Rokas Baciuška was the model of consistency at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge when he finished second across four of five stages, but it wasn’t enough to win the Challenger overall. While his BP Ultimate Rally-Raid finishes were more varied, he capitalised on his rivals’ mechanical troubles to score his first career win in the category.

Baciuška only recorded two podium finishes and even ended the race outside the top ten with an eleventh, but a Stage #3 win propelled him to the overall lead that he maintained across the final three days. He finished third in the first stage, but found himself fighting for position as he narrowly beat Paulo Jorge Rodrigues by two seconds to finish tenth in Stage #2.

At the front, Sébastien Loeb and João Dias were the stars of the show to start. Dias, who the reigning FIA European Baja Cup T3 champion, won the opening stage and went on to claim the T3 class overall on the Portuguese Cross Country Championship side.

Loeb, who finished third at the Dakar Rally in the Ultimate class, opted to drop down to Challenger for Portugal as Prodrive is focusing on developing the Dacia programme that will début at the season-ending Rallye du Maroc in October. Although new to the side-by-side class, he immediately made waves in his Taurus by winning Stage #2 and finishing just thirty-five seconds behind FIA overall stage and eventual rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah.

Stage #3 ended up being their undoing as Loeb’s engine began to overheat while a gas pipe burst in Dias’ Can-Am Maverick. Loeb salvaged another stage win and a third in Stage #5, but finished outside the top ten overall. Dias notched a second in Stage #4 and settled for eighth. Although not the finish he wanted, Loeb described the Taurus as “fun to drive,” echoing sentiment shared by his longtime rival-turned-Prodrive colleague Al-Attiyah when he tested the car last July.

With Loeb and Dias out of the picture, Baciuška and CPTT competitor Armindo Araújo were promoted into the top two positions and separated by seven minutes (one minute was added to Araújo’s time for a penalty). Araújo could not close the gap over the final three legs but managed to hold off Nicolás Cavigliasso for runner-up.

“The rally was kind of different to the others in the World Championship,” said Baciuška. “The stages were very technical so they gave us a different kind of challenge.”

Austin Jones, who beat Baciuška for the Abu Dhabi win, finished sixth, admitting it was “tough to adjust to the wet conditions.” Still, he was glad to leave Portugal with some points towards the championship, though the margin between him and Baciuška has grown from fourteen to thirty-four points.

With Mitch Guthrie absent, Cavigliasso moves past him for third in the standings and five points behind Jones.

Ghislain de Mévius, who lost the European Baja T3 title to Dias on a tiebreaker, endured a slow start to finish third and fifth in Stages #3 and #4; he led much of the latter and initially placed second, but received a five-minute penalty to drop him to his final position. However, the otherwise poor finishes relegated him to twelfth in the end.

Dakar Challenger champion Cristina Gutiérrez retired after crashing into a ditch on the first leg.

