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00:08Welcome to Argentina for the 12th edition of De SofÃa Ruta 40.
00:19After being rebooted last year as part of the World Rally Raid Championship,
00:23this event has quickly established itself as one of the best on the calendar.
00:27The world's top riders and drivers are back as Ruta 40 gets underway in the rally-mad city of Cordoba.
00:34After a short prologue, they're going to battle it out over five exhilarating stages.
00:39So, let's check out who's on the start line.
00:48Ross Branch is sitting pretty in the bikes, leading the World Championship by 21 points with two rounds to go.
00:54It's obviously in the back of my mind, but as long as we keep it on two wheels and do
00:59the best we can, that's all we can do.
01:03Hero are also targeting the manufacturer's title and they've boosted their line-up with the signing of Nacho Cornejo.
01:11But they will be going up against a full-strength Honda squad, including last year's winner in Argentina, Tosha Shirena.
01:22The returning Dakar champion, Ricky Brebeck, and the man currently second in the W2RC, Adrian van Beveren.
01:33I will try to go fast. My challenge here is to try to reach the best spot of the podium.
01:42There's also a comeback for the Gas Gas and Husqvarna teams, who aren't doing the W2RC this season and haven't
01:49been in action since the Dakar.
01:51In the absence of his brother Kevin, who suffered a bad training crash a few weeks ago, Luciano Benavides is
01:57flying the flag for Argentina.
01:59Super happy to be here in Argentina. Here again, like last year, but right now being the current world champion
02:08and also with the number one on the bike and with the perfect colours from Argentina.
02:14Well, Benavides took control of the W2RC here in Argentina last year, but sadly his involvement in this year's rally
02:21was short-lived.
02:22On the very first stage, he crashed and had to be taken to hospital, having suffered a fracture to the
02:27top of his right femur.
02:29We wish Luciano and everybody else who got injured this week a speedy recovery.
02:34Sam Sunderland's difficult run also continued. The British star retired on stage three, with his Gas Gas team not specifying
02:41what caused him to pull out.
02:43He hasn't completed a rally since the end of 2022, when he was crowned world champion in Andalusia.
02:50In the end, Daniel Sanders was the only member of the team to reach the finish line.
02:54The Australian is still working his way back to full fitness after a bad leg break just over a year
02:59ago.
03:00He came home in ninth overall. Solid enough, but he'll be aiming higher in Morocco.
03:10In fact, everybody is going to have to up their game to keep pace with the Hondas.
03:14The team got off to the ideal start as Sharena won the prologue by two seconds from Ricky Braybeck, the
03:20Spaniard picking up exactly where he left off after victory in Portugal.
03:26Braybeck, meanwhile, could hardly have made a better comeback as he then powered to victory on stage one.
03:31There's no opening bonus here, so I think here for the route of 40, it's literally about raw speed and
03:37navigation.
03:43In the early days of the rally, there was red wherever you looked.
03:47Van Beveren won the second stage to go top of the overall standings, ahead of his teammates Sharena and Braybeck.
03:56For sure, the main goal is to win the race, the overall, but to win a stage is something nice.
04:02Honda continued to assert their dominance as the rally switched from the WRC-style tracks around Cordoba to the sandier
04:08cross-country terrain near San Juan.
04:11Another stage win for Braybeck put him back in the hot seat.
04:19Hero were doing their best to match the Hondas, but with limited success.
04:23Sebastian Bula impressed in the first two stages, coming fourth and third, but faded as the rally wore on and
04:29finished seventh overall.
04:30The German not quite able to build on his superb second place overall in Portugal.
04:38Ramiro Barca was making his debut for Hero in Rally 2.
04:41The 22-year-old is the reigning two-time Peruvian cross-country champion, but things didn't go his way this
04:47week.
04:47He crashed out on stage three with a broken tibia.
04:51That means Ramiro won't be able to make his Dakar debut in 2025.
04:58As for Hero's marquee signing Nacho Cornejo, he clearly still needs time to get to grips with his new bike.
05:04The Chilean played around with a lot of different settings this week, but never quite found his groove, finishing as
05:10the 12th biker overall and the lowest ranked in Rally GP.
