- Spectacular sand dunes of Abu Dhabi to challenge The Dacia Sandriders
- Al-Attiyah/Boulanger and Loeb/Lurquin among top-class FIA W2RC entry
- Team principal Tiphanie Isnard: “The team have done a great job to be ready in what have been intense conditions”
The Dacia Sandriders will go from its stage-winning Dakar Rally heroics last month to bidding for victory in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge from February 22-27.
Another untried event for The Dacia Sandriders, which made a winning start to cross-country competition with victory on Rallye du Maroc in October, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is six days against the clock in the spectacular sand dunes to the east and south of the emirate.
For round two of the 2025 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), The Dacia Sandriders has entered a sustainably-fuelled Dacia Sandrider for Nasser Al-Attiyah/Édouard Boulanger and for Sébastien Loeb/Fabian Lurquin.
Having impressed during the Dakar Rally with four top-10 stage times, Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno will resume their W2RC campaign with The Dacia Sandriders later in the season.
Al-Attiyah, from Qatar, is a four-time Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge winner, including in 2024, when Boulanger navigated him to victory for what was the Frenchman’s second first-place Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge finish. Loeb, who is also from France, and Belgian Lurquin placed eighth overall in 2022.
The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is based in close proximity to Saudi Arabia’s Dakar Rally and gets under way a little more than a month after the WRC2 season opener to limit transportation and reduce logistics costs. That’s made for an intense period for The Dacia Sandriders’ personnel, as team principal Tiphanie Isnard explained.
“The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is like a continuation of the Dakar because we finished that event in the Empty Quarter and we are starting round two of the W2RC in the Empty Quarter,” Isnard said. “There has been very little time between the team’s return from the Dakar and to be ready to start the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, but they’ve done a great job to be ready in what have been intense conditions. They’ve remained focused despite a heavy workload and the fatigue they experienced working on an event as physically and mentally difficult as the Dakar.
“But we are intent on capitalising on everything we achieved and learned on the Dakar – not just with the Dacia Sandrider, but how we operate and how our crews work – and putting it all to good use on the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.”
“Even though there hasn’t been much time since the Dakar, we’ve debriefed extensively with our crews and taken their feedback into account to be even stronger for the second event of the W2RC season when maximum points and progress will be the key targets.”
Marathon Stage in store for The Dacia Sandriders
Following the 72-kilometre Prologue stage in Al Ain on February 22, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge begins for real with the first of five competitive stages on February 23. A 400-kilometre route takes crews from Al Ain to Mezeer’ah, where the 302-kilometre Stage 2 starts and finishes on February 24. Stage 3 on February 25 forms part one of the Abu Desert Challenge’s inaugural Marathon Stage, which means crews will turn mechanics at the completion of the opening 388 kilometres due to regulations preventing assistance from team personnel. Stage 4 begins from the Marathon Camp on the morning of February 26 with a 394-kilometre route taking crews back to Mezeer’ah. Stage 5 on February 27 starts in Mezeer’ah and finishes 364 kilometres away in Abu Dhabi. Excluding the Prologue, a total of 1175 timed kilometres count towards the final classification.
KEY QUOTES
NASSER AL-ATTIYAH (QATAR), DRIVER, THE DACIA SANDRIDERS
“The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is my favourite rally and we have a lot of experience of this type of terrain. After Dakar we are really well prepared to fight in Abu Dhabi and to be in the lead of the world championship, as it’s the target for me and Édouard to be world champion and also for the team. We’re expecting a strong entry so it will be really nice to see most of the top drivers competing in this race.”
SÉBASTIEN LOEB (FRANCE), DRIVER, THE DACIA SANDRIDERS
“I’m really happy to be back in the car after a frustrating Dakar, which ended far too early for us after we showed a lot of potential early on. The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is always a special rally with a lot of big dunes, it’s nearly only sand and dunes so it’s very different from most of the other rounds of the championship. I enjoy driving in the dunes a lot. As I didn’t do many kilometres in the dunes on the Dakar I hope to do much more in Abu Dhabi and get a better result.”
THE DACIA SANDRIDERS ABU DHABI DESERT CHALLENGE 2025 LINE-UP
#200: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA)
#219: Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL)
ABU DHABI DESERT CHALLENGE 2025: THE BIG NUMBER
1920: Including the Prologue, the 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge covers a total distance of 1920 kilometres.