World Rally-Raid Championship

2023 Desafio Ruta 40: Stage 5 ends with bike penalties

3 Mins read
Credit: Honda Racing Corporation

As the Desafío Ruta 40 came to a close Friday, it was imperative for leaders to avoid making mistakes that might upend their races at the last moment. Bike riders did not quite seem to get that memo.

Perhaps due to riders being more cautious or even too aggressive to maximise their ranking, Stage #5 saw all but two names in the top RallyGP category along with six in Rally2 receive penalties for speeding. Most were of the two-minute variety, though more egregious cases got triple that.

Adrien Van Beveren and his Honda team-mate José Ignacio Cornejo were the only RallyGP riders not to get busted, though they finished on complete opposite ends of the leaderboard. Cornejo finished eighth and last in class as he was dealing with illness, while Van Beveren had finished fourth but ended up the winner as the entire podium was penalised. Initial stage winner Toby Price was one of those who got six minutes, relegating him to fourth. Although Van Beveren failed to win any of the first four stages, he had won the Prologue on Sunday.

Ross Branch and Ricky Brabec got two minutes but were able to hang on to their podium spots as Van Beveren moved up. Van Beveren beat Branch by fifty-eight seconds.

Tosha Schareina and Luciano Benavides, the top two in the RallyGP overall entering Friday, opted for more conservative strategies to preserve their positions and consequently finished in the bottom half of the class. Benavides still finished seventh of eight regardless of his six-minute penalty while Schareina was fifth even with two minutes tacked on, though it did not affect their overall.

Rally2’s Michael Docherty, who consistently kept pace with the higher RallyGP class, was also slapped with six minutes to drop him to second in class while Bradley Cox‘s flawless run sealed the overall win.

The cars were not as penalty-laden as only three drivers got caught going too fast in select speed zones, most notably the T1 of Eugenio Amos which caused him to lose third to Denis Krotov by just a second. With his time of 2:40:08 nudging out Amos’ 2:40:09, Krotov scored his maiden stage podium in a Toyota Hilux.

Juan Cruz Yacopini and Yazeed Al-Rajhi, second and third overall behind Nasser Al-Attiyah, finished at the bottom of T1. Al-Rajhi’s Friday was marred by four punctures, which had doomed him to start the rally on Monday, and getting stuck in a ditch due to a navigation error.

Shinsuke Umeda, who rolled his T4 on Thursday, and classmate Enrico Gaspari received one- and two-minute penalties for speeding. Gaspari had led for much of Saturday before stopping in the final run, which enabled Gustavo Gallego to pull ahead and win.

Stage #4 T3 winner João Ferreira retired with clutch problems.

Joaquín Debeljuh entered Friday as the overall leader in the Open Moto class, but lost the win after crashing into a trunk in a dry river. He attempted to continue the race before passing out from the pain and was airlifted out, eventually being diagnosed with a dislocated and fractured right shoulder.

Stage #5 winners

ClassNumberCompetitorTeamTime
T1200Nasser Al-AttiyahToyota Gazoo Racing2:34:04
T3306Mattias EkströmSouth Racing Can-Am2:42:21
T4403Gustavo Gallego*South Racing Can-Am3:09:14
RallyGP42Adrien Van BeverenMonster Energy Honda Rally TEam2:39:44
Rally221Bradley CoxBAS World KTM Racing Team2:43:19
Rally3122Ardit KurtajXraids Experience3:19:05
Quad152Manuel Andújar7240 Team2:57:25
Open Auto650Blas Zapag*Copetrol Rally3:07:31
Open T3674Rodrigo Caballero*Rodrigo Caballero3:10:17
Open T4678Juan Jose Semino*Xcorpion Rally Racing3:32:14
Open Moto610Rodrigo de Abreu Sallum*MED Racing Team3:14:56
Open Quad621Matías Innocente*Corrientes Dakar Team3:45:48

Overall winners

ClassNumberCompetitorTeamTime
T1200Nasser Al-AttiyahToyota Gazoo Racing15:10:03
T3302Mitch GuthrieRed Bull Off-Road Junior Team16:22:31
T4403Gustavo Gallego*South Racing Can-Am18:34:37
RallyGP68Tosha Schareina*Honda Team15:58:46
Rally221Bradley CoxBAS World KTM Racing Team17:01:01
Rally3122Ardit KurtajXraids Experience23:15:45
Quad152Manuel Andújar7240 Team19:24:30
Open Auto650Blas Zapag*Copetrol Rally23:06:34
Open T3670Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli*Ferioli Racing Team17:34:31
Open T4678Juan Jose Semino*Xcorpion Rally Racing20:59:00
Open Moto608Rodrigo de Abreu Sallum*MED Racing Team22:36:24
Open Quad623Santiago Rostan*Pampa Rental Rally Team25:28:33
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