Abu Dhabi: Czech driver Martin Prokop and Chilean rider Pablo Quintanilla were the big winners on Monday as the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, powered by Nissan, served up a potent reminder of how difficult it is to find a path to victory in this event.

Partnered by David Pabiska in a Ford F-150 Evo, Prokop won the spectacular 287km Nissan Stage 2 to grab an advantage of 10 minutes 30.2 seconds from Poland’s Jakub Przygonski and Belgian co-driver Tom Colsoul as the overnight cars leaders fell to second place in their Mini John Cooper.

On reaching the finish, Prokop made it clear that this had been anything but a trouble-free day. “We had a tough two thirds of the stage and PC3 was full of soft sand and big drops. We caught up with Shaikh Khalid Al Qasimi and rode alongside with him for two hours, but I think we came offline a little. We crashed into a dune near the end,” said Prokop.

Finishing the day in third place, 1 minute 24 seconds further away in their Peugeot Abu Dhabi Racing Team 3008 DKR, the UAE’s Shaikh Khalid and French co-driver Xavier Panseri still retained hopes of a second successive Desert Challenge win with three demanding desert stages remaining.

With Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Seaidan and Russian co-driver Aleksei Kuzmich slipping one place to fourth in a Toyota Hilux Overdrive, Frenchman Cyril Despres and Swiss Steve Ravussin in a Buggy Ford 2WD and Russians Vladimir Vasilyev and Konstantin Zhiltsov in a Mini Cooper Countryman completed the top six.

Emiratis Yahya Al Helei and Khalid Al Kendi finished the leg holding seventh place in a Nissan Pick Up and South Africans Terence Marsh and Riaan Greyling in a Nissan Navara made it an even better day for the manufacturer by entering the top ten.

It was, however, a day to forget for Frenchman Luc Alphand and German co-driver Andreas Schultz, who were second at the end of the first leg in their John Cooper Works Buggy but slipped from contention after losing a lot of time among the dunes.

On a day when the heat and soft sand of the desert dunes made it a particularly tough stage for the riders, Quintanilla set the fastest time on his Husqvarna to take a lead of 1 mins 8 secs from the KTM of Dubai-based defending champion Sam Sunderland.

But with Argentinian Kevin Benavides on a Honda and Austria’s reigning Dakar Rally champion Matthias Walkner on a KTM both in hot pursuit, just 2 mins 39 secs separated the leading four riders.

Top Emirati rider Mohammad Al Balooshi, recent winner of the Dubai International Baja, held on to his top ten place among world-class competition with another good performance.