2024 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge: Leaders seal the deal in Stage 5

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.

Abdulaziz Ahli cruised to complete a sweep in Quad.

Although the shortest stage, it was not completely free from drama. Justin Gerlach described the leg as a “super fast stage with tricky dunes and tricky navigation” that was “full of dangerous bumps and ruts that easily could lead to an accident.” His friend and Malle Moto rider Florian Dietrich was among the victims and crashed before the refuel point, preventing him from completing the full stage, though he decided to accept the accompanying time penalties and successfully arrived at the finish in Abu Dhabi.

Stage #5 winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
Ultimate	206	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Nasser Racing	2:22:37
Challenger	306	Cristina Gutiérrez*	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	2:35:12
SSV	411	Mansour Al-Helei*	R-X Sport	2:39:25
RallyGP	46	Ross Branch	Hero MotoSports	2:32:58
Rally2	26	Konrad Dąbrowski	DUUST Rally Team	2:35:40
Quad	174	Abdulaziz Ahli	Abu Dhabi Team	3:05:23

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
Ultimate	206	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Nasser Racing	16:20:09
Challenger	304	Austin Jones	Can-Am Factory Team	17:10:50
SSV	411	Mansour Al-Helei*	R-X Sport	17:42:37
RallyGP	44	Aaron Marè	Hero MotoSports	16:36:13
Rally2	26	Konrad Dąbrowski	DUUST Rally Team	16:41:09
Malle Moto	40	Hamdan Al-Ali*	Hamdan Al-Ali	21:47:30
Junior Trophy	26	Konrad Dąbrowski	DUUST Rally Team	16:41:09
Veteran Trophy	92	David Mabbs	Vendetta Racing UAE	21:10:24
Quad	174	Abdulaziz Ahli	Abu Dhabi Team	20:14:22