
• The notes provided by the Clerk of the Course or the organizer during the briefing
• The FIA regulations
• The supplementary regulations of the event
• The vehicle repair manual
• Personal notes resulting from a previous passage through the stage area (in whatever direction) in the current event

Barreto was lucky that the DSQ only applied to the Prologue so he could continue, but it meant he had to start all the way at the back for SS1. He tried to make up the lost ground by finishing fourth in Stage 1, second fastest in Ultimate, only for Sunday to deliver the killing blow when his engine lost oil pressure at KM 50.

Officially, Barreto still won his class among drivers competing for the World Baja Cup and secured that championship. However, missing out on the overall stings hard.

“I don’t know what I want to say anymore,” Barreto told Cross-Country Rally News. “We’re probably second in the World Cup. The points that the organization took from us from the Prologue, we probably can win the World Cup if we had those points. But, it is what it is.”

Mitchel van den Brink won in Challenger to slip by Barreto for the overall, ending the season with 398 points to Barreto’s 387.

Being the final race of the World and Middle East Baja Cups, everyone hoped to wrap up the year on a high note. Alas, others had even more misfortunes than Barreto, who at least finished the race and got some sort of trophy for his season. Maurico Farace, racing in the non-FIA National Auto division, was disqualified from the race altogether because he was towed by a spectator—already a violation of receiving assistance from unauthorized vehicles—and in the wrong direction.

Sergei Remennik passed by Barreto while he was standing over his Hilux checking the engine. Moments later, he had a hard landing that damaged the power steering. He and navigator Aleksei Ignatov had the “bright idea” to restart the car, which succeeded until throttle problems struck again.

“What does a person really need to be happy? Sometimes, you just have to lose something, only to find it again,” Remennik quipped. Despite everything, he finished second in Challenger to van den Brink, which he called “not bad for a couple of guys who sat out a whole season—well, actually, I was the one who sat it out; Aleksei was busy working with other crews.”

WBC SSV points leader Fernando Álvarez ended up falling to third, losing out to Mansour Al-Helei because he got sideswiped by a spectator and rolled onto his side.

Evgenii Kudriavtcev was fortunate enough to finish after a disastrous Stage 1 in which both rear driveshafts broke on his car. He was stranded for four hours in the desert until a tow truck arrived, only for that to get stuck in the sand too. A second tow truck eventually came to pull him back to the bivouac.

Both Buggyra cars had trouble. Martin Koloc withdrew after hitting a tree in the Prologue that damaged the roll cage, while his daughter Aliyyah led the final stage before brake issues hampered her progress. The latter also got stuck atop a dune in SS1, though neither issue kept her off the class podium in the end.

The bikes weren’t safe either. Abdulaziz Ahli, who’s dominated the rally raid scene in the UAE, had a mechanical failure after winning the Prologue while Joanna Modrzewska crashed on the final day. Thomas Childs was enjoying “one of the best rides in the dunes I’ve had to date” until the prototype fuel tank on his Kove conked out.

On the FIM Bajas side, Alex McInnes took the overall victory. Konrad Dąbrowski settled for fourth as his hopes of winning three straight ended.

“To win the world championship at home in Dubai is insane and to do it one round early makes it even better,” said McInnes.

Conversely, Nasser Al-Attiyah’s dominance of the Dubai Baja continued as he won the overall. It is his 14th victory in the race after 2003, 2004, an eight-peat from 2007 to 2014, 2017, 2023, and 2024.

Sergei Kariakin won the National Auto overall. Although the National categories are not under FIA sanction, he celebrated the fact that he could raise the Russian flag at an FIA-overseen race for the first time since the federation controversially lifted the ban on Russian and Belarusian emblems in August. The former Dakar Quad winner was a vocal opponent of the policy and attempted several times to convince the FIA to overturn it.

