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After a month off, the World Rally-Raid Championship roared back to life this past week with the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.

Missed The Checkered Flag‘s daily coverage? We’ve got you covered with a nifty archive of our stories below.

Pre-race stories

Mid-race stories

Stage winners

Overall winners

With only two riders competing in the premier RallyGP class at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the Rally2 division had their best opportunity to shine in a long time, if not ever as one of their own was guaranteed to be on the overall podium. DUUST Rally Team went beyond that by placing two riders in the top three with Konrad Dąbrowski and Jean-Loup Lepan.

Dąbrowski could have very well won the ADDC outright, coming up just four minutes and fifty-six seconds short of RallyGP’s Aaron Marè. While Marè led the overall from the second stage onwards, his team-mate Ross Branch’s early mechanical issues prevented him from cracking the podium himself and left two spots up for grabs for Rally2.

In fact, the Rally2 party began as early as Stage #1 when Michael Docherty held off Marè by three minutes for the overall win, becoming the first rider from the class to win a stage among all bikes since Mason Klein beat Daniel Sanders for the 2021 Rallye du Maroc’s Stage #4 victory. However, his ADDC came to an end the next day when he crashed just five kilometres after starting the leg, resulting in a fractured pelvis.

Dąbrowski and Marè stopped their races to help Docherty, earning the former nearly twenty-five minutes in time credits that he parlayed into the Rally2 stage win and bike runner-up. Lepan and Dąbrowski traded 1–2 finishes every stage for the rest of the rally.

Entering the final day, Lepan trailed Dąbrowski by 11:51. Despite his best efforts, his team-mate was too quick and instead beat him by 2:40 to secure his maiden Rally2 victory under World Rally-Raid Championship sanction. Dąbrowski also won the Junior Trophy for riders under the age of twenty-five.

The last time the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge‘s Quad category was won by someone besides Abdulaziz Ahli, COVID-19 had yet to exist. Ahli, who has won every edition since its resumption in 2021, found himself in a very easy position to score a fourth consecutive win with just two rivals, both of whom experienced mechanical trouble that knocked them out of contention.

After winning all but one stage in 2023 against five other riders, Ahli completed a clean sweep as he claimed all five legs (excluding the five-kilometre Prologue) in 2024. He joins Marc Coma as the only competitors to win the ADDC at least four times in a row; Coma achieved a five-peat from 2009 to 2013 in the bike category.

Kamil Wiśniewski, who missed the season-opening Dakar Rally due to injury, seemed poised for a strong rebound when he was the fastest Quad in the Prologue, edging out Ahli by three seconds. However, he quickly fell an hour behind Ahli in Stage #1 due to overheating temperatures on his Yamaha Raptor. Two days later, he was forced to retire from the race altogether when he crashed in the dunes, destroying the electronics on the vehicle.

Hani Al-Noumesi, the only rider of the three to run the Dakar Rally in January, never stood a chance against Ahli as he finished at least an hour behind Ahli in all five legs. He inherited second after Wiśniewski’s exit, but the closest margin between him and Ahli was 1:06:34 in Stage #5.

Hans Brehmer and Paweł Otwinowski were originally entered, the latter finishing sixth in the 2023 ADDC, but withdrew before the start. CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team, who made their World Rally-Raid Championship début in last year’s race, skipped Abu Dhabi due to shipping concerns related to the crisis in the Red Sea. Although he did not race, Dakar winner Manuel Andújar remains the class points leader while Al-Noumesi jumps from seventh to second; Ahli inserted himself in fourth, though he traditionally only runs the ADDC. Had Wiśniewski reached the finish, he would have earned twenty points to tie with defending champion Laisvydas Kancius for sixth.

In a stunning debut performance, Callum Ilott clinched second place at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, marking his first outing with Hertz Team JOTA in the Hypercar category.

The near-1,200-mile race, illuminated by the glow of floodlights in its final stages, saw Ilott, alongside teammates Will Stevens and Norman Nato, secure not only the team’s inaugural Hypercar podium but also an 11-point lead in the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams.

