Abu Dhabi Desert Classic: Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi struggles as Al Attiyah keeps lead

Abu Dhabi Racing boss and driver Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi drives during Wednesday's fourth stage of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. Courtesy Abu Dhabi Racing

It must have felt a bit like déjà vu for Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi on Wednesday during the fourth stage of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, as he struggled with, first, a faulty dampener and then a broken drive shaft.

Abu Dhabi is his home turf, but he has not had much luck in his previous two Desert Challenge appearances.

In 2015, his campaign was over inside two days because of broken drive shaft and last year, he suffered a broken gearbox and had to be content with finishing seventh.

Memories of those two jinxed campaigns must have clouded the Abu Dhabi Racing chairman’s mind as he waited for his PH Sport crew to replace the drive shaft on the Peugeot 3008 DKR.

That, however, was not the end of his trials for the day.

Back behind the wheel of his repaired vehicle, Sheikh Khalid suffered another setback, when his car nosedived into a gully.

However, despite losing more than an hour on the 250.25km ADNOC stage and finishing ninth, Sheikh Khalid still managed to hold on to his second spot in the overall classification and is looking forward to a second successive podium finish in this year’s FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies when the event concludes on Thursday.

“Today was a very tough day,” said Sheikh Khalid, who finished second behind Nasser Al Attiyah in the Dubai International Baja, which was the second round of the World Cup.

“When we started out it was very windy and some 60km into the stage, which was very bumpy, we noticed that the dampener was not performing well. We balanced our pace, but when I noticed there were fewer bumps I went faster.

“Unfortunately, about 120km into the stage we broke our drive shaft. We had a replacement, but having overcome this issue, about 70km before the finish, we suddenly nosedived into a gully. Getting the car out by digging out the sand meant we lost another 35 minutes.

“Tough day with multiple issues to deal with, but we are still P2 overall.”

Al Attiyah, the defending Abu Dhabi and World Cup champion, continued his domination of the rally, finishing 22 minutes and 41 minutes ahead of Emirati Khalid Al Jafla for his fourth win from four stages.

The Qatari, who is a two-time Dakar champion. now boasts an overall lead of 1 hour, 46 minutes, 03.1 seconds over Sheikh Khalid going into the final stage, while Czech driver Martin Prokop is a further 34 minutes behind Sheikh Khalid in third.

The competition in the bikes category, however, is a lot closer with Paulo Gonçalves leading Matthias Walkner by 33.8 seconds, while Pierre Alexander Renet (70.5 seconds behind the leader) and Dakar champion Sam Sunderland (75.7 seconds behind the leader) follow close behind.

“I don’t really like to race like this - the strategy and trying to see what the others guys are doing,” said Sunderland. “I’d rather it just be the fastest rider won.

“I’ve lost this race so many years by being the fastest dude. This year I have been trying to get the strategy better.

“We will see how we go. I will have to ride as hard as I can to catch the time back. It may look easy on the paper, but it’s far from it. You have to fight a lot and work hard.”

Stage four results

Cars

1 Nasser Al Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA),Toyota Hilux Overdrive, 3:36:50

2 Khalid Al Jafla (ARE)/Ahmed Malik (ARE), Chevrolet Silverado, 3:59:31

3 Martin Prokop (CZE)/Jan Tomanek (CZE), Ford F-150 Evo 4:02:23

4 Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)/Marek Sykora (SLO), Hummer H3 Evo III, 4:03:06

5 Mohammed Abu Issa (QAT)/Xavier Panseri (FRA), Mini All4 Racing, 4:04:01

Bikes

1 Kevin Benavides (ARG), Honda CRF 450 Rally, 3:38:15

2 Pierre Alexander Renet (FRA), Husqvarna 450 Rally, 3:40:49

3 Paulo Gonçalves (PRT), Honda 450 CRF Rally, 3:43:49

4 Matthias Walkner (AUT), KTM 450 Rally Factory, 3:46:56

5 Mohammed Jaffar (ARE), KTM 450 Raly Replica, 3:48:29

Quads

1 Alexis Hernande Ponce (PER), Yamaha Raptor 700 R, 4:07:29

2 Rodolfo Schippers (GUA), Yamaha Raptor 700 R, 4:12:04

3 Kees Koolen (NED), Barren Racer One 690, 4:14:39

4 Fahad Al-Musallam (KUW), Yamaha Raptor 700R, 4:17:33

5 Camelia Liparoti (ITA), Yamaha Raptor 700 R, 4:28:04

Overall classification

Cars

1 Nasser Al Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA), Toyota Hilux Overdrive, 14:43:58.7

2 Khalid Al Qassimi (ARE)/Khaled Al-Kendi (ARE), Peugeot 3008 DKR, 16:30:01.8

3 Martin Prokop (CZE)/Jan Tomanek (CZE), Ford F-150 Evo, 17:04:07.1

4 Mohammed Abu Issa (QAT)/Xavier Panseri (FRA), Mini All4 Racing, 17:56:07.7

5 Khalid Al-Feraihi (SAU)/Ali Hassan Obaid (ARE), Nissan Patrol, 20:12:05.3

Bikes

1 Paulo Gonçalves (PRT), Honda 450 CRF Rally, 15:32:56.8

2 Matthias Walkner (AUT), KTM 450 Rally Factory, 15:33:30.6

3 Pierre Alexander Renet (FRA), Husqvarna 450 Rally, 15:34:07.3

4 Sam Sunderland (GBR), KTM 450 Rally Factory, 15:34:12.5

5 Pablo Quintanilla (CHI), Husqvarna 450 Rally, 15:34:27.2

Quads

1 Rodolfo Schippers (GUA), Yamaha Raptor 700 R, 19:09:54.9

2 Fahad Al-Musallam (KUW), Yamaha Raptor 700R, 19:11:38.2

3 Kamil Wisniewski (POL), Yamaha Raptor 700 R, 19:27:08.4

4 Camelia Liparoti (ITA), Yamaha Raptor 700 R, 20:09:34.4

5 Maxim Antimirov (KAZ), Honda TRX 700, 20:22:50.4