¡Welcome back, San Juan!

Desafío Ruta 40 YPF INFINIA arrived in the province of San Juan after six years. Adrien Van Beveren leads in motorcycles and Yazeed Al Rajhi does so in cars. Tomorrow, Stage 3 will be run entirely in San Juan, in a loop. The doors of the bivouac located at San Juan Villicum circuit opened to the public who came to see the rally drivers and riders regardless of the low temperatures.

Argentina suits Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda Team) very well. The French rider won Stage 2 between Córdoba and San Juan (423km of special stage, 301km of liaison) and is now the new leader of the overall bikes classification of Desafío Ruta 40 YPF INFINIA.

The day was marked by several penalties for speeding up that changed the results of the stage. The French rider received 20», but he won the stage anyway. Quintanilla got 7» and Branch 2». After the first two stages, the domination is still 100% Honda with Tosha Schareina and Ricky Brabec occupying the top three of the overall standings. Sebastien Bühler (Hero MotoSports Team Rally) is in fourth position.

In Cars, Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon (Toyota Gazoo Racing) took the best time with 4:08.14, 57 seconds ahead of Yazeed Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk (Overdrive Racing), who anyway lead the overall 3:19 ahead of Nasser Al Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger (Nasser Racing by Prodrive) -third in Tuesday’s stage-.
The fourth place among the Ultimate cars now belongs to Sebastian Halpern and Ronnie Graue (X-raid MINI JCW Team), who inherited the place after the rollover suffered by Juan Cruz Yacopini -co-driven by Daniel Oliveras- (Overdrive Racing). The young Argentinean driver lost 20 minutes but was then able to continue in the race although they are now in eighth position overall.

In the Challenger class, Rokas Baciukas and Sebastien Delaunay (Can-Am Factory Team) won again and moved ahead on the overall lead, while in the SSV class Enrico Gaspari and Ricky Rickler (TH – Trucks Team) won the stage and took the overall lead.

 

Voices from the bivouac:
Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda Team): ““A pretty fast stage. Lots of straights, lots of flat-out momentum. A fun part with slippery tracks again, good turns. We had also a more desert part near the end. It was a good stage.
For tomorrow we will see what we can do, we will do our best as always and we will see. We have to be concentrated, there are still many kilometers to go”.

Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda Team): “I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I think it’s a little more open desert. It’s good to be here. It reminds me of the old Dakar. So, this is cool.”

Romain Dumontier (Honda Team – Líder en Rally2): “It was a good day for me today. Yesterday was not so good for me because I got stuck behind a quad, and they were not so nice with us; so today was better because I started in front and I did good. I just had to overtake two riders. And I was able to close the gap.

Lucas Moraes (Toyota Gazoo Racing): “It was a very fast stage. It started a little bit tricky on a very sinuous part. I’m very happy, anyway. Thanks to Armand (Monleon) who did a great navigation. We’re happy for this win and looking forward to tomorrow with maybe more open desert and less gravel.

W2RC: New leader on the bikes, Adrien Van Beveren feels at home here.
The three-time champion from Le Touquet, in France, has been participating in the Enduro del Verano since 2011, with two victories (2013-15). It was in Argentina that he discovered the Dakar in 2016 (6th), before re-entering in 2017 (4th) and falling just short of victory in 2018, when he suffered the biggest crash of his career when he arrived in Belen in the lead of the race. Today, the Frenchman who holds the record for stage wins in W2RC has increased his tally to 14 and can dream of a 3rd victory in Argentina after those in enduro. It would also be his third victory in W2RC after Rally of Andalusia 2022 and Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2022.

 

Story of the day: A happy birthday

What could be better than a victory in his home rally, with the chance of a final victory and the world title as a birthday present? That’s what Manuel Andujar gave himself today, as the two-time Dakar champion (2021 and 2024) celebrates his 28th birthday tonight! No doubt, today was a very special day for the rider born in Lobos, who won the stage (despite a 2-minute speeding penalty) and is leading the overall standings in the quad category.

 

Stage 3: San Juan breathes Rally Raid
The third stage of the Desafío Ruta 40 YPF INFINIA will start and finish in San Juan. It will be a 478-kilometer demanding stage, out of which 341 kilometers will be timed.

Those competitors who have been in San Juan during the Dakar Rally visits to this province will remember the demanding roads and fesh-fesh zones in San Juan terrain. This time, due to the time of the year, there will be no need to worry about the extreme heat; but it will still be a very demanding Wednesday for the caravan, as the variety of terrains in this stage will be a real challenge.

After a start on roads that can be very broken, the race enters a sandy sector with low vegetation until it reaches a fast road but with many stones. The finish will pass through a combination of dry rivers with little-traveled trails that can complicate finding the right course.
The public will be able to enjoy this stage in the Spectator Zones (ZE) and also in the bivouac in San Juan with free accese from 11 am to 7 pm.

 

Desafío Ruta 40 gets to La Rioja on Thursday

This Thursday the competition will get to La Rioja. Once again, the Estadio Superdomo will be the home of the race. The public will be able to visit the bivouac with free admission from 11 am to 7 pm. Likewise, those who want to watch the competitors’ passing live will be able to do it at the Spectator Zones: www.desafioruta40.ar/zona-espectadores/