Bahrain Raid Xtreme take the Stage victory

Across the dunes of the UAE, Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin took their Bahrain Raid Xtreme Prodrive Hunter to victory today on stage four of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the hardest desert rally in the world. As first car off the start line they opened the road of what was to be 308 kilometres but early morning fog delayed the start of the stage by two hours necessitating organisers cut the length of the test to 173 kilometres for safety reasons.

All of this was taken in the stride of Seb and Fabian who quickly hit their rhythm across a further different type of terrain that this rally that has constantly thrown at the entire world championship field. Broken dunes are the ‘sharp dunes’ that are smooth on the way up but then hold long, hidden drops on the other side and it is these traps that are ready to catch out any competitor on rally raids, but today Frenchman Loeb used all of his 30 years driving experience to be wary of what could be over the next crest in his push for victory.

Even as the temperatures rose to the high 30s, the pair led all the way to the finish for those valuable championship points that are the focus for the team following the bad luck of a damaged water pipe on the first day that has put them out of overall contention on this particular rally.

Bahrain Raid Xtreme are tonight preparing Loeb’s car for the final run across the golden sands of this rally that will encompass 206 kilometres as part of the route north back towards the dazzling lights of Abu Dhabi.

Sébastien Loeb, Bahrain Raid Xtreme

It’s great to be winning again and on top of the results so thank you to the team for the hard work they’ve done. It wasn’t an easy stage to read as there were some broken dunes and you had to be extra careful as you couldn’t see where they were. We could’ve been in sixth gear in many more places than we were, no problem, but we had to be very careful. We had one landing that was a big hit so it proved you can get caught, but the car took it and we’re back at the bivouac all together. For the championship, today brings more points but we must finish tomorrow to get those points when we return to Abu Dhabi.

Gus Beteli, Bahrain Raid Xtreme Team Principal

We finally got what we came here for which was a stage win and another five points for the championship. However, tomorrow will be another tough day in the dunes so we need to focus on finishing this rally on a high and get as many points as we can here in the UAE.