Epic 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge sets new standards, breaks records and innovates for increased global engagement
- 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge engagement reaches new heights with distribution in 190 territories
- Increased reach boosted by first ever live stream of World Rally Raid Championship event
- 165 competitors take part in 34th edition of legendary rally raid forming second round of FIA and FIM World Rally Raid Championship
- 60% new route provides tough challenge across five innovative stages that feature inspiring and testing new locations
- Gala Awards presentation also honours top GCC competitors
Abu Dhabi, UAE, 06 March 2025: The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge continues to go from strength to strength, with the spectacular 2025 edition of the legendary rally raid proving to be one of the toughest, most exciting, and most watched in its 34-year-history.
The 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge set new standards for engagement across all channels. A crew of 25 production experts delivered broadcast coverage of the event to 190 territories on five continents. A comprehensive media offering included one 13-minutre package of highlights for the Qualifying Stage, five 26-minute daily international, English and Arabic highlights packages and one final programme, again in international, English and Arabic formats.
A ten-strong team from EMSO also ensured that social media engagement hit new heights with a total of 700 posts garnering 3.8m views across the event’s channels.
The 34th edition of the event also broke new ground by becoming the first world championship rally raid event to live stream action to fans around the world on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
Forming the second round of the FIA and FIM World Rally Raid Championship, the 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge featured a number of innovative new developments. For the first time the event kicked off from the stunning oasis city of Al Ain. Following a keenly contested Qualifying Stage at Jebel Hafit Desert Park, Stage 1 sent the competitors deep into the desert to Mezaira’a before the drivers and riders of the 34th Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge to the bivouac at Al Qua’a, another new location, for a gruelling two-stage marathon included cars as well as bikes for the first time. Finally, the survivors of the sandstorm struck marathon today raced to the finish ramp in glittering Abu Dhabi on the grand finale Abu Dhabi Sports Council Stage 5.
The challenging route attracted one of the largest fields in the event’s 34-year history. In all 165 competitors entered the 2025 Desert Challenge with 102 drivers and co-drivers and 63 bike and quad riders entered.
The gruelling route proved to be one of the toughest yet, with the marathon stages in particular being identified by rider and drivers as among the most technically demanding ever encountered on the Desert Challenges.
Despite the rigours of the route the finish rare was high, testimony to the exceptional skill of the world class talents on show. This remarkable rate of success is in large part thanks to championship regulations that allow competitors to complete the event even if they fail to complete a stage, as long as safety regulations are adhered to.
In the cars category there were 38 of the 51 crews entered made it to the finish ramp in Abu Dhabi for a 74% completion rate. Of the 20 Ultimate class entries won for the fifth time by Dacia Sandriders’ Nasser Al-Attiyah, just four failed to make it to the end of the rally. Those non-finishers included nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb and former World Rallycross and DTM champion Matthias Ekström, demonstrating that the Desert Challenge can even catch out the biggest motorsport legends.
In the Challenger car class, all but three of the 14 entrants completing the full route. History was made in the class when Saudi Arabia’s Dania Akeel took her first win in W2RC and became the first woman to win an event since the championship was founded in 2022. Meanwhile, In the hugely competitive SSV class 11 of 13 entrants making it to the finish line.
In the top Rally GP bike class, won by Red Bull KTM’s Daniel Sanders, the toughness of the event was once again demonstrated by the fat the sole non-finisher was defending FIM World Rally Raid Champion Ross Branch. History was made in the Rally 2 category with South Africa’s Michael Docherty becoming the first rider to take a clean sweep of stage wins in a world championship event in the class. The category proved to be one of the most punishing, with nine of the 42 riders involved failing to finish, a 21.4% failure rate.
The event’s only full list of finishers remarkably came in the event’s toughest class, the ultra-tough Malle Moto, in which riders take on the entire event without any assistance. The Malle Moto class was the only one won by a local competitor, with UAE rider Hamdan Alali taking top spot. Finally, in the Quads category, four of the five entrants finished.
All of the World Championship category winners were awarded with their trophies at a gala dinner held on the shores of Hudayriyat Island in the glittering capital of Abu Dhabi. The ceremony also honoured the event’s most successful competitors from Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC).
In the Auto class, the locals shone with Yahya Al Helei and Mohammed Hamri of R-X Sport, from the UAE, took top spot ahead of Atif Alzarouni and Mohammed Innab of Quaddy Race Middle East and the other UAE pairing of Liwa Team’s Mansour Al Helei and co-driver Khalid Alkendi. All three Emirati crews were competing in the SSV class.
In the bikes, the sole award went to Mall Moto class winner Hamdan Alali who was also classified eighth in Rally 2. All other GCC riders failed to finish.
Commenting on the 2025 Abu Desert Challenge, H.E. Aref Hamad Al Awani, Secretary General of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, stated: “We are proud of the great success achieved by the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, which has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and historic long-distance desert rallies in the world. We witnessed intense competition among elite drivers and riders, and the event once again demonstrated Abu Dhabi’s capability to host world-class sporting events with the highest organizational standards.”
He added: “The Abu Dhabi Sports Council will continue its efforts to strengthen the emirate’s position as a global sports destination in general, and a hub for motorsports in particular. We will work alongside all partners to further develop the rally in the coming years, ensuring an exceptional experience for both competitors and spectators alike.”
Celebrating a hugely successful 34th edition of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Emirates Motor Sports Organisation (EMSO) President, H.E. Khalid Ben Sulayem, said: “The 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is our most successful yet. The event continues to attract the very best competitors from the world of cross-country competition and the key to that is a determination to constantly innovate. This year some 60% of the route was new, making it more challenging for competitors and more exciting for fans. For the first time the Desert Challenge started from the beautiful ‘Garden City’ of Al Ain and for the first time we included cars in a very challenging Marathon stage centred around remote Al Qua’a that became a true test of endurance and a wonderful story of resilience in tough conditions. The innovation isn’t confined to the route, however. For the first time we live streamed substantial parts of the stage in partnership with channels in the US and this I believe represents a new way forward for engagement by bringing fans right to the heart of the action. The 2025 Desert Challenge was also distributed more widely than ever, with coverage going to a remarkable 190 territories. We are now reaching fans all around the world and introducing more and more people to the exceptional world of Rally Raid. Finally, I would like to thank all of the partners who made this year’s event possible. The 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge was the most supported yet and we continue to bring on board more and more key partners whose contributions to the success of the event cannot be overestimated. We now take a short break before beginning the task of planning for our 35th edition in order to make the 2026 edition of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge even more incredible.”
The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler’s Representative Court in Al Dhafra Region. The event is organised by the Emirates Motorsports Organization in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Sports Council. The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is hosted with the support of Energy partner ADNOC Distribution; the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, Technology Partner E&, and Official Logistics Partner DHL. The event is also made possible thanks to the support of Automotive partner Al-Futtaim Toyota and Governmental support from the Ministry of Defence & UAE Armed Forces, Abu Dhabi Police, Civil Defence, Abu Dhabi Distribution Co, Al Dhafra Region Municipality, Tadweer, and our media partner Abu Dhabi Sports TV.
