Emiratis Ahmed Al Fahim and Mohammed Al Balooshi have both extended their leads in the overall cars and bikes categories at the half way point in the 2014-15 Emirates Desert Championship, but the pressure is on in the national Baja rally series.

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Fahim had to settle for second place in the third round of the championship at the weekend as fellow-UAE driver Ahmad Al Maqoodi powered his Polaris to a second successive cars victory to rise to fourth place overall.

Defending champion Al Fahim increased his overall lead to eight points over British driver Graeme Rose, but now knows he faces a battle to retain his title with just three more rounds to go.

The two-hour desert short course attracted 116 drivers and riders and brought a second consecutive overall bikes win for Britain’s Jake Shipton.

But third place on the day was still good enough to see Al Balooshi reach the half-way point in the season on his KTM holding a three-point advantage over Kuwaiti rider Mohammed Jaffar.

Emirati rider Mohammed Al Shamsi on a Kawaski snatched victory in the quads division from Alex MacFarlane, but second place saw the KTM rider replace the UAE’s Humaid Al Mashghouni as the championship leader.