Schareina wins final Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge stage, Brabec 2nd as both make o/a podium

With the impressive skyline of the United Arab Emirates largest city framing the finish of the 34^th running of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the second round of the 2025 FIM World Rally Raid Championship, Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally’s Tosha Schareina stood atop the final Stage 5 podium with the bittersweet victory on Thursday.

Heading into the penultimate Stage 4, Schareina had the overall ADDC lead in hand, only to give it away with a costly navigational error early on in the race. Daniel Sanders (KTM) would take advantage of Schareina’s misfortune, inheriting the overall lead – and carrying that time advantage to victory after Stage 5.

“After yesterday I tried to push, and we won the stage, with third in the overall,” said Schareina, who jumped from 5^th place overall to the podium 3^rd place with today’s Stage 5 win at his very first Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. “It was not an easy rally for us here in the dunes. Yesterday, I lost too much time in the opening of the stage but, yeah, it’s part of the game and we’ll look forward to the next race.”

The top Monster Energy backed racer on the week in the Empty Quarter desert would be Ricky Brabec (Honda HRC Rally), placing 2^nd overall, some 5:47 back of Sanders. Brabec rode consistently well throughout ADDC Prologue plus five stages, scoring four podiums enroute to his runner-up finish.

“Something about Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge… we end up doing the same course a couple times during the week,” he said. “Today was kind of reverse in some sections as one day, then the same direction as part of a course the other day. So today was just full gas. (Seemed) the other guys had a little bit more information than us and they knew when to slow down, and they knew when to push. But at Monster Energy/Honda, our strategy is to fight every day. The year’s long. The year’s still young and I’m happy to be here at the finish line in Abu Dhabi, looking forward to the next round.”

Bringing his Monster Energy-shod Honda CRF Rally 450 home in 5^th place on Stage 5, earning him the 5^th place position in the overall standings was the 2023 winner of the ADDC, Adrien Van Beveren. “All good, you know? It’s always good to finish a race. We push hard, give our best and try to race as fast as possible. It’s also good to finish healthy because riding here is tough. It’s really wide open. But yeah, I gave my best every day and have no regrets.”

Rounding out the top Monster Energy racers in the ADDC’s top ten were Jose “Nacho” Cornejo (Hero Motosports) and Skyler Howes (Honda HRC Rally), tied for the 6^th position overall.

Said Cornejo: “I always enjoy riding the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. A lot of dunes, a lot of cool places to ride. Today was a tight battle for the podium and we gave our best out there. Almost crashed once, but it was a really good week of racing. Felt really well on my Hero bike. A good evolution on it. Less than a year and I’m already quite fast and confident in almost all the terrain. So quite happy here at the second round of the championship and looking forward to the next round in South Africa.”

Added Howes: “I think my whole goal here was to keep building off of my result at the Dakar. This place you can really get it wrong if you rode too hard. Almost every single day I rode with a new setting and, like I said, that was my goal – to just keep building the base after Dakar. Of course I want to have good championship rounds and have a good position in the World Championship as well, but my focus is on building a really solid base to perform at the absolute maximum at the Dakar. Here we tested more set ups, more parts and things. All to build confidence on the bike.”

Stage 5 Notes:

• The race for 2^nd place overall at the ADDC came right down to the wire with Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally’s Brabec topping his teammate, Schareina, by a mere 17 seconds (14:26:43 to 14:27:00) over six days racing – 1,189 kilometers - in the sand.
• “If you want to be the world champion in the World Championship, you have to race well in all kinds of terrain.” – Schareina on racing his very first Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in what could be said is run in predominantly sand.
• Stage 5’s Mezeer’ah to Abu Dhabi route covered a total of 364 kilometers, with only 167 of which being Special sections. The Abu Dhabi locals welcomed the competitors with an awards ceremony held at Hudayriyat Island.
• More Brabec: “I broke my leg in October, so Dakar wasn’t exactly 100-percent. Been doing some work after Dakar and know the knee and leg feel a lot better. We made a big step in direction with the bike, happy with that. Now, I’m looking forward to going home and doing some testing with the bike to make it even better for South Africa. A really big positive leaving here, after six days racing in the desert, healthy and headed home.”
• Van Beveren, the WRRC’s all-time winningest racer by stage, was definitely looking for a better finish, but still positive in his overall outlook on the ADDC. “Not the results I was looking for, but this is racing. We will go back home and regroup and train again for the next one.”
• Pretty much the call of the day for all of the Monster Energy backed racers was that they were happy to be going back home healthy. Said Howes: “Made it to the finish line healthy, with no issues. Heading back home to test and make sure my body stays to the maximum, at 100 percent. Come back swinging at South Africa.”
• As noted earlier, Van Beveren still holds the WRRC record of 16 stage wins, with Sanders creeping up to 15 with his win at the ADDC’s Stage 4 on Wednesday.
• Hero Motosports, fueled by Monster Energy’s Ross Branch, who exited the ADDC early due to a mechanical failure, can take solace in the fact the next round of the WRRC stops at the Botswanan’s homeland – South Africa – in May with the inaugural running of the South African Safary Rally.

Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge Stage 5 results

1^st – Schareina (Monster Energy/Honda), 2:03:27

2^nd – Brabec (Monster Energy/Honda), 2:04:58

5^th – Van Beveren (Monster Energy/Honda), 2:07:19

6^th – Howes (Monster Energy/Honda), 2:08:52

7^th – Cornejo (Hero/Monster Energy), 3:09:30

Final Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge overall standings top five (Prologue through Stage 5)

2^nd – Brabec (Monster Energy/Honda), 14:26:43

3^rd – Schareina (Monster Energy/Honda), 14:27:00

5^th – Van Beveren (Monster Energy/Honda), 14:30:48

Monster Energy WRRC Motorcycle Standings 

Place/Name/Team

2^nd – Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy/Honda)              

3^rd – Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy/Honda)                    

4^th – Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy/Honda)

6^th – Skyler Howes (Monster Energy/Honda)

6^th – Jose “Nacho” Cornejo (Hero/Monster Energy)

Up next…

The FIM World Rally Raid Championship moves to South Africa for the inaugural running of the South African Safary Rally, May 18-24. For more information, including “Live” timing and scoring, visit www.worldrallyraidchampionship.com