Alkass Digital
Qatar’s ace rally driver Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah and his French navigator Mathieu Baumel will start as strong favorites at the Abu Dhabi Desert Rally, which gets underway on Saturday. Al-Attiyah though will be bracing for a tough test from a star-studded line-up, with the action beginning from Al Dhafra.
Defending champion al-Attiyah, the early leader in the race to become the first World Rally-Raid champion, is the top-seeded driver in a Toyota Hilux in the rally which is one of five elite events making up the series.
The four-time Dakar Rally winner will be aiming to add another title under his name after clinching comprehensive wins at the Oman Rally and the Qatar International Rally, the second round of the Middle East Rally Championship earlier this year.
Prior to the event in the UAE, al-Attiyah expressed his happiness with the preparatory tests conducted on the car by his team, Overdrive Racing and confirmed his readiness for the challenge in the rally in which he will face a number of opponents he met during the Dakar Rally.
Among his rivals will be Stephane Peterhansel, who is chasing a record seventh cars victory at the wheel of an Audi RS Q e-tron in the 31st edition of the UAE Rally.
Making his debut in the UAE, nine-times World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb, along with Yazeed al-Rajhi, Jakub Przygonski, Mathieu Serradori, Sebastian Halpern and Denis Krotov will also target top spots in the Rally.
Of the 38 starting drivers, only defending champion Nassser al-Attiyah, multiple winner Stéphane Peterhansel and the Czech Republic’s Martin Prokop in 2018, have triumphed in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, and it’s a similar story on two wheels.
While 14 of the world’s leading factory team stars are in a powerful line-up of 50 riders, only Sam Sunderland (2017 & 2019), Toby Price (2016), Pablo Quintanilla (2018) and defending champion Matthias Walkner have stood on the victory podium in Abu Dhabi.