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Cristina Gutiérrez is the star of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge

Cristina Gutierrez is delighted to win the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2021

Spain's Cristina Gutiérrez made history at the 30th anniversary edition of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge when she collected enough points in the T3 category to become the first driver ever to win the FIA World Cup title for cross-country rallies.

Gutiérrez and her co-driver François Cazalet (FRA) battled back from two tricky opening stages for the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team and collected enough points to pull away from compatriot Fernando Alvarez and win a historic first title. Earlier this year, the Spaniard became the first woman to win a Dakar Rally stage since Jutta Kleinschmidt's last stage win in 2005, and followed that feat with an emotionally-charged victory in the Andalusia Rally in her native Spain in May and a win in the Kazakhstan Rally in June. She suffered three fractured vertebrae on the final Kazakhstan stage and returned after an intense two-month recovery period to win more valuable championship points at last month's Rally du Maroc.

The 30-year-old said: "We are world champions! I can't believe it. After such a hard year that I've had, I can't be happier. Especially the first two stages were not easy. Finally, we managed to find a good pace and avoid mistakes, and we scored important points for the championship. These races are so long that it's difficult to be at the front on every stage.

Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team crews Seth Quintero (USA)/Dennis Zenz (GER) and Guillaume De Mevius (BEL)/Tom Colsoul (BEL) also competed, with Quintero dropping out on Tuesday due to a stiff neck and De Mevius continuing his mission to prepare his OT3 for Dakar in the 2022 version. The 50-year-old legend Nasser Al-Attiyah won the first four stages in the T1 car category and built a huge 23.48-minute lead over Argentine Lucio Alvarez before the final stage. Alvarez eventually took the stage win with a 1.53-minute lead over Yazeed Al Rajhi. Al-Attiyah finished third, 2.46 minutes behind, and won the overall classification by 21.02 minutes ahead of Poland's Kuba Przygonski, who finished fourth after a mixed race. Qatar's Al-Attiyah and his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel went into the race as leaders of the 2021 FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies, with Al-Attiyah securing his fifth title and Baumel his fourth with one stop remaining.

In the motorcycles, Matthias Walkner - who had the luxury of already having the 2021 FIA World Cup Cross Country Rally title in the bag - was in the top two on every stage, winning by just 4m 31s from Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren, who was unlucky not to triumph after three stage wins. Austrian Walkner's first win in Abu Dhabi will give him a boost ahead of the 2022 Dakar, while Australian Daniel Sanders won the third stage before mechanical problems on Thursday dashed his hopes.

Rookie Sanders nevertheless finished third overall in the 2021 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, while local fans appreciated the performance of Mohammed Balooshi (UAE), who finished the race in sixth place. Czech Martin Prokop won the SSV category by a huge margin of 4h35m20s after winning the first four stages and finishing just seven seconds behind Dutchman Erik van Loon on the final stage.

The following are 20 exciting pictures

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