Rokas Baciuška was the model of consistency at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge when he finished second across four of five stages, but it wasn’t enough to win the Challenger overall. While his BP Ultimate Rally-Raid finishes were more varied, he capitalised on his rivals’ mechanical troubles to score his first career win in the category.
Baciuška only recorded two podium finishes and even ended the race outside the top ten with an eleventh, but a Stage #3 win propelled him to the overall lead that he maintained across the final three days. He finished third in the first stage, but found himself fighting for position as he narrowly beat Paulo Jorge Rodrigues by two seconds to finish tenth in Stage #2.
At the front, Sébastien Loeb and João Dias were the stars of the show to start. Dias, who the reigning FIA European Baja Cup T3 champion, won the opening stage and went on to claim the T3 class overall on the Portuguese Cross Country Championship side.
Loeb, who finished third at the Dakar Rally in the Ultimate class, opted to drop down to Challenger for Portugal as Prodrive is focusing on developing the Dacia programme that will début at the season-ending Rallye du Maroc in October. Although new to the side-by-side class, he immediately made waves in his Taurus by winning Stage #2 and finishing just thirty-five seconds behind FIA overall stage and eventual rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah.
Stage #3 ended up being their undoing as Loeb’s engine began to overheat while a gas pipe burst in Dias’ Can-Am Maverick. Loeb salvaged another stage win and a third in Stage #5, but finished outside the top ten overall. Dias notched a second in Stage #4 and settled for eighth. Although not the finish he wanted, Loeb described the Taurus as “fun to drive,” echoing sentiment shared by his longtime rival-turned-Prodrive colleague Al-Attiyah when he tested the car last July.
With Loeb and Dias out of the picture, Baciuška and CPTT competitor Armindo Araújo were promoted into the top two positions and separated by seven minutes (one minute was added to Araújo’s time for a penalty). Araújo could not close the gap over the final three legs but managed to hold off Nicolás Cavigliasso for runner-up.
“The rally was kind of different to the others in the World Championship,” said Baciuška. “The stages were very technical so they gave us a different kind of challenge.”
Austin Jones, who beat Baciuška for the Abu Dhabi win, finished sixth, admitting it was “tough to adjust to the wet conditions.” Still, he was glad to leave Portugal with some points towards the championship, though the margin between him and Baciuška has grown from fourteen to thirty-four points.
With Mitch Guthrie absent, Cavigliasso moves past him for third in the standings and five points behind Jones.
Ghislain de Mévius, who lost the European Baja T3 title to Dias on a tiebreaker, endured a slow start to finish third and fifth in Stages #3 and #4; he led much of the latter and initially placed second, but received a five-minute penalty to drop him to his final position. However, the otherwise poor finishes relegated him to twelfth in the end.
Dakar Challenger champion Cristina Gutiérrez retired after crashing into a ditch on the first leg.
Challenger overall results
| Finish | Number | Driver | Co-Driver | Team | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 300 | Rokas Baciuška | Oriol Vidal | Can-Am Factory Team | 10:23:30 | Leader |
| 2 | 312 | Armindo Araújo* | Pedro Ré | Santag Racing | 10:31:14 | + 7:44 |
| 3 | 302 | Nicolás Cavigliasso | Valentina Pertegarini | Wevers Sport | 10:31:52 | + 8:22 |
| 4 | 305 | Ricardo Porém | Luís Marques | MMP Compétition | 10:33:10 | + 9:40 |
| 5 | 313 | Alexandre Pinto* | Bernardo Oliveira | Alexandre Pinto | 10:34:18 | + 10:48 |
