Daniel Sanders wins Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge to extend Rally-Raid lead

2025 FIM World Rally-Raid Championship

Round Two – 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge

Thursday’s Stage Five brought down the curtain on the 34th Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. The 364 km final stage (including 167 km against the clock) took the field to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the terminus of a journey spanning six days and 1,917 kilometres.

Going into the final stage with a 7′23″ cushion over Ricky Brabec, Daniel Sanders managed his pace to lose only 1′36″ to the American, earning the Australian victory with 5′47″ to spare.

Styage Five winner Tosha Schareina (+6′04″) outgunned KTM’s Luciano Benavides (+8′01″) and Honda’s Adrien Van Beveren (+5′47″) in the fight for the third step on the rostrum.

The win extended Sanders’ W2RC to 17-points over Tosha Schareina and 26 over Brabec in third. Ignacio Cornejo scored points for Hero in sixth place, unlike Ross Branch, who went home empty-handed due to clutch issues. The world champion from Botswana will be eager to perform at the next round of the series, the South African Safari Rally, which will basically take place in his backyard. KTM tops the manufacturers’ leader-board by 6 points over Honda and 72 over Hero.

Heading into the second round of the 2025 championship as the Rally2 category leader after his class victory at the Dakar Rally, Edgar Canet was determined to maintain his momentum. After finishing fourth in class and 12th overall in the prologue, Edgar was eager to take on the full five stages. However, his campaign was cut short when a crash on stage one left the young Spaniard with a fractured elbow, forcing him to withdraw from the rally.

The convoy will soon head to South Africa for the series debut of the third event on the 2025 calendar for the South African Safari Rally between 18 and 24 May.

2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge (after 5 of 5 stages)
1. Sanders Daniel AUS KTM Factory Racing Team KTM 14:20:56
2. Brabec Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC Honda + 05:47
3. Schareina Tosha 68 SPA Monster Energy Honda HRC Honda + 06:04

Daniel Sanders – P1

“This one is a really great victory to tick off as last time I was here, I lost out on the win on the final day which was tough. I felt great all week and it’s amazing to have won three races in a row now. I’m really enjoying riding, my KTM is running perfectly, and I can’t thank everyone in the team enough for their hard work to get us to this point.”

Ricky Brabec – P2

“The final stage was good and was just full gas. I’m happy to be here at the finish line and looking forward to the next round. I broke my leg in October, so at the Dakar Rally I wasn’t exactly 100%. I’ve been doing some work since then with my knee and now the leg feels a lot better. We made a big step in the right direction with the bike and I’m happy with that.”

Tosha Schareina – P3

“With the times so close after yesterday, I tried to push to win the stage and I came away with third place overall. It was not an easy rally as it was outside of my comfort zone in the dunes. Yesterday, I lost too much time opening the stage, but it’s part of the game and we’ll go for it at the next race. We don’t have this kind of terrain in Spain and Europe, but if you want to be world champion you have to be fast on all kinds of terrain, so I have to adapt and improve.”

Luciano Benavides – P4

“So that’s the rally finished here in Abu Dhabi and I’m happy to have finished in fourth. Stage five was a really fast stage, with less off-piste tracks, and those conditions aren’t my favorite, so I’m still trying to find my balance and confidence there. It’s a shame to just miss out on the podium but it’s a consistent result which is positive. I’m really happy for the team to have won again and I’m happy with the bike, so I can’t wait to get racing again and continue improving.”

Adrien Van Beveren – P5

“It’s always nice to finish a race, I pushed hard and gave it my best, trying to be as fast as possible. It’s good to finish because rallies are tough however, I did enjoy it. I gave my best every day so I have no regrets. I couldn’t achieve the result I was looking for coming here, but this is racing, I will go back home, regroup and train again for the next one.”

Andreas Hölzl – KTM Rally Team Manager

“Daniel has done an amazing job. He’s been on point all week and his preparation has really paid off. He’s doing everything right, his bike setup is dialed in, and right now, he’s the fastest man in rally! Luciano did a great job, and with a few adjustments he will be able to make the most of his speed and rhythm and be out in front. Unfortunately, Edgar was forced to withdraw from the event due to an injury early on in the race, but he is already in recovery and should be back soon. We had a small but efficient setup with the team in Abu Dhabi and we proved that orange blood flows strong – we made it happen again!”

Ruben Faria – HRC Rally General Manager

“We’ve arrived at the finish line of the 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, it wasn’t a perfect rally for us, however there were plenty of positives. We started the rally with four riders and we finished it with them all, so they rode safely, which is important too in a long championship like this one.

“After his knee injury at the Rallye du Maroc last October, Ricky arrived to race at the Dakar Rally not at full fitness as it was really difficult for him to recover on time. He had a month to prepare for Abu Dhabi and so he’s getting fitter and showed he can fight for the victory. It’s not his favoured type of terrain as he prefers open desert, hard packed and stoney ground, but he did a really good rally here.

“Tosha finished second at the Dakar even though he rode seven stages with a broken collarbone. Since then he’s had to just recover, so he didn’t get back on a bike until two days before Abu Dhabi. Of course, when you’re not riding for a month, you always feel that you are not in the best shape. But in the end he did a really good job to finish third with just that 17 second gap to Ricky. He’s already starting to think about round three in South Africa as he continues to sit in second in the championship.

“Adrien won here two years ago and he’s always one of the fastest riders in the sand, however, this year’s result wasn’t his best. He missed a good result in the prologue so had to open the first day, which then meant that he lost quite a lot of time, which was difficult for him to recover. He managed to move up the standings yesterday, but today he couldn’t do anymore and had to settle for fifth. We want more from, as does Adrien himself, so he is now looking forward to the next round.

“Skyler did a good race, the result was not perfect, but he had a very tough 2024 season with many injuries and some crashes. His start at Dakar was good as he started to gain confidence and here in Abu Dhabi it was more of a test for him, for his mind and to gain confidence. It was really good for him to finish this rally. All of Monster Honda HRC did a good job and the Honda CRF450 RALLY bikes did well in the desert. We now look forward to South Africa.”