05:14Nacho has vowed to knuckle down and come back stronger in Morocco.
05:21Ross Branch ended up as the highest of the heroes in fifth place overall, after a week that was solid
05:26if unspectacular.
05:28The World Championship leader knew the main thing was coming away with some decent points towards his title bit,
05:33and with the 11 he's picked up in Argentina, he remains on top in the W2RC before October's season finale
05:40in Morocco.
05:43Obviously not the result I wanted, but we're still leading the championship and my hat's off to Honda.
05:49They did a good job and they outrode us this week, but lots of motivation to come back swinging in
05:53Morocco.
05:55Skylar Howes will have been buoyed by his performance. The American's been gradually improving all season.
06:00After retiring from the Dakar with bike failure, he was sixth in Portugal and now fourth in Argentina.
06:06A former podium finisher at the Dakar, Howes was 13 minutes off the pace.
06:13Van Beveren made no secret of the fact that he was in Argentina this week to win.
06:17And while he couldn't quite achieve that objective, the Frenchman did an excellent job to come third overall.
06:23He was happy to have given his best to have won a stage and to have been right in the
06:27thick of the action.
06:30Shirena pushed Braybeck all the way, powering two consecutive wins on stages four and five as he came within a
06:36whisker of winning the rally.
06:38In the end, the Spaniard was just 15 seconds short.
06:41No back-to-back victories after Portugal then, but Shirena is riding brilliantly and he also had warm words for
06:47Braybeck.
06:51So happy for him, so happy for the team because one, two, three for Honda and yeah, I think we
06:56have done a really good job.
06:58Hats off to Braybeck then, the winner of Ruta 40 2024.
07:02The Dakar champion picking up exactly where he left off with another superbly crafted performance.
07:08The American is now two for two in 2024 and he's right back in the world championship fight.
07:16I missed rounds two and three and then I come back in Ruta and to win is really cool, but
07:21hey, it was not easy.
07:22Definitely looking forward to come back in Morocco and hopefully, hopefully we can get the championship. That'd be super sweet.
07:33Almost 1800 kilometers against the clock and it came down to just 15 seconds between the top two.
07:38Honda locking out the top four overall.
07:41Ranch's world championship lead is down to just nine points over Braybeck with one round to go.
07:55In rally two, it was all about the fight between Romain Dumontier and Bradley Cox, separated by just three points
08:01at the start of the rally.
08:03Every race is, we are each time quite close. I want to keep my title of course.
08:09We can't afford to lose anything and it's sort of winner takes all going forward now.
08:15Cox struck the first blow winning the first stage around Cordoba.
08:19The South African has fond memories of Argentina having taken his first overall win in rally two at this event
08:24last year.
08:25He also did the international six days enduro here in 2014. Cox moving into the early lead then.
08:32But once Dumontier was able to unleash the power of his new Honda, there was no stopping him.
08:38The Frenchman has joined the Japanese giants as a non-official rider and reeled off three stage wins in a
08:43row to build a seven minute lead.
08:53It was a challenging week for Conrad Dabrowski, who began the rally fourth in the W2RC.
08:58He'd been hoping to stay in the scrap for the rally two title, but ran into trouble on stage one
09:03when his bike gave up the ghost at kilometer 210.
09:06The pole finishing 38th out of 43 in the FIM class.
09:12Edgar Canet burst onto the rally ride scene in Portugal, coming fourth in rally two and showed he really means
09:18business by coming third in Argentina.
09:20The 19 year old Spaniard who comes from motocross is definitely one to watch.
09:26Yeah, I'm improving a lot in this rally, Ruta 40. So happy to finish and to make good results in
09:34the stage and let's see the next chapter.
09:38It ended up being a slightly frustrating rally for Cox, who couldn't quite match Dumontier for pace and crashed on
09:44stage four.
09:45However, he did finish on a high note with the stage five victory and he knows the fight for the
09:50rally two crown will go down to the wire.
09:56Yeah, it was not the best one for me, but you know, I was pretty consistent every day and now
10:00at the end I've found my rhythm again, which is nice. So yeah, we take the fight to Morocco now.
10:06Dumontier described his new Honda deal as a reward for all of his hard work and excellent results of the
10:11past few years.
