2024 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge: Nasser Al-Attiyah gets Ultimate redemption

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.

Quintero might have gone in the opposite direction in the ranking on the final leg, but his third overall is certainly still a highlight in a burgeoning rally career. Abu Dhabi was the reigning W2RC Challenger champion’s second career start in the top category after mechanical issues plagued his début in Dakar.

“It has been a wild ride this week; we opened twice, we won a stage, but here we are, in third place overall,” said Quintero. “I would like to thank the entire Toyota Gazoo Racing team for their work, we had a great car and a great race as a result of their work. While this event wasn’t particularly tough for us, we did see some of the other teams struggle so we are grateful to have completed the rally without any problems. I’ve done about 6,000 kilometres in the GR DKR Hilux EVO T1U now, and I’m feeling more comfortable with the car with each passing kilometre.”

On the other hand, Chicherit and team-mate Guillaume de Mévius left Abu Dhabi wondering what could have been. After de Mévius finished runner-up to Al-Attiyah in Stage #1 and Chicherit won the next day, both retired for the same reason as hard landings on separate days caused the former to suffer a vertebra compression while the latter’s co-driver Alex Winocq hurt his back, leaving Chicherit to finish Stage #4 by himself before exiting. Overdrive team-mate Juan Cruz Yacopini also challenged Al-Attiyah before being involved in a Stage #3 crash with Martin Prokop, and the ensuing repair process led to disqualification because his crew came within one kilometre of the vehicle while in the Selective Section.

Pau Navarro, the only Mini John Cooper Works Rally Plus in the field, edged out Saood Variawa for fifth by just two minutes. The top five marked a strong rebound after breaking his hand at Dakar.

UAE native Aliyyah Koloc finished seventh in her first ADDC in Ultimate.

“It is a tricky race, and it will be even trickier in the new car,” Koloc commented. “It is important to be careful and safe because it is hard to read the dunes. The T1+ has more power and is heavier, so that adds some challenges. Also, the dunes are very difficult, with a lot of broken dunes where it is easy to get stuck.”

The aforementioned accident with Yacopini was the icing on top of a very chaotic race for Prokop. Prior to the start, his Ford Raptor was trapped at customs along the Saudi–Emirati border and only arrived in time for very limited private testing before the Prologue. A broken driveshaft in Stage #2 placed him in a hole that he was further plunged into by the crash the next day. He managed to finish third and second in the last two legs, concluding the race in ninth.

Ultimate overall results

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Class	Time	Margin
1	206	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Édouard Boulanger	Nasser Racing	T1+	16:20:09	Leader
2	209	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Timo Gottschalk	Overdrive Racing	T1+	16:36:34	+ 16:25
3	211	Seth Quintero	Dennis Zenz	Toyota Gazoo Racing	T1+	16:47:55	+ 27:46
4	212	Marcos Baumgart	Kleber Cincea	X Rally Team	T1+	17:34:39	+ 1:14:30
5	213	Pau Navarro	Andreas Schulz	X-raid Mini JCW Team	T1+	17:47:11	+ 1:27:02
6	208	Saood Variawa	François Cazalet	Toyota Gazoo Racing	T1+	17:49:58	+ 1:29:49
7	214	Aliyyah Koloc	Sébastien Delaunay	Buggyra ZM Racing	T1+	18:31:05	+ 2:10:56
8	205	Denis Krotov	Konstantin Zhiltsov	Overdrive Racing	T1+	18:47:17	+ 2:27:08
9	204	Martin Prokop	Viktor Chytka	ORLEN Jipocar Team	T1+	21:42:17	+ 6:06:04
10	217	Ahmed El Shamy*	Hassan Obaid	Ahmed El Shamy	T1.2	22:26:13	+ 23:40:45
11	215	Lionel Baud	Lucie Baud	Overdrive Racing	T1+	40:00:54	+ 23:40:45
12	218	Roman Starikovich*	Bert Heskes	Roman Starikovich	T1.1	102:48:53	+ 86:28:44
DNF	201	Guillaume de Mévius	Xavier Panseri	Overdrive Racing	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	202	Guerlain Chicherit	Alex Winocq	Overdrive Racing	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	203	Lucas Moraes	Armand Monleón	Toyota Gazoo Racing	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	207	Cristian Baumgart	Alberto Andreotti	X Rally Team	T1+	DNF	N/A
DSQ	210	Juan Cruz Yacopini	Daniel Oliveiras	Overdrive Racing	T1+	DSQ	N/A

