Nasser Al-Attiyah entered the Abu Dhabi Desert Problem hoping to discover a spark after a irritating begin to 2024. Whereas a Prologue stage often means little within the large image as FIA instances don’t rely in direction of the general, topping the order ought to nonetheless present some confidence going into the remainder of the week.
Al-Attiyah, now with Édouard Boulanger as his co-driver, edged out Guillaume de Mévius by 4 seconds for the quickest time amongst FIA entrants in Monday’s Prologue. Martin Prokop, who missed a lot of personal testing when his Ford Raptor RS was caught in customs between the Saudi-Emirati border (the automotive stayed in Saudi Arabia following January’s Dakar Rally), was third.
Cristina Gutiérrez, winner of the Dakar in Challenger, led the category whereas Mansour Al-Helei was the perfect within the SSV class. Laia Sanz, Gutiérrez’s new colleague on the Crimson Bull Off-Highway Junior Group, was fifth to start out her second Challenger begin. Rebecca Busi had a second when she briefly overshot her Can-Am Maverick on a downward slope, briefly coasting alongside her entrance wheels earlier than touchdown safely; she completed ninth in SSV.
Tenth-placed Seth Quintero will kick off Stage #1 as the primary automotive on monitor. Al-Attiyah opted to start out on the again in tenth.
Dakar bike runner-up Ross Department topped the two-wheelers with simply two seconds on Michael Docherty. Reigning ADDC Rally2 winner Tobias Ebster was third and 5 seconds again of Docherty, and one forward of the RallyGP of Department’s new team-mate Aaron Marè. Oran O’Kelly completed eighth, although he acquired a two-minute time penalty after reducing a nook too brief, and would be the first bike out on Tuesday.
Kamil Wiśniewski, again within the World Rally-Raid Championship after lacking Dakar with a knee damage, was the quickest Quad forward of Abdulaziz Ahli. The latter is in search of his fourth straight ADDC win.
