2024 Desafio Ruta 40: Championship picture crystallises after Stage 5

The fifth and final stage of the Desafío Ruta 40 provided both clarity and complexities in the World Rally-Raid Championship. While some classes like Quad have been decided, the points battle has only tightened elsewhere.

The latter was especially the case in Ultimate, where Yazeed Al-Rajhi entered leading Nasser Al-Attiyah for the FIA overall by just thirteen seconds. Although Al-Attiyah was the fastest car for much of Friday’s stage, Al-Rajhi found just enough juice in the final fifty kilometres to seal the stage victory by twenty-seven seconds. Forty seconds separated Al-Rajhi from Al-Attiyah, the latter still the points leader.

Likewise, Rokas Baciuška‘s dominance of Challenger en route to the category’s overall victory was still not enough to clinch him the title. After racing conservatively on Friday to protect his car, Baciuška ended the DR 40 with three stage wins but was unable to put away Nicolás Cavigliasso, who still has a mathematical shot.

Sebastián Guayasamín, the highest-ranking SSV driver entered in the race, ended the race with the Stage #5 victory. Although not enough to beat Ricardo Ramilo and thus failing to fully capitalise on points leader Yasir Seaidan‘s early exit, he edged out Rebecca Busi for second overall by five seconds to take the championship lead by six points.

Likewise, Tosha Schareina won the fifth leg on bikes by 1:12 on Ricky Brabec; however, he needed to make up 1:27 to beat his Honda team-mate for the outright victory. A similar development befell Bradley Cox in Rally2, edging out Edgar Canet for the stage win by sixteen seconds and Romain Dumontier by twenty-nine but finishing 6:31 back of the latter.

Manuel Andújar, on the other hand, secured the Quad championship one race early in a dominant performance. He wrapped a bow on his home rally by beating Giuliano Giordana for the stage win by seven minutes.

Stage #5 winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
Ultimate	202	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Overdrive Racing	2:34:40
Challenger	303	Marcelo Gastaldi	BBR Motorsport	2:45:22
SSV	401	Sebastián Guayasamín	BE Racing	2:58:50
RallyGP	68	Tosha Schareina	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	2:35:50
Rally2	18	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	2:43:23
Rally3	67	John Medina	Xraids Experience	3:23:25
Quad	174	Manuel Andújar	7240 Team	2:54:12
Open Bike	600	Baltazar Frezze Pissoni*	MED Racing Team	3:11:30
Open Cars	650	Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli*	Ferioli Racing Team	2:43:04

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
Ultimate	202	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Overdrive Racing	17:38:21
Challenger	300	Rokas Baciuška	Can-Am Factory Team	18:54:59
SSV	402	Ricardo Ramilo	Scuderia Ramilo	20:35:43
RallyGP	9	Ricky Brabec	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	18:08:37
Rally2	16	Romain Dumontier	Team Dumontier Racing	18:57:19
Rally3	67	John Medina	Xraids Experience	24:15:07
Quad	174	Manuel Andújar	7240 Team	20:56:19
Open Bike	603	Julian Sanchez Dabin*	Max Clean Rally Team	25:21:08
Open Cars	650	Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli*	Ferioli Racing Team	20:20:41