10:12And the Frenchman repaid the team's investment with a solid rally two victory.
10:17I'm really happy to get this victory here in Argentina. Last year I finished third. It was not so good.
10:26And this year now it's okay with a Swiss stage win. So yes, I'm very happy about that.
10:35Dumontier, Cox and Canet coming in some way clear of the rest.
10:38Toby Hederyx and French veteran David Casteur made up the top five.
10:43Dumontier leads Cox by just eight points in the W2RC with Dabrowski now 23 back.
10:56Round two of the rally three championship saw four South American riders go head to head.
11:01Fernando Hernandez led by nearly half an hour after three stages, but the Argentinian unfortunately crashed out on stage four
11:08and had to be taken to hospital.
11:10That handed the initiative to John Medina, the only rider here who also competed in Portugal.
11:15The Chilean was battling an injury from the last round, but came through to win the class by over two
11:20hours and take the championship lead before Morocco.
11:25Medina winning by a comfortable margin from Eduardo Alain with Marcelo Miti a distant third after mechanical problems on stage
11:33one.
11:34Medina now leads the championship from the winner in Portugal, Gonçalo Amaral.
11:47Manuel Andujar was in a league of his own in the quads. The two-time Dakar champion recovered from an
11:53early penalty to claim a commanding overall victory.
11:56He won four of five stages, including one on his birthday.
12:00Today is my birthday. I have 28 years old now. It's the best way to celebrate my birthday.
12:07In a race here in Argentina with all of the people, so I enjoy so much.
12:16Andujar's nearest challenger was Fecundo Viel, who won the prologue and the first stage despite running out of fuel with
12:2230k to go.
12:23The Argentinian, who went through his hometown of Jesus Maria early in the rally, was the only rider to finish
12:29within an hour of Andujar.
12:33The national star was making his final outing on a quad, following the announcement that the class will no longer
12:38be run at the Dakar.
12:39And he went out in style, defending his Ruta Quarenta title and claiming the W2RC crown with one round to
12:46spare.
12:50I think it's the best way to finish my career in the quad, here in Argentina with my people, in
12:57my country, all my family, all my friends. It's the best way to finish.
13:05The top four quads all hailed from Argentina, with Andujar coming in 48 minutes clear of second-placed Viel.
13:12And in the championship, the 28-year-old has an unassailable lead of 31 points over Kamil Wisniewski.
13:25We are leading now with a good point, and here it will be really interesting to win and to finish
13:34the world champion before to jump in the new car, Dacia, in Morocco.
13:41In the ultimate class, Nasser Alatia arrived in Argentina with a 12-point world championship lead over Carlos Sainz.
13:47And with the Dakar winner absent, the Qatari had the opportunity to potentially wrap up the title with one round
13:53to spare.
13:55The fight for the podium was also on, with only a handful of points separating Toyota teammates Yazid Al-Bragi
14:01and Lukas Moraes in third and fourth.
14:08Alatia made a typically fast start, roaring through the famous section of Congor Copina to win the prologue.
14:14The Qatari has raced here before in the WRC, and he clocked an average speed of over 62 kilometers an
14:20hour on these narrow, winding tracks.
14:28Things didn't start so brightly for Marcos Baumgart. Stage one was the Brazilian's 47th birthday, but the champagne had to
14:36be put on ice when his pro-drive Hunter Granto
14:38went to a halt at kilometer 251. Baumgart, whose father was born here in Cordoba, would eventually be forced to
14:44retire from the rally.
14:47Yazid Al-Bragi quickly made it clear that Alatia wasn't going to have it all his own way.
14:52The Saudi went storming through the first stage, overtaking four cars on his way to victory.
14:58That gave him and his co-driver Timo Gottschalk an early lead of just over two minutes.
15:06Big fight this race, like always. We are second in championship. We do our best, we fight for that, and
15:13we need to make a clean run and a clean race every day.
15:19Lucas Moraes had a rollercoaster start to his first rally in Argentina.
15:23On the prologue, he managed to rip off the rear right wheel after hitting a wall on the unforgiving tracks
15:29of Condor Coppina.
