Kleinschmidt and Al Attiyah join forces with Spain’s Jose Luis Monterde and Brazil’s Paulo Nobre for a powerful four-car assault by the BMW X-raid team on the final round of the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup, which will be held from November 5-10.

They will be aiming to prevent the mighty Mitsubishi and Volkswagen factory teams from dominating an event in which Monterde finished runner-up last year. Both Monterde and Nobre will go into action at the wheel of the latest BMW X5 CC prototypes while Kleinschmidt and Al Attiyah will drive highly modified versions of the BMW X3CC.

Defending champion Stephane Peterhansel will start as the hot favourite ahead of Mitsubishi team-mates Luc Alphand and Hiroshi Masuoka, although Volkswagen are looking to former world champions Ari Vatanen and Carlos Sainz to shift the balance of power in their favour. But the combination of Monterde, Nobre, Kleinschmidt and Al Attiyah means BMW have multiple chances of getting onto the podium. “The Mitsubishis will be  difficult to beat, even for Ari and Carlos,” said Mohammed bin Sulayem, President of the Automobile and Touring Club for the UAE and chairman of the organising committee.