Lucas Moraes in action during the opening day of the Dubai International Baja .
After months of preparation, the final event in the international off road rallying season got under way in Dubai on Friday.
Crews have completed the spectacular qualifying stage in Hatta’s Suhaila Area and the ceremonial start at Dubai Festival Bay and are now focusing on the 359km of driving in Dubai’s daunting Al Qudra Desert that will make up Saturday’s Al-Futtaim Toyota stage two of the Dubai International Baja.
Lucas Moraes took victory on the first stage in Hatta by the narrowest of margins over his Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Seth Quintero. Just 0.2s separated the Brazilian and his Spanish codriver Armand Monelon from the US star Quintero and his German codriver Dennis Zenz in their Toyota Hilux machines.
12-time event winner and reigning champion Nasser Al Attiyah got to within 1.4s of the leading pairing on his one-off outing with his own team in his Taurus T3 Max while his team-mate Khalifa Al Attiyah was fourth, less than 10 seconds from the leading crew.
Father/daughter combination Lionel and Lucie Baud were a fine fifth at the end of the their first stage of rallying in Dubai with their Mini JCW Rally.
It was a tough start to the weekend for a couple of pre-event favourites Khalid Aljalfa and Eduard Pons who were 2m28s and 2m40s down after the stage after delays, though they retain every chance of vying for honours in their battle for T3 class honours in the FIA World Cup Baja series.
Poland’s Konrad Dabrowski took the early bragging rights among the two-wheel entry, the 23-year-old steering his Duust Rally Team KTM 450 to fastest time in the 3.4km timed run at Hatta.
That was fully 25 seconds faster than Rafic Eid of the Lebanon on his Gasgas and 28.2 seconds quicker than Pedro Bianchi Prata on his Honda CRF.
Leading Quad rider on the Yamaha Raptors in the opening test was local man Abdulaziz Ahli, who had just under ten seconds in hand over Abdulaziz Al Atawi with the Saudi’s fellow countryman third Hani Al Noumesi third.
Following the stage in Hatta, the crews made their way back to the Service Park in Dubai Festival City for the tactically important Start Selection Ceremony.
The competitors were then flagged away at ceremonial start in front of the fans in Dubai Festival City by Sheikh Mansoor Bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council in the company of Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President of the FIA, Omar Abdullah Al Futtaim, Vice Chairman and CEO of the Al Futtaim Group and Dr Amer Al Zarooni Chief Executive Officer of the Al Jalila Foundation.
The crews then turned their attention to the challenges of Al-Futtaim Toyota stage two.
In total there are 395km of timed ‘selective’ sections across the weekend and, with the untimed sections, the crews are facing a total 867km of driving and riding until the champions of Dubai International Baja 2024 are crowned.
This year’s innovative use of the rugged landscape around Hatta means that gravel/dirt tracks make up 20% of the total route terrain on the selective sections. The rest is made up of open desert (35%) and 45% on the daunting dunes of Dubai which have made this rally so famous and popular with crews the world over.
Al-Futtaim Toyota Stage 2 begins at 8am (Saturday 30th November) with the first crews expected to complete the selective sections from 11.30am onwards, after which the teams will return to the Service Park in Dubai Festival Mall where they will be on view to spectators throughout the day.
Now in its eighth edition under the Baja format, the event draws top competitors from around the globe to tackle the challenging dunes of Dubai.
Held under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, and organized by the Emirates Motorsport Organization (EMSO) in collaboration with the Dubai Sports Council, the Baja is supported by Official Automotive Partner Al-Futtaim Toyota, Energy Partner ENOC, and the strategic collaboration of the Dubai Government and its entities, including the Dubai Police, RTA and Dubai Municipality.