Red Bull KTM’s Daniel Sanders swung the results back around once again to take a seven-minute lead after the penultimate stage of the 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, round two of the FIM World Rally-Raid Championship.

After spending the night at the Marathon Camp in the Al Qua'a Region, with the wind blowing up a sand storm, stage four of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge at 394 km – including 300 km against the clock, the longest in this edition – brought the field back to base at Mezaira'a.

Yesterday evening, the competitors had to take care of their vehicles on their own, as per the special conditions of the marathon stage but it proved no biggy for the leading competitors and bikes.

The story of the fourth adn penultimate stage is Daniel Sanders (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) bagged the stage and reclaimed the overall lead in dramatic fashion as overnight leader, Monster Energy Honda HRC rider Tosha Schareina, suffered badly opening the way today and losing over 10 minutes.

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Sanders’ eyeing the win

The sixth rider out of the gate this morning, Daniel Sanders, was a man on a mission: to capitalise on the tracks left by his rivals to gallop towards Mezaira'a and claim the win. The Australian posted the fastest time by 3′23″ over Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda HRC) and 4′52″ over Ignacio Cornejo (Hero MotorSports Team Rally).

He also made short work of his race rivals: Ricky Brabec conceded 5′55″, Luciano Benavides (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) lost 8′08″ and Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy Honda HRC) dropped 10′36″ after opening the whole stage, first on his own and then alongside the Argentinian.

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It was a performance that catapulted the 2025 Dakar winner back into the top spot, now with 7′23″ in hand over Brabec and 8′46″ over Benavides – the widest margins since the race got under way.

Van Beveren moves up to fourth, 9′07″ from the leader, followed by Schareina, the biggest loser of the day, now 9′11″ from the reference time.

Chucky will lead from the front tomorrow but on a shorter 167km special, meaning less time to lose, it looks like the Aussie and the KTM team has played their cards right. That said, starting from fourth place, Ricky Brabec will surely be in it to win it and has the orange bike as a rabbit to chase.

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RALLY 2: Five of a kind for Docherty

A single stage stands between Michael Docherty becoming the first Rally 2 rider to complete a clean sweep of a W2RC round. The South African extended his undefeated run this week, dispatching Konrad Dabrowski (Duust Rally Team) by 7′50″ and Martim Ventura (Old Friends Rally Team) by 11′06″. Docherty now leads the rally by 28′08″ over Dabrowski.

Tobias Ebster is a distant third at 49′06″, and is feeling the pressure from Ruy Barbosa (Xraids Experience), sitting in fourth place, just 2′44″ behind.

Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge stage 4 results:

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Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge classification after stage 4 (by class):

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Photo Credit: A.S.O. | DPPI | Edophoto