Unlike most European countries upholding the restrictions in defiance of the FIA, EMSO has allowed Russian drivers to use their licenses in races following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Still, while this meant Kariakin could compete at the Dubai Baja with his own nationality, his country’s flag remained off limits. He got around this at the 2025 race by using a car livery based on the Russian tricolor, while using a flag bearing the logo of the Federation of Free Bikers’ (Федерация свободных байкеров) Yekaterinburg chapter.

“It’s so gratifying that justice has finally prevailed, and it took a long time to reach this point,” Kariakin said. He continued to use the FFA flag alongside Russia’s. “At last, we can celebrate together with our flag. Everything is fair and on equal terms with everyone.

“I believe this is a great achievement for diplomacy and the entire world. Sports is not the place for politics, and we’re proving that right now.”

One of the more unusual faces was the 2003 Porsche Cayenne S of Zeus Racing Team, the sole T2 car in a sea of SSVs in National Auto. Newly built and driven by team owners Samir Samy and Alain Besançon, the Cayenne crashed a kilometer before the Stage 1 finish but was repaired in time for Sunday. As the final car on track, they had to wade through destroyed dunes and sand from those ahead of them and in the middle of the day, which further reduced visibility. Still, they were able to reach the finish.

FIA

Ultimate

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
1	1	203	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Max Delfino	Nasser Racing MD Rallye Sport	MD Optimus	T1.2	5:30:40.5
2	6	204	Ahmed El-Shamy	Leonard Cremer	Pharaohs Rally Team	Century CR6	T1.2	6:05:03.0
3	8	205	Aliyyah Koloc	Marcin Pasek	Buggyra ZM Racing	Red-Lined Revo GT-R	T1+	6:18:08.0
4	19	200	Francisco Barreto	Paulo Fiúza	Barata Racing Team SVR	Toyota Hilux IMT Evo	T1+	10:22:33.1
DNF	DNF	201	Saood Variawa	Charan Moore	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	Toyota Hilux IMT Evo	T1+	DNF
DNF	DNF	202	Khalid Al-Jafla	Andrei Rudnitski	SRG Motorsports	Toyota Hilux IMT Evo	T1+	DNF
DNF	DNF	206	Martin Koloc	Hugo Magalhães	Buggyra ZM Racing	Red-Lined Revo T1+	T1+	DNF

Challenger

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time
1	2	300	Mitchel van den Brink	Bart van Heun	Eurol Rally Sport South Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	5:35:59.2
2	3	303	Sergei Remennik	Aleksei Ignatov	Big Red Racing	Taurus T3 Max	5:46:29.8
3	4	301	Hamed Al-Wahaibi	François Cazalet	R-X Sport	Can-Am Maverick R	5:54:14.3
4	7	305	Damien Byrne	Mark Grams	Easy Times Race Team	Can-Am Maverick X3	6:09;44.9
5	10	304	David Mabbs	David McBride	Vendetta Racing	Can-Am Maverick X3	6:23:48.0
6	20	302	Abdullah Al-Fahad	Mohammed Al-Muaikil	Abdullah Al-Fahad	Taurus Evo Max	10:32:03.3
7	21	307	Jonathan Hart	Dmytro Tsyro	Jonathan Hart	Can-Am Maverick X3	10:32:40.4
8	22	306	Evgenii Kudriavtcev	Oleg Zaikin	SRG Motorsports	Can-Am Maverick X3	10:38:19.2

