2023 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge: 55 on W2RC entry list

Over a month after the season began at the Dakar Rally, the World Rally-Raid Championship heads to Abu Dhabi for the thirty-second Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. After registration closed Saturday, fifty-five comprise the pre-inspection W2RC grid. Thirty are competing in FIA classes while twenty-five are on bikes and quads.

As the Dakar Rally is the largest rally raid of the year, it comes with little surprise that Abu Dhabi would feature a much smaller field. Still, there are plenty of major absentees like T1’s Team Audi Sport, whose next start will be the season-ending Rallye du Maroc especially after a disastrous Dakar that resulted in Carlos Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel‘s co-driver Édouard Boulanger suffering injuries in crashes. Although Peterhansel is the reigning ADDC overall winner, he is not among those on the entry list.

Mattias Ekström, the only Audi member to finish the Dakar, is also the lone driver of the three to enter Abu Dhabi albeit in a T3 for South Racing. Audi had an arrangement with X-raid Team to field Mini John Cooper Works for the Audi drivers outside of Dakar and Morocco if they wished, though it appears Sainz and Peterhansel did not take up the offer pending a belated or non-championship entry.

Despite Audi electing not to defend their victory, the W2RC T1 title battle continues between Sébastien Loeb and Nasser Al-Attiyah, the latter being both the defending Dakar and W2RC champion as well as the 2021 ADDC winner; Al-Attiyah had also won the Desert Challenge in 2016. However, Loeb’s nine Dakar stage victories and runner-up finish means he has a two-point edge over Al-Attiyah in the T1 standings.

In the Bikes, Sam Sunderland will hope to go back-to-back now that he has recovered from his injuries sustained at Dakar, as has Ricky Brabec. On the other hand, Sunderland’s team-mate Daniel Sanders will miss the rally due to injury.

Also skipping the race is Rally2 Dakar winner Romain Dumontier, though Rally2 riders are permitted to drop their worst finish from their championship standing. Of course, his absence blows the doors open in the meantime for Paolo Lucci and Michael Docherty, who joined him on the class podium in the opener. Konrad Dąbrowski makes his season début after missing Dakar with appendicitis.

Only five Quad riders are entered, with Abdulaziz Ahli leading the way as he aims for a three-peat.

With many Dakar entrants not returning, those headed to Abu Dhabi latched on with other teams. For example, Lucas Moraes is not racing despite an impressive third-place T1 finish at Dakar, though his co-driver Timo Gottschalk will assume the shotgun seat of fellow Toyota Hilux driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi who returns to racing after recovering from chest injuries sustained in a skiing accident. Al-Rajhi and Gottschalk previously worked together from 2014 to 2019.

Oriol Mena, who won the Dakar T4 overall as Eryk Goczał‘s navigator, will move up to T1 to work with Guoyu Zhang. Zhang is one of three Chinese entrants in Abu Dhabi BAIC team-mate Yunliang Zi and Han Wei, the latter being the highest four-wheel Dakar finisher for a Chinese driver.

Like Ekström, Erik van Loon switches from T1 to T3 for Abu Dhabi. Van Loon recently retired from Dakar competition but intends to continue in other rallies alongside his wife Anja, who will also race in T3 at Abu Dhabi like at Dakar albeit not as a W2RC driver.

It is important to note that some are not on the entry list as they are not competing for W2RC points. For example, Rally2 includes Justin Gerlach, an amateur rider making his first start in a world championship race, and Benjamin Melot, a regular at the ADDC who finished thirteenth in class at Dakar.

The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge begins with a prologue on 26 February. The race, which will feature 1,311 kilometres of Special Stages, runs through 3 March.

FIA entry list

T1

Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle
200	Sébastien Loeb	Fabian Lurquin	Bahrain Raid Xtreme	Prodrive Hunter
201	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Mathieu Baumel	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR DKR Hilux
202	Guerlain Chicherit	Alex Winocq	GCK Motorsport	Prodrive Hunter
203	Martin Prokop	Viktor Chytka	ORLEN Benzina Team	Ford Raptor RS Cross Country
204	Juan Cruz Yacopini	Dani Oliveras	Overdrive Racing	Toyota Hilux Overdrive
205	Sebastian Halpern	Bernardo Graue	X-raid Team	Mini John Cooper Works Rally Plus
206	Han Wei	Ma Li	Hanwei Motorsport	SMG HW2021
207	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Timo Gottschalk	Overdrive Racing	Toyota Hilux Overdrive
208	Denis Krotov	Konstantin Zhiltsov	X-raid Team	Mini John Cooper Works Rally Plus
210	Po Tian	Du Xuanyi	Hanwei Motorsport	SMG HW2021
211	Magdalena Zajac	Jacek Czachor	Proxcars TME Rally Team	Toyota Hilux
212	Guoyu Zhang	Oriol Mena	BAIC ORV	BAIC BJ40
215	Yunliang Zi	He Sha	BAIC ORV	BAIC BJ40