The #12 Porsche 963, piloted by the talented trio, remained in podium contention throughout the grueling 10-hour race, showcasing impressive consistency and pace against formidable competition.

Reflecting on the achievement, Ilott expressed his elation at the strong start to the season, emphasizing the significance of securing the lead in the FIA World Cup standings for Hypercar Teams. He commended the exceptional efforts of Hertz Team JOTA, highlighting the seamless transition into the Hypercar category and praising the performance of his teammates.

Ilott said, “What a start to the year! I’m delighted with second place overall and the first ‘privateer’ team home which gives us the lead in the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams standings. Hertz Team JOTA did an amazing job and the team was incredible to work with. They made it super easy for me on my Hypercar debut as did my team-mates Norman [Nato] and Will [Stevens] who were both fast and did solid jobs.”

Heading into the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, the BWT Alpine F1 Team were worried they were going to start the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season on the back foot, and their concerns were soon proven to be correct.

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly qualified nineteenth and twentieth at the Bahrain International Circuit and finished seventeenth and eighteenth, ahead only of the heavily delayed Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant, both of whom had technical issues.

The car is supposedly overweight and unstable, and with the power unit already underpowered compared to their rivals, and the pain was evident across the board in Bahrain.

And heading into the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Alpine has announced a shuffle in its technical department, with technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer leaving their positions.

Team Principal Bruno Famin now has a new technical team beneath him, with Joe Burnell announced as technical director (engineering), David Wheater as technical director (aerodynamics) and Ciaron Pilbeam as technical director (performance).  Eric Meignan remains in his position as technical director (power unit), although his focus is on developing the new engine for the 2026 season.

Mansour Al-Helei might not be competing for the World Rally-Raid Championship, but he was more than happy to put on a show for his fellow Emiratis on his home soil. Al-Helei and Yasir Seaidan, from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, squared off for the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge SSV victory, with Al-Helei narrowly coming out on top.

The margin between the two was as close as eighteen seconds at one point, when Seaidan won Stage #3 to take the overall lead from Al-Helei. Entering the final day, Al-Helei was clinging onto a 1:22 edge over Seaidan, a margin that could have been even closer had the latter not received seventy seconds in time penalties. Despite Seaidan’s efforts, he was unable to catch Al-Helei in Stage #5 as the gap nearly doubled. The 2:42 separating them was the closest final margin of victory among all six categories.

While coming up short, Seaidan being the top finisher among W2RC-eligible drivers gives him more of an advantage in the standings. He had also left the season-opening Dakar Rally as the best finishing championship competitor despite finishing third overall, and repeating this feat puts him nearly sixty points ahead of Sebastián Guayasamín, who joined him and Al-Helei on the outright podium. Rebecca Busi, who missed the 2023 ADDC due to logistical issues, notched her first career W2RC podium finish.

Abu Dhabi was the first race for Seaidan with Michaël Metge as navigator. He worked with his younger brother Adrien Metge at Dakar while Michaël finished runner-up there as the co-driver for Jérôme de Sadeleer, meaning the elder Metge is riding a two-race SSV runner-up streak.

Father and son duo Michele and Pietro Cinotto respectively finished fifth and ninth, the latter entering his first championship race outside of Dakar. Unlike his son, Michele is registered for points.

The Dakar Rally was a disappointment for Can-Am Factory Team, who went from reigning champion to only winning a single stage. Hoping to put the opener behind them, Rokas Baciuška and Austin Jones bounced back in style at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge as the former finished second in all but one stage while the latter claimed three stages en route to his third World Rally-Raid Championship win and first outside of Dakar.

Jones, now with Oriol Mena as his co-driver following Gustavo Gugelmin‘s exit from the sport, set the tone early by winning the first two stages, then added a third on the penultimate day. They were Jones’ first stage victories since Stage #3 at the 2023 Dakar Rally en route to winning the race’s T3 (now Challenger) overall.