SSV

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
1	5	401	Mansour Al-Helei	Khalid Al-Kendi	R-X Sport	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	602:25.3
2	9	412	Bassam Kronfli	Willem Avenant	Big Red Racing	Can-Am Maverick X3 XRS Turbo RR	T4	6:19:34.7
3	11	400	Hedda Hosås	Pol Tibau	R-X Sport	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	6:24:08.8
4	12	405	Mohammed Al-Marri	Pierre Delorme	QMMF Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	6:30;26.2
5	13	408	Mohammed Al-Atteya	Alexey Kuzmich	Mohammed Al-Atteya	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	6:31:56.1
6	14	406	Hamad Al-Harbi	Faisal A-Suwayh	Hamad Al-Harbi	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	6:55:49.4
7	15	409	Camelia Liparoti	Erika Mingozzi	Al-Kuwari Racing by Apex	Yamaha YXZ1000R SS	T4	7:30;31.4
8	18	403	Rasid Al-Ketbi	Oriol Mena	R-X Sport	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	9;26:46.0
9	23	410	Nora Al-Jassasi	Jeanette Kvick	Nora Al-Jassasi	Can-Am Maverick X3 XRS Turbo RR	T4	8:44:49.3
10	24	411	Dhari Al-Thefeeri	Ali Obaid	Dhari Al-Thefeeri	Can-Am Maverick X3 XRS Turbo RR	T4	9:16:47.3
DNF	DNF	402	Fernando Álvarez	Xavier Panseri	South Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	DNF

Stock

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time
1	16	501	Majed Al-Thunayyan	Omar Al-Lahim	Majed Al-Thunayyan	Nissan Patrol	8:11:00.0
2	17	503	Abdullah Al-Rabban	Ali Al-Ajmi	Abdullah Al-Rabban	Nissan Patrol	8:47:43.1
DNF	DNF	500	Al-Mashna Al-Shamarri	Abdallah Al-Shamarri	Al-Mashna Al-Shamarri	Nissan Patrol	DNF
DNF	DNF	502	Abdullah Al-Shegawi	Ali Mirza	Abdullah Al-Shegawi	Toyota Land Cruiser Prado	DNF

FIM

Bike

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Vehicle	Total Time
1	21	Alex McInnes	Motozone Racing	KTM 450 Rally Factory Replica	5:21:29.7
2	5	Ethan Lane	MX Ride Dubai	Yamaha YZF450	5:28:05.3
3	33	Toni Mulec	SRG Motorsports	KTM 450 Rally	5:35:47.1
4	4	Konrad Dąbrowski	Duust Rally Team	KTM 450 Rally Replica	5:43:21.1
5	93	Romain Dumontier	Dumontier Racing Team	KTM 450 Rally	5:46:01.9
6	43	Abdulla Lanjawi	Abdulla Lanjawi	KTM 450 Rally	5:53:27.4
7	37	Edvard Solokolovki	Edvard Solokolovki	KTM 450 Rally	6:38:41.1
8	10	Marcin Talaga	Marcin Talaga	GasGas RX 450F Replica	6:38:51.9
9	29	Hamdan Al-Ali	Hamdan Al-Ali	Husqvarna FE 450	6:40:01.8
10	16	Philip Horlemann	Philip Horlemann	KTM 450 Rally Replica	6:51:51.6
11	42	Slawomir Sypien	Duust Rally Team	Husqvarna FR 450 Rally	6:52:44.8
12	24	Brett Hunt	Brett Hunt	Husqvarna FE 450	7:02:16.5
13	18	Mohammed Al-Kubaisi	Mohammed Al-Kubaisi	KTM 350 EXC-F	7:27:36.3
14	38	Christophe Suberville	Christophe Suberville	Kove 450 Rally EX	7:44:13.0
15	31	Mattar Al-Kaabi	MX Ride Dubai	KTM 450 Rally Replica	7:44:47.7
16	17	Tomasz Niedźwiedzki	Tomasz Niedźwiedzki	Honda CRF450RX	7:57:03.2
17	45	Jatin Jain	Desert Storm	KTM 450 Rally Replica	8:08:02.3
18	2	Abdulhalim Al-Mogeera	Abdulhalim Al-Mogeera	KTM 450 Rally	8:19:34.2
19	41	Michał Janaszek	Michał Janaszek	KTM 450 EXC	8:23:49.1
20	96	Farooq Husain	Farooq Husain	Yamaha WR450F	8:51:39.2
21	39	Ladislao Hernandez	Ladislao Hernandez	Kove 450 Rally EX	8:53:09.4
22	30	Sultan Al-Shanqiti	MX Ride Dubai	KTM 450 EXC	10:31:10.5
DNF	3	Mohammed Al-Balooshi	MX Ride Dubai	Yamaha YZF450	DNF
DNF	15	Joanna Modrzewska	Duust Rally Team	Triumph TF 450-E	DNF
DNF	23	Thomas Childs	Thomas Childs	KTM 450 Rally Replica	DNF
DNF	32	Thomas Cross	Thomas Cross	Kove 450 Rally EX	DNF
DNF	34	Asad Khan	Asad Khan	Kove 450 Rally EX	DNF
DNF	35	Mohammed Al-Muaikil	Mohammed Al-Muaikil	Kove 450 Rally EX	DNF