15:34But he made amends with a brilliant showing on stage two, landing the victory to stay in touch with Al
15:40-Rajji and Alatia up at the top.
15:43Another win from Brazil. I'm happy, and let's keep going.
15:48Stage two also saw a nasty crash for local star Juan Cruz Iacopini, but the Argentinian limited his losses to
15:5435 minutes, notably getting help from a spectator with a horse.
15:58We put the rope in the horse and the spectator started, and we put the car in the four wheels
16:04with the horse. It was a funny moment.
16:07Iacopini was eventually forced to withdraw after damaging his roll cage, so there'd be no repeat of last year's second
16:13place overall.
16:17Seth Quintero also had a rally of ups and downs, and that's been the story of his first full season
16:22in the Ultimate class.
16:23After getting stuck on a ridge trying to pass one of the Baumgarts on stage one, the American roared back
16:29to win stage three, ahead of the top two overall, Al-Rajji and Alatia.
16:35I gave it 110% and really didn't have much more left in the tank. I knew we were down
16:39at the transfer and wasn't going to let these guys win today. I needed one. So yeah, it feels good
16:44to get one.
16:46But things went horribly wrong for the Toyota Gazoo racing team on stage four. Quintero broke the damper and stopped
16:54several times, eventually limping home almost two hours down.
17:02And Moraes suffered suspension failure, which cost him over an hour. The two teammates sinking to the bottom of the
17:09Ultimate standings, although Moraes would recover to finish fifth.
17:19The other Baumgart brother, Christian, managed to bring his ProDrive Hunter to the finish line. He did run into trouble
17:25on the final day, hitting a rock, which forced him to stop and make repairs. That dropped him from fifth
17:31to sixth overall in the standings.
17:43Denis Krotov did his usual trick of staying out of the limelight, but put in a typically consistent showing to
17:49finish fourth overall.
17:51The man from Overdrive Racing is always ready to pounce when some of the more fancied contenders run into trouble.
17:56He and his co-driver Konstantin Zhiltsov finished just over an hour off the pace.
18:03It was a great week for Sebastian Halpern, who came third overall.
18:07The Argentinian driver was dead last in the top car class last year due to all manner of technical problems,
18:13but his X-rayed Mini was absolutely purring this week.
18:16The two-time winner of Ruta 40 proving himself to be the best of the rest.
18:22Because the fight for victory was a two-horse race between Alatia and Al-Bragi.
18:26The Qatari won stage four and thought he had the overall lead, only to be slapped with a one-minute
18:31penalty for a seatbelt infringement.
18:34So it was extremely tight going into the final day.
18:39All eyes were on this Middle Eastern melee as Al-Bragi began the fifth stage with an advantage of just
18:4413 seconds.
18:46But would that prove lucky or unlucky?
18:49Alatia was first into the final stage and by kilometre 70 he had the virtual lead by a single second.
18:55He was still ahead at kilometre 143 before Al-Bragi began to fight back.
19:01The Saudi finding an extra gear in the second part of the special and by the last checkpoint the momentum
19:07had swung back in his favour.
19:08Al-Bragi virtually three seconds ahead. It was so, so close.
19:13Alatia was the first to arrive at the finish line and faced a nervous wait.
19:17But somehow Al-Bragi managed to wrestle it away from the Qatari powering through the final section to win the
19:23stage by 27 seconds.
19:25That meant that he won Ruta Quarenta or Route 40 by exactly 40 seconds.
19:31I am very, very happy because we drive completely flat out every crest, every corner, the car sideways everywhere.
19:41Maybe you drive 150 sideways between the mountains, it's too risky.
19:45But finally, we'll do it.
19:48Disappointment for Alatia then, especially after that late penalty, but he still has a solid lead in the W2RC.
19:54We are leading the champion and the world champion and still we have Morocco really.
20:00It was oh so close between the top two with Halpern over 45 minutes back.
20:05Krotov and Muraish completed the top five.
20:09Alatia now leads the W2RC by 25 points from Al-Bragi with Muraish up to third.
20:42We are leading the championship and we will try to do our job just easy to take the points and
20:54to finish the line.
20:57Well, Roccas' definition of easy is perhaps a little different to yours or mine.