Although his three wins led all Challenger drivers in Abu Dhabi, Jones was never able to build a comfortable lead due to Baciuška’s consistency. While third place was over forty minutes behind Jones by Stage #4, Baciuška’s four consecutive runner-up finishes from Stages #1 to #4 meant he never trailed by more than seven minutes. Nonetheless, Baciuška still faced a tough task entering the final day when he needed to make up 6:37. Although he finished ahead of Jones in the stage, he was only able to shave 1:59 off the gap and finished 4:38 back.

“Isn’t easy to have a good feeling from the first minute inside the car and I think we have had it,” said Mena, who joined Jones’ team after previously working with Eryk Goczał; Mena and Goczał, the 2023 Dakar SSV victors, won five Challenger stages in the 2024 edition prior to being disqualified. “A great experience at your side and a well-deserved victory.”

Hernán Garcés finished third to complete a Can-Am top three sweep, though Dania Akeel joined Jones and Baciuška on the podium for those earning points in the W2RC.

Aaron Marè was going to race a KTM 450 Rally for SRG Motorsports at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge when Wolfgang Fischer, just days before the start, asked him to rejoin Hero MotoSports in place of the injured Sebastian Bühler. One week later, Marè led the charge to Hero’s maiden World Rally-Raid Championship win.

Marè, who last raced a W2RC round at the 2022 Dakar Rally with Hero (also as an injury substitute), and team-mate Ross Branch were the only entrants in the RallyGP category as many factory teams like Honda and KTM scaled back their rally efforts due to funding or their riders competing somewhere else. Even if this meant a two-man battle in the class, the lower Rally2 category still provided more than enough competition for the duo as eventual Rally2 winner Konrad Dąbrowski and Jean-Loup Lepan kept pace.

Branch, the Dakar runner-up, hoped to be the man to deliver Hero’s first victory and set the stage early by winning the Prologue while Marè finished behind Rally2 riders Michael Docherty and Tobias Ebster. His momentum continued early into Stage #1 before mechanical issues like an engine problem struck, dropping him to sixth and 25:28 behind Marè. Marè, still getting re-acclimated to the Hero 450 Rally, narrowly lost to Docherty, a fellow South African.

An engine change, which comes with a fifteen-minute time penalty, effectively ruined Branch’s hopes of winning the overall barring a dramatic comeback or disaster for Marè. Both split the final four stages as Marè rode off to win by nearly nearly forty minutes. With Branch so far back in the RallyGP overall, Marè’s main focus was on staving off the Rally2 onslaught; Docherty had retired after crashing in Stage #2, leaving Dąbrowski and Lepan in hot pursuit.

Marè led Dąbrowski by ten minutes entering the final day. Dąbrowski finished second in Stage #5, but only beat him by six minutes and Marè held on with a 4:56 margin of victory.

In 2023, Nasser Al-Attiyah was dominating the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge until he rolled his Toyota Hilux in Stage #3, marking his first retirement from an international rally raid in nearly a decade. One year later, now in a Prodrive Hunter, he held off his old Toyota colleagues for the victory.

After a frustrating start to the World Rally-Raid Championship when he was forced to retire from the Dakar Rally, Al-Attiyah quickly regained his footing in Abu Dhabi when he won the Prologue and Stage #1. His former team Toyota Gazoo Racing quickly put the pressure on him from there as his successors Lucas Moraes and Seth Quintero and Overdrive Racing‘s Guerlain Chicherit and reigning winner Yazeed Al-Rajhi gave chase, with Chicherit and Quintero scoring stage wins of their own.

The third stage once again proved to be an unlucky number for Al-Attiyah in the ADDC as he lost the overall lead to Quintero, who enjoyed his first win in the Ultimate category, albeit a bittersweet victory for TGR as Moraes retired after his Hilux caught fire at the finish. Al-Attiyah responded with back-to-back stage wins to close out the rally, the first of which forced Quintero to make up 9:21 on the final day to catch him. A fifteen-minute penalty for missing a waypoint ended Quintero’s pursuit and he lost a spot to Al-Rajhi in the overall.