Challenger overall results

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	300	Rokas Baciuška	Oriol Vidal	Can-Am Factory Team	10:23:30	Leader
2	312	Armindo Araújo*	Pedro Ré	Santag Racing	10:31:14	+ 7:44
3	302	Nicolás Cavigliasso	Valentina Pertegarini	Wevers Sport	10:31:52	+ 8:22
4	305	Ricardo Porém	Luís Marques	MMP Compétition	10:33:10	+ 9:40
5	313	Alexandre Pinto*	Bernardo Oliveira	Alexandre Pinto	10:34:18	+ 10:48
6	301	Austin Jones	Oriol Mena	Can-Am Factory Team	10:41:26	+ 17:56
7	306	Mário Franco	João Serôdio	Franco Sport	10:50:25	+ 26:55
8	311	João Dias*	João Miranda	Santag Racing	10:51:03	+ 27:33
9	319	Hélder Rodrigues*	Gonçalo Reis	Hélder Rodrigues	10:56:18	+ 32:48
10	309	Hernán Garcés*	Juan Pablo Latrach	South Racing Can-Am	11:05:26	+ 41:56
11	307	Sébastien Loeb*	Fabian Lurquin	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	11:05:45	+ 42:15
12	310	Ghislain de Mévius*	Johan Jalet	GRallyTeam	11:16:17	+ 52:47
13	304	Dania Akeel	Stéphane Duplé	Wevers Sport	11:19:32	+ 56:02
14	326	Pedro Gonçalves*	Rui Franco	Pedro Gonçalves	11:33:42	+ 1:10:12
15	328	Nuno Rogério*	Pedro Santos	Nuno Rogério	11:38:54	+ 1:15:24
16	329	Marco Pereira*	Eurico Adão	Santag Racing	12:19:28	+ 1:55:58
17	322	Paulo Jorge Rodrigues*	Miguel Salvador	Paulo Jorge Rodrigues	12:29:45	+ 2:06:15
18	303	Marcelo Gastaldi	Carlos Sachs	BBR Motorsport	13:01:53	+ 2:38:23
19	318	William Buller*	Daniel Jordão	William Buller	13:28:08	+ 3:04:38
20	316	Luís Portela Morais*	David Megre	GRallyTeam	23:25:30	+ 13:02:00
21	327	Sérgio Vitorino*	André Marçal Lopes	Sérgio Vitorino	24:19:32	+ 13:56:02
22	314	Francisco Guedes*	Joel Lutas	Francisco Guedes	25:00:47	+ 14:37:17
23	325	Óscar Ral Verdu*	Xavier Blanco	Buggy Masters Team	25:11:10	+ 14:47:40
24	331	Puck Klaassen*	Augusto Sanz	Wevers Sport	34:11:05	+ 23:47:35
25	317	Rui Carneiro*	Ola Fløene	GRallyTeam	39:21:00	+ 28:57:30
26	324	Ricardo Sousa*	Jorge Brandão	Ricardo Sousa	44:28:34	+ 34:05:04
DNF	308	Cristina Gutiérrez*	Pablo Moreno Huete	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	315	Miguel Barbosa*	Luís Ramalho	Miguel Barbosa	DNF	N/A
DNF	320	Luís Cidade*	Pedro Mendonça	Santag Racing	DNF	N/A
DNF	321	Jordi Segura*	Sergi Brugue	FN Speed Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	323	Adroaldo Weisheimer*	Albert Andreotti	GRallyTeam	DNF	N/A
DNF	330	Roberto Rodriguez Gamboa*	Herman Rodriguez Gamboa	Roberto Rodriguez Gamboa	DNF	N/A

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

Challenger stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	Luís Portela Morais*	3:41.9
Stage #1	João Dias*	1:15:25
Stage #2	Sébastien Loeb*	1:47:56
Stage #3	Rokas Baciuška	3:33:32
Stage #4	Sébastien Loeb*	2:39:34
Stage #5	Nicolás Cavigliasso	50:31

W2RC Challenger standings

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

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Rokas Baciuška	160	Leader
2	Austin Jones	126	– 34
3	Nicolás Cavigliasso	121	– 39
4	Marcelo Gastaldi	97	– 63
5	Mitch Guthrie	85	– 75
T-6	Dania Akeel	64	– 96
T-6	Ricardo Porém	64	– 96
8	Mário Franco	47	– 113
9	David Zille	19	– 141

Co-drivers’ standings

Rank	Co-Driver	Points	Margin
1	Oriol Vidal	160	Leader
2	Valentina Pertegarini	121	– 39
3	Carlos Sachs	97	– 63
4	Kellon Walch	85	– 75
5	Oriol Mena	78	– 82
6	Stéphane Duplé	64	– 96
7	Gustavo Gugelmin	48	– 112
T-8	Augusto Sanz	32	– 128
T-8	Luís Marques	32	– 128
10	João Serôdio	27	– 133
11	Daniel Jordão	20	– 140
12	Sebastian Cesana	19	– 141