2023 Sonora Rally: Mitch Guthrie holds off Ekstrom for T3 triumph

The World Rally-Raid Championship‘s T3 category is enjoying a streak of parity to begin 2023 as all three rounds have been won by a different driver, even if they’re all Red Bull team-mates.

The streak continued as Mitch Guthrie scored his maiden W2RC victory at the Sonora Rally, edging out Mattias Ekström by less than seven minutes. Guthrie, who is no stranger to the Mexican desert as the 2017 Baja 1000 UTV overall winner, remains third in the T3 standings behind fellow American Red Bull drivers Seth Quintero and Austin Jones, but the gap to the leader is cut in more than half from forty-six after Abu Dhabi to twenty.

Ekström, racing in T3 for the second straight race, had the early advantage as he won the first and third stages while the Red Bull factory racers squabbled amongst themselves. However, Guthrie hit his stride and won Stage #4 to take the overall lead while Ekström had an off-day and placed sixth. Guthrie entered the final day leading Ekström by 1:09, and the margin ended up growing to six-and-a-half minutes when the latter got stuck in traffic and suffered a tyre puncture.

“Super excited to take the overall win at the Sonora Rally,” wrote Guthrie. “Thanks to the whole team for all their hard work. It was a battle the entire rally and we’re stoked! This is a big win for us and see you on the next one.”

Settling for runner-up in the final stage meant Ekström was the lone driver to hold second overall in consecutive legs. The position traded hands multiple times starting with João Ferreira, who broke up the Can-Am party in his Yamaha after placing second to Guthrie in the Prologue before an electrical issue and water pump failure knocked him off the spot the following day. Francisco Lopéz Contardo won Stage #2 to assume second, only to lose it to a broken front axle thirty kilometres into the third leg. Cristina Gutiérrez moved up into second thanks to her top five run until Guthrie overtook Ekström in the penultimate stage.

Jones snuck onto the podium on the final day when he finished fifth, 1:35 ahead of Lopéz and seven minutes on Gutiérrez. With Quintero’s struggles while Guillaume de Mévius and Hernán Garcés are part-timers, Jones is the only driver in T3 to score podium finishes in all three rounds to date, winning the Dakar Rally and placing second at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. Red Bull colleague Rokas Baciuška in T4, Paolo Lucci in Rally2, and Laisvydas Kancius in Quad have also achieved the feat.

Gutiérrez and Lopéz respectively finished fourth and fifth, the latter virtually out of contention after his Stage #3 problems and half an hour back of Gutiérrez. Lopéz, the reigning W2RC T3 champion, was making his racing return after skipping Abu Dhabi to focus on fatherhood.

Quintero had a difficult rally as his Can-Am was plagued by mechanical issues from the first stage. He had to settle for tenth, which bumped him up to ninth since sixth-placed Diego Martinez is not racing for W2RC points, and still holds the championship lead over Jones even if by just one point.

David Zille was the only driver not named Guthrie or Ekström to win a stage as he closed out the rally with his second career stage victory (the first came at the Dakar Rally). He was classified eighth as a broken hub in Stage #4 eliminated him from contention; Zille had been fifth overall prior to the issue.

T3 overall results

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	302	Mitch Guthrie	Kellon Walch	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	11:17:24	Leader
2	308	Mattias Ekström	Emil Bergkvist	South Racing Can-Am	11:24:02	+ 6:38
3	301	Austin Jones	Gustavo Gugelmin	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	11:28:10	+ 10:46
4	304	Cristina Gutiérrez	Pablo Moreno Huete	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing	11:30:02	+ 12:38
5	303	Francisco Lopéz Contardo	Juan Pablo Latrach	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing	11:58:54	+ 41:30
6	311	Diego Martinez*	Sergio Lafuente	South Racing Can-Am	12:11:42	+ 54:18
7	305	João Ferreira	Filipe Palmeiro	X-raid Team	12:16:18	+ 58:54
8	307	David Zille	Sebastian Cesana	South Racing Can-Am	12:59:28	+ 1:42:04
9	309	Annett Quandt	Lisette Bakker	X-raid Team	13:00:31	+ 1:43:07
10	300	Seth Quintero	Dennis Zenz	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	13:07:02	+ 1:49:38
11	306	Claude Fournier	Szymon Gospodarczyk	Team BBR	13:26:24	+ 2:09:00

T3 stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	Mitch Guthrie	5:45
Stage #1	Mattias Ekström	1:40:15
Stage #2	Francisco Lopéz Contardo	1:33:25
Stage #3	Mattias Ekström	3:39:27
Stage #4	Mitch Guthrie	2:51:44
Stage #5	David Zille	1:20:31

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
T1	201	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Toyota Gazoo Racing	10:29:55
T3	302	Mitch Guthrie	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	11:17:24
T4	400	Rokas Baciuška	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing	11:51:05
RallyGP	18	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing	11:01:09
Rally2	17	Romain Dumontier	HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing	11:48:21
Rally3	57	Massimo Camurri	Freedom Rally Racing	15:59:16
Quad	162	Laisvydas Kancius	AG Dakar School	15:33:14
National Car/UTV	605	Sara Price*	SP Motorsports	17:14:04
National Enduro	513	Brendan Crow*	Brendan Crow	16:37:36
National Malle Moto	501	Matt Sutherland*	Matt Sutherland	18:24:08

W2RC T3 standings

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Austin Jones	146	Leader
2	Seth Quintero	145	– 1
3	Mitch Guthrie	126	– 20
T-4	Cristina Gutiérrez	78	– 68
T-4	Francisco López Contardo	78	– 68
6	João Ferreira	74	– 72
7	Mattias Ekström	54	– 92
8	Claude Fournier	42	– 104
T-9	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	41	– 105
T-9	David Zille	41	– 105
11	Aliyyah Koloc	34	– 112
12	Hélder Rodrigues	22	– 124
13	Annett Quandt	20	– 126
14	Dania Akeel	15	– 131
15	Erik van Loon	13	– 133

Co-drivers’ standings

Some co-drivers have worked with drivers in other categories. Those do not count for this championship nor are they mentioned below.

Rank	Co-Driver	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Gustavo Gugelmin	Austin Jones	146	Leader
2	Dennis Zenz	Seth Quintero	145	– 1
3	Kellon Walch	Mitch Guthrie	126	– 20
T-4	Pablo Moreno Huete	Cristina Gutiérrez	78	– 68
T-4	Juan Pablo Latrach	Francisco López Contardo	78	– 68
6	Filipe Palmeiro	João Ferreira	74	– 72
7	Emil Bergkvist	Mattias Ekström	54	– 92
T-8	Cédric Duplé	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	41	– 105
T-8	Sebastian Cesana	David Zille	41	– 105
10	Stéphane Duplé	Aliyyah Koloc	34	– 112
T-11	Szymon Gospodarczyk	Claude Fournier	22	– 124
T-11	Gonçalo Reis	Hélder Rodrigues	22	– 124
13	Arnold Brucy	Claude Fournier	20	– 126
14	Sergio Lafuente	Dania Akeel, Diego Martinez*	15	– 131
15	Sébastien Delaunay	Erik van Loon	13	– 133
16	Annie Seel	Annett Quandt	11	– 135
17	Lisette Bakker	Annett Quandt	9	– 137