| 6 | 301 | Austin Jones | Oriol Mena | Can-Am Factory Team | 10:41:26 | + 17:56 |
| 7 | 306 | Mário Franco | João Serôdio | Franco Sport | 10:50:25 | + 26:55 |
| 8 | 311 | João Dias* | João Miranda | Santag Racing | 10:51:03 | + 27:33 |
| 9 | 319 | Hélder Rodrigues* | Gonçalo Reis | Hélder Rodrigues | 10:56:18 | + 32:48 |
| 10 | 309 | Hernán Garcés* | Juan Pablo Latrach | South Racing Can-Am | 11:05:26 | + 41:56 |
| 11 | 307 | Sébastien Loeb* | Fabian Lurquin | Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team | 11:05:45 | + 42:15 |
| 12 | 310 | Ghislain de Mévius* | Johan Jalet | GRallyTeam | 11:16:17 | + 52:47 |
| 13 | 304 | Dania Akeel | Stéphane Duplé | Wevers Sport | 11:19:32 | + 56:02 |
| 14 | 326 | Pedro Gonçalves* | Rui Franco | Pedro Gonçalves | 11:33:42 | + 1:10:12 |
| 15 | 328 | Nuno Rogério* | Pedro Santos | Nuno Rogério | 11:38:54 | + 1:15:24 |
| 16 | 329 | Marco Pereira* | Eurico Adão | Santag Racing | 12:19:28 | + 1:55:58 |
| 17 | 322 | Paulo Jorge Rodrigues* | Miguel Salvador | Paulo Jorge Rodrigues | 12:29:45 | + 2:06:15 |
| 18 | 303 | Marcelo Gastaldi | Carlos Sachs | BBR Motorsport | 13:01:53 | + 2:38:23 |
| 19 | 318 | William Buller* | Daniel Jordão | William Buller | 13:28:08 | + 3:04:38 |
| 20 | 316 | Luís Portela Morais* | David Megre | GRallyTeam | 23:25:30 | + 13:02:00 |
| 21 | 327 | Sérgio Vitorino* | André Marçal Lopes | Sérgio Vitorino | 24:19:32 | + 13:56:02 |
| 22 | 314 | Francisco Guedes* | Joel Lutas | Francisco Guedes | 25:00:47 | + 14:37:17 |
| 23 | 325 | Óscar Ral Verdu* | Xavier Blanco | Buggy Masters Team | 25:11:10 | + 14:47:40 |
| 24 | 331 | Puck Klaassen* | Augusto Sanz | Wevers Sport | 34:11:05 | + 23:47:35 |
| 25 | 317 | Rui Carneiro* | Ola Fløene | GRallyTeam | 39:21:00 | + 28:57:30 |
| 26 | 324 | Ricardo Sousa* | Jorge Brandão | Ricardo Sousa | 44:28:34 | + 34:05:04 |
| DNF | 308 | Cristina Gutiérrez* | Pablo Moreno Huete | Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | 315 | Miguel Barbosa* | Luís Ramalho | Miguel Barbosa | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | 320 | Luís Cidade* | Pedro Mendonça | Santag Racing | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | 321 | Jordi Segura* | Sergi Brugue | FN Speed Team | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | 323 | Adroaldo Weisheimer* | Albert Andreotti | GRallyTeam | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | 330 | Roberto Rodriguez Gamboa* | Herman Rodriguez Gamboa | Roberto Rodriguez Gamboa | DNF | N/A |
Challenger stage winners
| Stage | Driver | Time |
| Prologue | Luís Portela Morais* | 3:41.9 |
| Stage #1 | João Dias* | 1:15:25 |
| Stage #2 | Sébastien Loeb* | 1:47:56 |
| Stage #3 | Rokas Baciuška | 3:33:32 |
| Stage #4 | Sébastien Loeb* | 2:39:34 |
| Stage #5 | Nicolás Cavigliasso | 50:31 |
W2RC Challenger standings
For readability, competitors registered for the championship who have not earned points are excluded.
Drivers’ standings
| Rank | Driver | Points | Margin |
| 1 | Rokas Baciuška | 160 | Leader |
| 2 | Austin Jones | 126 | – 34 |
| 3 | Nicolás Cavigliasso | 121 | – 39 |
| 4 | Marcelo Gastaldi | 97 | – 63 |
| 5 | Mitch Guthrie | 85 | – 75 |
| T-6 | Dania Akeel | 64 | – 96 |
| T-6 | Ricardo Porém | 64 | – 96 |
| 8 | Mário Franco | 47 | – 113 |
| 9 | David Zille | 19 | – 141 |
Co-drivers’ standings
| Rank | Co-Driver | Points | Margin |
| 1 | Oriol Vidal | 160 | Leader |
| 2 | Valentina Pertegarini | 121 | – 39 |
| 3 | Carlos Sachs | 97 | – 63 |
| 4 | Kellon Walch | 85 | – 75 |
| 5 | Oriol Mena | 78 | – 82 |
| 6 | Stéphane Duplé | 64 | – 96 |
| 7 | Gustavo Gugelmin | 48 | – 112 |
| T-8 | Augusto Sanz | 32 | – 128 |
| T-8 | Luís Marques | 32 | – 128 |
| 10 | João Serôdio | 27 | – 133 |
| 11 | Daniel Jordão | 20 | – 140 |
| 12 | Sebastian Cesana | 19 | – 141 |