21:01The Lithuanian put the hammer down from the off, winning the prologue and the first two stages.
21:06And he was enjoying the T3 tussle with local stars like Nicolas Cavigliasso.
21:12I like competition with the local guys. I know the Argentinian guys are my friends.
21:19Yeah, it's good that there is competition. If no competition, it will be boring.
21:24Cavigliasso and his wife Valentina are gradually going from strength to strength in this class.
21:29The former Dakar Quads winner, who hails from Cordoba, kept Bautista in his sights through the early stages
21:35and he only trailed by just under six minutes after stage three.
21:40I tried to push to obtain a good position in that race.
21:47Another Argentinian driver, Nazareno Lopez, made headlines with victory on stage three.
21:54Nazareno came to this rally in a Hilux in 2016 after doing two editions of the Dakar.
21:59But this was his first outing in a BBR Touros.
22:02He and his co-driver, Lissandro Cisterna, are clearly fast learners.
22:08The first two stages we had some problems. Today it was everything perfect.
22:15So, with the team and with my co-driver, it was very great.
22:20While Lopez was never really a part of the overall conversation,
22:24his teammate Dania Akil did brilliantly to land third place.
22:27The Saudi is currently on a hybrid programme, combining the challenger and ultimate classes
22:32as she builds up towards the latter.
22:34And this will definitely have boosted her confidence for the coming rallies.
22:43Cavigliasso posted solid times all week, never dropping out of the top three,
22:48but he wasn't able to secure a stage win and never put Pachuska under serious pressure.
22:53The local star settling for second place overall in his Taurus T3 Max.
23:03Pachuska holding his nerve and getting the job done,
23:06eventually winning the rally by just under nine minutes.
23:09The Lithuanian isn't the world champion just yet, but he'll go to Morocco with a massive lead.
23:18We have a lot of points, actually just missing six points and then we can be the world champion.
23:25Pachuska seeing off the challenge of Cavigliasso as Akil pipped her teammate Marcelo Gastaldi to the final podium spot by
23:32all of ten seconds.
23:33In the championship, Pachuska leads Cavigliasso by a whopping 44 points.
23:45Yasser Saeedan came to Argentina with a healthy world championship lead in the SSVs, but disaster struck for the Saudi
23:52on stage one.
23:56He suffered a broken turbo, the same problem that he had in Portugal and when the team couldn't fix it,
24:02he was forced to retire from the rally.
24:06That opened the door for second place Sebastian Guayasso to close the gap in the W2RC standings and the Ecuadorian
24:14was only a minute off the pace after stage two.
24:18We know that we have only two races left to fight for the world championship and this for sure gives
24:23us a boost.
24:26Enrico Gaspari briefly led the rally after winning the second stage, but the Italian plummeted down the standings after suffering
24:33major mechanical issues on stage four.
24:40Gaspari's compatriot Rebecca Busi finished third overall in just her second outing for the South Racing Can-Am team after
24:47last year's Sonora rally.
24:48The Italian impressed and came agonizingly close to a runner's up spot.
24:55But Guayas Amin gave it his all on the final stage to collect as many points as possible in the
25:01W2RC.
25:02He pipped Busi by just five seconds to come second overall, thereby leapfrogging Sayadan at the top of the World
25:09Championship leaderboard.
25:10We are now first place for the World Cup, for the World Championship and then we had a second place.
25:16I think we couldn't hope for anything better.
25:19Ricardo Romilo went home with the rally victory though, improving on his second place in Portugal.
25:25The Spaniard grabbed the lead on stage three and never looked back, beating Guayas Amin by just over 12 minutes.
25:32Romilo continuing his mid-season surge, while Guayas Amin edged Busi by just five seconds in what was a rally
25:39of fine margins.
25:41Guayas Amin leads the championship by six points now from Sayadan, with Romilo 20 back in third, so it's all
25:48to play for in Morocco.
25:52But before thinking about the final round of the World Rally Raid Championship, these guys have earned a bit of
25:57downtime.
25:59Congratulations to all of our winners and to everybody who made it through this punishing edition of De Sofio Ruta
26:0540.
26:05Thanks for watching and we'll see you again next year.
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