T3

Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle
300	Mattias Ekström	Emil Bergkvist	South Racing Can-Am	Can-Am Maverick X3
301	Austin Jones	Gustavo Gugelmin	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	Can-Am Maverick X3
302	Seth Quintero	Dennis Zenz	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	Can-Am Maverick X3
303	Mitch Guthrie	Kellon Walch	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	MCE-5 T3M
304	Cristina Gutiérrez	Pablo Moreno Huete	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Team	Can-Am Maverick X3
305	João Ferreira	Filipe Palmeiro	X-raid Team	Yamaha YXZ1000R Turbo Prototype
306	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	Cédric Duple	JLC Racing	PH Sport Zephyr
308	Claude Fournier	Szymon Gospodarczyk	Team BBR	Can-Am Maverick X3
309	Dania Akeel	Taye Perry	South Racing Can-Am	Can-Am Maverick X3
310	Aliyyah Koloc	Stéphane Duplé	Buggyra Racing	Can-Am DV21
311	Erik van Loon	Sebastien Delaunay	South Racing Can-Am	Can-Am Maverick X3
312	Yasir Seaidan	Alexey Kuzmich	South Racing Can-Am	Can-Am Maverick X3
313	Annett Fischer	Annie Seel	X-raid Team	Yamaha YXZ1000R Turbo Prototype

T4

Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle
400	Rokas Baciuška	Oriol Vidal Montijano	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Team	Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo
401	Pau Navarro	Mika Metge	FN Speed Team	Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo
402	Shinsuke Umeda	Aku Facundo Jaton	Xtremeplus	Polaris RZR Pro R
403	Michèle Cinotto	Maurizio Dominella	Xtremeplus	Polaris RZR Pro R

FIM entry list

RallyGP

Number	Rider	Team	Bike
1	Sam Sunderland	Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing	GasGas 450 Rally Factory
2	Ricky Brabec	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	Honda CRF 450 Rally
7	Pablo Quintanilla	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	Honda CRF 450 Rally
8	Toby Price	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM 450 Rally Factory
9	Mason Klein	BAS World KTM Racing Team	KTM 450 Rally Raid
10	Skyler Howes	Husqvarna Factory Racing	Husqvarna 450 Rally Factory
11	José Ignacio Cornejo	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	Honda CRF 450 Rally
14	Sebastian Bühler	Hero MotoSports	Hero 450 Rally
16	Ross Branch	Hero MotoSports	Hero 450 Rally
42	Adrien van Bevern	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	Honda CRF 450 Rally
47	Kevin Benavides	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM 450 Rally Factory
52	Matthias Walkner	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM 450 Rally Factory
77	Luciano Benavides	Husqvarna Factory Racing	Husqvarna 450 Rally Factory

Rally2

Number	Rider	Team	Bike
23	Konrad Dąbrowski	DUUST Diverse Rally Racing Team	KTM 450 Rally
46	Paolo Lucci	BAS World KTM Racing Team	KTM 450 Rally Factory Replica
53	Toni Mulec	BAS World KTM Racing Team	KTM 450 Rally Factory Replica
76	Jean-Loup Lepan	DUUST Diverse Rally Racing Team	KTM 450 Rally
92	Jon Florea	Jon Florea	Husqvarna 450 FE
93	Andrei Danila	Andrei Danila	KTM 450 EXC-F
111	Michael Docherty	SRG Motorsports	Husqvarna 450 FR Rally

Quad

Number	Rider	Team	Quad
160	Adomas Gančierius	Adomas Gančierius	CFMOTO CFORCE 1000
161	Antonas Kanopkinas	Antonas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO CFORCE 1000
162	Kancius Laisvydas	AG Dakar School	Yamaha Raptor 700R
165	Rodolfo Guillioli	Rodolfo Guillioli	Yamaha Raptor 700R
174	Abdulaziz Ahli	Abu Dhabi Team	Yamaha Raptor 700R