Quad

Finish	Number	Rider	Vehicle	Total Time
1	188	Khalifa Al-Bastaki	Yamaha Raptor 700	7:09:54.2
2	137	Ali Al-Marzouqi	Yamaha YFZ450R	7:51:35.3
3	179	Hani Al-Noumesi	Yamaha Raptor 700	7:52:50.8
4	100	Ahmed Al-Jaber	Yamaha Raptor 700	7:53:33.1
5	175	Abdulaziz Al-Atawi	Yamaha Raptor 700	9:04:22.1
DNF	174	Abdulaziz Ahli	Yamaha Raptor 700	DNF

National Auto

SSV Pro

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time
1	1	700	Sergei Kariakin	Alexey Kabanov	Snag Racing Big Red Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	5:40:27.1
2	2	711	Timofei Kuzmenko	Ivan Bezdenezhnykh	Big Red Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	5:44:10.7
3	3	705	Andreas Borgmann		Andreas Borgmann	Can-Am Maverick R	5:45:52.3
4	4	702	Konstantin Shilov	Kirill Enikeev	Konstantin Shilov	Can-Am Maverick R	6:09;35.7
5	6	710	Guo Hangting	Mizan Masud	Guo Hangting	Can-Am Maverick X3	6:35:34.5
6	7	708	Timofei Iakolev	Yaroslav Fedorov	Big Red Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	6:44:32.1
7	9	709	George Young	Patrick McMurren	Big Red Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	10:26:48.2
8	10	712	Wang Bingchun		Wang Bingchun	Can-Am Maverick X3	10:50:56.9
9	11	706	Rais Minnikhanov	Ilnaz Gizzatullin	Big Red Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	14:09:32.7
DNF	DNF	701	Maksim Deikin	Kirill Izotov	Big Red Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	DNF
DNF	DNF	703	Odil Murodov	Abubaker El-Marri Nasser	Odil Murodov	Can-Am Maverick R	DNF

SSV Stock

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time
1	5	717	Giulio Lingua	Giulia Gros	Race Middle East	Polaris RZR Pro R	6:11:33.6
2	8	716	Matthew Abraham	Soham Nadkerni	Matthew Abraham	Polaris RZR Pro R	7:27:11.2
DNF	DNF	704	Tamer Abou El-Saad	Yousef Abou El-Saad	Tamer Abou El-Saad	Polaris RZR Pro R	DNF
DNF	DNF	714	Saeed bin Maktoum bin Khalifa		Race Middle East	Polaris RZR Pro R	DNF
DNF	DNF	707	Carl Chalhoub	Karim Saad	Carl Chalhoub	Polaris RZR Pro R	DNF
DSQ	DSQ	715	Maurizio Farace	Mohamed Al-Ablam	Race Middle East	Polaris RZR Pro R	DSQ

T2 Spec

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
1	12	713	Samir Samy	Alain Besançon	Zeus Racing Team	Porsche Cayenne S	T2 Spec	14:17:41.3

Featured image credit: Fernando Álvarez