Leaving Its Rivals Trailing In The Dunes, The Audi RS Q E-Tron Triumphs In Abu Dhabi

Ensuing its debut with four stage victories at the Dakar Rally in January, Audi has once again made history in motorsport by clinching its first overall victory in Abu Dhabi.

Driving the Audi RS Q E-Tron, Stéphane Peterhansel and Edouard Boulanger, won the second round of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship with an advantage of 29.49 minutes.

Audi Sport GmbH’s managing director, Julius Seebach, remarked, “Congratulations to Stéphane and Edouard, to Team Audi Sport as well as our fielding partner Q Motorsport. They have achieved a breakthrough for our innovations with this success. We developed the Audi RS Q E-Tron in record time. Now, for the first time, a car with an electric powertrain has won a desert rally.”

A living legend in his sport, not only is this the eighth time since 1996 that Peterhansel a.k.a Mister Dakar has accepted a winner’s trophy at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, this is also his first for Audi.

Together with co-driver Edouard Boulanger, the 56-year-old Frenchman led the desert rally continuously from the first stage after a flawless drive. 

Seebach furthered, “A victory on the second start against the two best contenders of January’s Dakar Rally, winner Nasser Al-Attiyah and record World Champion and Monte Carlo winner Sébastien Loeb is an outstanding result. It was remarkable that our concept prevailed in even tougher conditions than in January.”

At least two factors noticeably levelled-up the difficulty, first is the higher outside temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius, and that is in the shade.

Second is the even higher values in the desert, which increased the rolling resistance in the soft sand, in turn pushing the cooling circuits to their limits as foreseen.

Regardless, the RS Q E-Tron’s alternative drive concept that combines an electric powertrain with a high-voltage battery and the highly efficient energy converter proved to be reliable. 

Plus, the rally also differed significantly from the Dakar Rally, geology-wise. Long and erratic dune passages characterized the five stages with a total length of more than 1,800 km. 

“It wasn’t easy to find the right rhythm on the sometimes very treacherous broken dunes. Our pace was right and we didn’t take too many risks. Once again, the Audi RS Q E-Tron was a lot of fun,” expressed Audi’s rally driver, Stéphane Peterhansel.

The example of the rivalry showed how complex the terrain was, where on the first day itself, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb lost all chances of good overall results due to damage to their cars.

Fortunately, a puncture on the second day was the only unscheduled stop for Team Audi Sport. At which, the lead of 9.30 minutes after the first stage was reduced to 7.49 minutes. 

Then, after a setback for another opponent on the third stage Peterhansel and Boulanger continuously extended their advantage. 

Q Motorsport’s managing director and team principal, Sven Quandt, commented, “Once again we have learned a lot in this young project. On the one hand, it was a test for us, but on the other hand it was also about sporting goals. The first victory is of course something very special. The higher temperatures and the long dune passages were an increase compared to the Dakar Rally. All the nicer that the Audi RS Q E-Tron ran so flawlessly and that the electric drive concept proved itself even in the toughest conditions.”

That said, following the historic first success of the RS Q E-Tron, Team Audi Sport is pushing ahead with the development of the prototype and preparing for the next event in parallel. 

Significantly, the Andalucia Rally is on the agenda from June 6 to 12. A qualifying stage and five legs of 200 to 300 km each await the participants in the south of Spain in the middle of the year.