Unlike at Dakar, where he was joined by six, Al-Attiyah had few allies in Abu Dhabi as Marcos and Cristian Baumgart were the only other Hunters on the grid. Marcos finished fourth, too far back to make the podium, while Cristian retired after a rollover in Stage #1. Although without the strength in numbers, which helped propel Toyota to the lead in the manufacturer’s championship, Al-Attiyah’s Hunter did not let him down like it did in the opener as he scored his fourth ADDC triumph alongside 2008, 2016, and 2021. Prodrive also enjoyed their third W2RC win after Chicherit and Sébastien Loeb at the 2022 Rallye du Maroc and Andalucía Rally, respectively.

The triumph moves Al-Attiyah up to second in the championship behind Carlos Sainz, whose Team Audi Sport shut down after the Dakar due to a lack of parts. The FIA fined the team for their absence as they had registered for the full season. Édouard Boulanger, the navigator for Audi driver and 2022 ADDC champion Stéphane Peterhansel, joined Al-Attiyah for the rest of the season starting in Abu Dhabi.

Peugeot TotalEnergies car #93 have been disqualified from the Qatar 1812km. In a press release, the French team revealed the reason why their #93 Peugeot 9X8 suddenly lost power in the final moments of the opening round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), rendering it unable to make it back to the pits under its own steam after the chequered flag.

According to Peugeot’s press release, the sudden loss of power was due to the car running out of fuel. As a result, the car could only limp around on hybrid electric power alone, something which teams are only allowed to do if they pit at the end of that lap. The car crossed the line in 7th place, but, as they failed to pit, the car was disqualified.

The #93 Peugeot of Mikkel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne and Nico Müller had put on a spectacular performance for the majority of the race. On lap 16 of the 325 lap race, Müller made a superb move around the outside of turn 1 on the leading Ferrari 499P to take the lead of the race. He successfully defended the lead from the faster #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport, which would eventually go on to win the race, until lap 54.

Peugeot managed to stay within roughly 30 seconds of the lead Porsche for the majority of the race. Only towards the end of the race did a significant margin begin to appear between the two. The #93 was being hunted by the #12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche and the #5 Porsche with Matt Campbell at the wheel, the man who had put that car on pole. With two laps to go, less than 3 seconds separated the three cars.

Suddenly, on lap 334 out of 335, Vergne slowed down in the Peugeot. It looked like a sudden loss of power had afflicted the #93 car, cruelly denying it a podium. The car limped across the line to finish 7th on the overall standings. However, due to Vergne crossing the line under electric power only and not making it back to parc fermé, after 10 hours of almost flawless racing, the #93 car was disqualified.

The opening FIA Formula 1 World Championship race of the 2024 season is now in the books, and it was Max Verstappen who completed a Grand Slam, winning the race from pole position, leading all fifty-seven laps and securing fastest lap to boot!

The podium was completed by the second Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 of Sergio Perez, with the podium being completed by Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr.

In part two, those who missed out on points in the race look back at their Saturday evenings under the floodlights at the Bahrain International Circuit.

#24 – Guanyu Zhou – Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber

“Today, we maximised everything we could, and I am happy we were able to fight so closely for the points. We had a clean race with a good start where I was able to make up some positions, but it was quite challenging to keep the Aston Martins behind without compromising our tyres.

The opening FIA Formula 1 World Championship race of the 2024 season is now in the books, and it was Max Verstappen who completed a Grand Slam, winning the race from pole position, leading all fifty-seven laps and securing fastest lap to boot!

The podium was completed by the second Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 of Sergio Perez, with the podium being completed by Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr.

The points scorers in the race look back at their Saturday evenings under the floodlights at the Bahrain International Circuit.

#1 – Max Verstappen – Oracle Red Bull Racing

“It was a special one today. These kind of days don’t happen that often where the car feels spot on, including the balance and feeling of the car and everything went really well.