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

Ultimate stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	Nasser Al-Attiyah	3:02.3
Stage #1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	3:34:53
Stage #2	Guerlain Chicherit	3:15:58
Stage #3	Seth Quintero	3:38:45
Stage #4	Nasser Al-Attiyah	3:12:21
Stage #5	Nasser Al-Attiyah	2:22:37

W2RC Ultimate standings

Unlike Challenger and SSV, Ultimate does not have its own class-specific trophy and instead has a single championship where drivers from all three points-paying categories are eligible.

For readability, competitors registered for the championship who have not earned points are excluded.

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Carlos Sainz	76	Leader
2	Nasser Al-Attiyah	67	– 9
3	Guerlain Chicherit	64	– 12
4	Guillaume de Mévius	62	– 14
5	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	51	– 25
6	Lucas Moraes	45	– 31
7	Martin Prokop	36	– 40
8	Seth Quintero	35	– 41
9	Mathieu Serradori	32	– 44
T-10	Austin Jones	26	– 50
T-10	Rokas Baciuška	26	– 50
T-10	Denis Krotov	26	– 50
13	Saood Variawa	22	– 54
T-14	Cristian Baumgart	16	– 60
T-14	Yasir Seaidan	16	– 60
16	Mattias Ekström	15	– 61
17	Marcos Baumgart	14	– 62
18	Stéphane Peterhansel	13	– 63
T-19	Mitch Guthrie	11	– 65
T-19	Juan Cruz Yacopini	11	– 65
21	Pau Navarro	9	– 67
22	Sebastián Guayasamín	7	– 69
23	Aliyyah Koloc	6	– 70
T-24	Sara Price	4	– 72
T-24	Eugenio Amos	4	– 72
T-24	Dania Akeel	4	– 72
T-27	Krzysztof Hołowczyc	3	– 73
T-27	Rebecca Busi	3	– 73
29	Marcelo Gastaldi	2	– 74

Co-drivers’ standings

Rank	Co-Driver	Points	Margin
1	Lucas Cruz	76	Leader
2	Alex Winocq	64	– 12
T-3	Xavier Panseri	62	– 14
T-3	Édouard Boulanger	62	– 14
5	Timo Gottschalk	51	– 25
6	Armand Monleón	45	– 31
7	Viktor Chytka	36	– 40
8	Dennis Zenz	35	– 41
9	Loïc Minaudier	32	– 44
T-10	Oriol Vidal	26	– 50
T-10	Konstantin Zhiltsov	26	– 50
12	François Cazalet	22	– 54
13	Oriol Mena	19	– 57
14	Mathieu Baumel	18	– 58
15	Alberto Andreotti	16	– 60
16	Emil Bergkvist	15	– 61
17	Kleber Kincea	14	– 62
T-18	Kellon Walch	11	– 65
T-18	Daniel Oliveiras	11	– 65
T-18	Michaël Metge	11	– 65
21	Andreas Schulz	9	– 67
T-22	Gustavo Gugelmin	7	– 69
T-22	Fernando Matias Acosta	7	– 69
24	Sébastien Delaunay	6	– 70
25	Adrien Metge	5	– 71
T-26	Paolo Ceci	4	– 72
T-26	Jeremy Gray	4	– 72
T-26	Stéphane Duplé	4	– 72
T-29	Łukasz Kurzeja	3	– 42
T-29	Sergio Lafuente	3	– 42
31	Carlos Sachs	2	– 43

Manufacturers’ standings

Rank	Manufacturer	Points	Margin
1	Toyota	108	Leader
2	Prodrive	77	– 31
3	Audi	76	– 32
4	Mini	35	– 73