By RaceScene Publisher on Saturday, 04 March 2023
Category: The Checkered Flag

2023 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge: Yazeed Al-Rajhi becomes first Saudi ADDC winner in T1

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates might be neighbouring countries, but a Saudi competitor had never won the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge‘s overall until 2023 courtesy of Yazeed Al-Rajhi.

One could argue victory had slipped into Al-Rajhi’s grasp as Nasser Al-Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb—who have been the top teams in the World Rally-Raid Championship since its inception and comprised the top two in the standings—were struck by misfortune that took them out of contention, but he maximised his opportunity when it opened. Al-Attiyah, the Dakar Rally winner and three-time ADDC champion, had dominated by winning the Prologue and first three stages before flipping in Stage #3; despite making it to the finish and winning the leg, his Toyota Hilux T1+ was too damaged to continue.

A cooling pipe was Loeb’s downfall in just the first stage. Unlike Al-Attiyah, Loeb’s problem was somewhat solvable and he rejoined the race, though a fifty-hour penalty was imposed for him changing his engine block. Loeb’s team-mate Guerlain Chicherit withdrew after Stage #1 due to motion sickness.

Al-Rajhi did not win any of the five stages, but his consistency placed him in prime position to capitalise on his rivals’ troubles. He finished second in Stages #1 and #2, fourth in Stage #3, and third in Stage #4 with the lattermost being his first leg as the overall leader. Entering the fifth and final leg, he led Martin Prokop by over ten minutes, a gap that Prokop was unable to close as he instead finished two minutes behind Al-Rajhi.

Despite being one of the top drivers in the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, of which he is the reigning champion, Al-Rajhi was often stuck playing third fiddle to Al-Attiyah and Loeb in the W2RC. Although somewhat circumstantial due to the two’s elimination, he finally secured his spot atop the podium for the first time since the W2RC’s formation. It is also a strong comeback after he missed the FIA World Cup season opener in early February due to broken ribs in a post-Dakar skiing accident.

“Praise be to God, by the grace and success of God, I achieved first place today in the world championship round held in Abu Dhabi in the desert of the Empty Quarter,” posted Al-Rajhi. “With this achievement, I am the first Saudi to win this difficult and dangerous rally over the past 32 years.”

While placing a distant eleventh in the general classification, Loeb simply reaching the finish was a major boon for his W2RC points lead as he scrounged together fourteen bonus points for his stage finishes, including winning the fourth. Al-Attiyah’s three stage victories plus the Prologue do not count for his championship total due to his retirement, leaving him sixteen points back of Loeb.

“We’ve taken some very good points for the championship and that’s the best we could expect when we got here in coming away with the lead intact,” Loeb commented. “We’ve increased our lead fromtwo to sixteen points so I think we have to be happy after the problems we had early on in the event.”

Interestingly, every T1 stage winner ended up at the bottom of the overall due to stage retirements. Henk Lategan, Al-Attiyah’s Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate and the only other stage winner when he took the fifth, bowed out of Stage #2 due to an issue with his Hilux’s turbo.

“Overall, the 2023 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge did not yield the result we had hoped for from Nasser and Mathieu (Baumel), but they will be back in the fight at Round 3, the Sonora Rally in Mexico,” said TGR principal Alain Dujardyn. “As for Henk and Brett (Cummings), they learnt a lot from their experience here in Abu Dhabi, and we are encouraged by their overall pace.”

Of the four T1 drivers not competing for W2RC points, Khalid Al Qassimi was the best finisher in fifth overall. Lategan was the only other finisher of the quartet though marred by the turbo failure.

Oriol Mena, who won the Dakar Rally T4 as co-driver to Eryk Goczał, placed seventh in his first T1+ start alongside Guoyu Zhang. Despite the language barrier, with Zhang not speaking English while Mena doesn’t know Chinese, the two “improvised” with “simple words that has worked for us”. Zhang and fellow Chinese driver Zi Yunliang were the last in T1 to finish the race without attaining penalties.

T1 overall results

FinishNumberDriverCo-DriverTeamTimeMargin
1207Yazeed Al-RajhiTimo GottschalkOverdrive Racing16:28:06Leader
2203Martin ProkopViktor ChytkaORLEN Benzina Team16:40:37+ 12:31
3204Juan Cruz YacopiniDani OliveirasOverdrive Racing17:01:03+ 32:57
4205Sebastian HalpernBernardo GraueX-raid Team17:02:35+ 34:29
5214Khalid Al Qassimi*Ola FloeneAbu Dhabi Team17:17:30+ 49:24
6206Wei HanMa LiHanwei Motorsport18:09:34+ 1:41:28
7209Guoyu ZhangOriol MenaOverdrive Racing/BAIC ORV18:12:52+ 1:44:46
8210Zi YunliangSha HeBAIC ORV21:32:34+ 5:04:28
9211Henk Lategan*Brett CummingsToyota Gazoo Racing38:14:58+ 21:46:52
10213Magdalena ZajacJacek CzachorProxcars TME Rally Team50:41:40+ 34:13:34
11200Sébastien LoebFabian LurquinBahrain Raid Xtreme87:30:17+ 71:02:11
DNF201Nasser Al-AttiyahMathieu BaumelToyota Gazoo RacingDNFN/A
DNF202Guerlain ChicheritAlex WinocqGCK MotorsportDNFN/A
DNF208Denis KrotovKonstantin ZhiltsovX-raid TeamDNFN/A
DNF212Po TianDu XuanyiHanwei MotorsportDNFN/A
DNF215Yahya Al-Helei*Khalid Al-KendiYahya Al-HeleiDNFN/A
DNF216Abdulla Al-Zubair*Faisal Al-RaisiAbdulla Al-ZubairDNFN/A
* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

T1 stage winners

StageNumberDriverTeamTime
Prologue201Nasser Al-AttiyahToyota Gazoo Racing4:45
Stage #1201Nasser Al-AttiyahToyota Gazoo Racing3:13:36
Stage #2201Nasser Al-AttiyahToyota Gazoo Racing3:33:39
Stage #3201Nasser Al-AttiyahToyota Gazoo Racing3:51:45
Stage #4200Sébastien LoebBahrain Raid Xtreme2:28:10
Stage #5211Henk Lategan*Toyota Gazoo Racing2:36:11

Overall winners

ClassNumberCompetitorTeamTime
T1207Yazeed Al-RajhiOverdrive Racing16:28:06
T3302Seth QuinteroRed Bull Off-Road Junior Team16:58:31
T4400Rokas BaciuškaRed Bull Can-Am Factory Racing17:25:47
RallyGP42Adrien Van BeverenMonster Energy Honda Rally Team17:13:39
Rally296Tobias Ebster*SRG Motorsports2:36:51
Quad174Abdulaziz AhliAbu Dhabi Team22:01:51

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