For those hoping that the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season would be closer than in 2023, the Bahrain Grand Prix put paid to many of those hopes as Max Verstappen took victory on Saturday evening from pole position having led every lap and taking fastest lap to boot.

The beginning of the weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit saw Verstappen and Oracle Red Bull Racing appear to struggle, and it was only in Q3 during Qualifying where the Dutchman first took top spot in any session.

However, come race day, the reigning triple World Champion was in a class of his own as, once he stayed in the lead at the start of the race, he was untouchable, with all of the action happening behind him as he dominated for an eighth consecutive victory.

Verstappen Wins, but Battles Rage Behind

Verstappen withstood a first corner attack from fellow front row starter Charles Leclerc at the start, but the Dutchman was already out of DRS range when it became active just a lap into the Grand Prix.

A slow start by Nico Hülkenberg saw him slip a couple of places down the order, but the slow nature of turn one caught him out, with the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team driver tipping Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team’s Lance Stroll into a spin.

The top two in nearly every class was separated by minutes going into the fifth and final stage of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, and the leg being an open dash to the finish meant those trailing had to give their all. Alas, the margin was too great as those who entered the day as the leader earned the victory in the end.

Nasser Al-Attiyah led Seth Quintero in the FIA overall by 9:21, and only reinforced his win as he won Stage #5 ahead of Martin Prokop, the latter enjoying a string of podium finishes after crashing out of the third day. Even if Quintero had been able to pull it off, he would have lost anyway due to a fifteen-minute time penalty for missing a waypoint. This dropped him from his original finish of third to seventh, while allowing Yazeed Al-Rajhi to leapfrog him in the overall for second.

Rokas Baciuška‘s streak of finishing second in every ADDC Challenger stage ended Saturday when he finished third behind Cristina Gutiérrez and Nicolás Cavigliasso. Although he beat Austin Jones for the final stage podium spot, he only won by 1:59 and needed to make up another four-and-a-half minutes to catch him for the overall. Nonetheless, Can-Am Factory Team still enjoyed a 1–2 overall finish.

An even closer battle took place in SSV, where Mansour Al-Helei went into Saturday leading Yasir Seaidan by a mere 1:22. Seaidan was never able to catch Al-Helei in the 206-km run back to Abu Dhabi as the former won by 1:20 to pad the margin.

Konrad Dąbrowski held off Jean-Loup Lepan for both the stage and overall victories in Rally2, beating him by 2:40. Dąbrowski had even led all bikes in the early portion of the stage before being passed by Ross Branch, who beat his team-mate Aaron Marè by eight minutes but had to make up an improbable gap of 47:55 to win in RallyGP. Despite finishing the stage fourth for bikes and behind Dąbrowski, Marè still held him off to be the top bike outright. Dąbrowski was able to narrow the gap to less than five minutes from 10:14, coming up short by 4:56.

The 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) kicked off in superb style with a brilliant victory for Porsche Penske Motorsport. The #6 car looked masterful throughout the race, as indeed it did throughout the weekend. Callum Ilott claimed a magnificent second place in his debut with Hertz Team JOTA, with the #5 Porsche Penske making it an astonishing all-Porsche podium.

If that wasn’t enough, the first ever LMGT3 victory went Porsche’s way as well. Manthay PureRxing claimed victory in their Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3, leading home the two Aston Martins of Heart of Racing Team and D’Station Racing.

Speaking after the race, Kevin Estre of the #6 Porsche said “thanks a lot to the whole team. They made an amazing car for the weekend with great balance and no issues. I’m really pleased and happy where we end up today compared to last year! It feels great to be on the top of the podium and we’ll definitely enjoy it!“

The inaugural Qatar 1812km delivered a superb endurance race, with the action ebbing and flowing throughout, countless battles and changes for position, soaring excitement and genuine heartbreak. It was a fascinating race from start to finish.

Race Report

It was a great start by Miguel Molina in the #50 Ferrari AF Corse, swinging round the outside of turn one ahead of the #7 Toyota and the pole position #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport. On the opening laps, Toyota dropped to 8th, continuing a disappointing week for the Japanese team.