2023 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge: Seth Quintero reciprocates Red Bull T3 1–2

At the Dakar Rally to begin the 2023 World Rally-Raid Championship, Austin Jones beat his Red Bull team-mate Seth Quintero for victory in the T3 category. Slightly less than two months later, Quintero got to return the favour at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.

Quintero won three stages including the Prologue to score his second W2RC victory after the 2022 Rallye du Maroc. His total time of 16:58:31 was the third best among all FIA entries regardless of class, only behind the T1 cars of Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Martin Prokop by half an hour.

Jones ran directly behind Quintero in the first two legs before mechanical issues caused him to lose time in the midway point, including an eighth-place finish in Stage #3. He would finish over twenty-seven minutes behind his fellow American Red Bull driver. Jones finished eighth overall for FIA cars.

While he and Jones are split in overall victories and Dakar has a bigger points payout, Quintero holds the edge by five in the standings thanks to his five combined stage wins across the first two rounds. Jones’ lone segment victory of 2023 so far came in the third day at Dakar.

“Really tough race with a few issues but good times as always in the sand out there,” said Jones, who along with Quintero and their co-drivers will return to the United States this weekend for the legendary Mint 400. “Happy to finish on the podium.”

Aliyyah Koloc, competing in her home W2RC race, finished third championship-eligible drivers. With the exception of a thirteenth in Stage #4, Koloc scored top tens in each leg and beat Jean-Luc Ceccaldi for the final spot on the W2RC podium by nearly two minutes. The reigning FIA Middle East Cup for Cross-Country Bajas champion, she had told The Checkered Flag in December that she might consider but did not necessarily confirm a run at the full W2RC; she now sits ninth after the second round.

“It was great to finish third out of the W2RC runners,” Koloc stated. “I did not expect to get a podium finish coming into this rally, but I am really happy.”

Although Hernán Garcés and Lionel Baud finished ahead of Koloc in the overall, neither are competing for points. Mitch Guthrie, another member of the American-only Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team, won two stages but placed outside the top ten overall due to multiple penalties.

Mattias Ekström, who ran the Dakar Rally in T1, had a roller coaster of a T3 début in which he flipped between strong stage finishes or bizarre misfortune. His rally began with an eighth in the Prologue after accidentally switching his Can-Am Maverick to its 2×4 configuration rather than 4×4, followed by running out of fuel in Stage #1. He bounced back by being the only non-Red Bull driver with a stage victory in Stage #2, only to suffer an enigne failure a day later that knocked him out of the overall. Ekström switched to a new engine ahead of the fourth stage, which he won but was not officially classified as such as the engine change resulted in a fifty-hour penalty for the day. A runner-up in the final leg did little in the overall as he finished last among the seventeen finishers.

Ekström’s South Racing colleague and fellow Swede Tim Marklund was also not safe from an up-and-down ADDC. Even before it began, his co-driver Oskar Andersson was unable to make the trip to the United Arab Emirates due to passport snags and ended up spending the week vacationing in Thailand. With Alexey Kuzmich by his side, Marklund battled various mechanical issues before flipping on a dune in the final stage and missing multiple waypoints as a result, but managed to reach the finish.

Despite the Red Bulls enjoying an overall strong ADDC, they were not exempt from drama either. Shortly before the rally, the team was subject to an FIA investigation that ended in a €1,000 fine for not completing their W2RC entry payments before the 1 February deadline. Cristina Gutiérrez, who races for the programme’s Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing arm and finished second in class at the 2022 ADDC, received three penalties totalling over seventy-seven hours due to a non-compliant air restrictor in her car’s engine, though delays in the hearing caused it to take place after she had started Stage #4; the ruling was effectively void when Gutiérrez retired anyway with a mechanical failure.

Dania Akeel was disqualfied for the same infraction after Stage #4 after the FIA found her restrictor had scratches that extended beyond the permitted 27-mm inner diameter. While the team insisted it was unintentional, Akeel would ultimately be the lone disqualification of the ADDC.

“I’d like to thank the team for their hard work and respect the stewards’ decision as the regulations keep the game fair for all,” commented Akeel. “The appropriate steps will be taken to have the car race ready. I’d also like to thank the sponsors for their trust and commitment to this season. Looking forward to the next round.”

T3 overall results

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	302	Seth Quintero	Dennis Zens	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	16:58:31	Leader
2	301	Austin Jones	Gustavo Gugelmin	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	17:26:16	+ 27:45
3	314	Hernán Garcés*	Juan Pablo Latrach	South Racing Can-Am	17:54:59	+ 56:28
4	319	Lionel Baud*	Lucie Baud	GRallyTeam	18:26:29	+ 1:27:58
5	310	Aliyyah Koloc	Stéphane Duplé	Buggyra Racing	19:20:09	+ 2:21:38
6	317	Khalid Aljafla*	Bruno Jacomy	Khalid Aljafla	19:49:59	+ 2:51:28
7	320	Anja van Loon*	Floor Maten	South Racing Can-Am	20:52:29	+ 3:53:58
8	306	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	Cédric Duplé	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	21:13:55	+ 4:15:24
9	308	Claude Fournier	Szymon Gospodarczyk	Claude Fournier	22:33:26	+ 5:34:55
10	305	João Ferreira	Flilipe Palmeiro	X-raid Team	34:03:43	+ 17:05:12
11	303	Mitch Guthrie	Kellon Walch	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	35:31:32	+ 18:33:01
12	315	Eduardo Pons*	Mónica Plaza	South Racing Can-Am	38:53:49	+ 21:55:18
13	311	Erik van Loon	Sebastien Delaunay	South Racing Can-Am	39:12:22	+ 22:13:51
14	313	Annett Fischer	Annie Seel	X-raid Team	41:06:16	+ 24:07:45
15	322	Tim Marklund*	Alexey Kuzmich	South Racing Can-Am	54:07:50	+ 37:09:19
16	324	Hassan Al-Sadadi*	Bader Al-Ajmi	R-X Sport	66:28:57	+ 49:30:26
17	300	Mattias Ekström	Emil Bergkvist	South Racing Can-Am	91:27:40	+ 74:29:09
DNF	304	Cristina Gutiérrez	Pablo Moreno Huete	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing	DNF	N/A
DNF	318	Nazar Al-Shanfari*	Ali Mirza	R-X Sport	DNF	N/A
DNF	321	Glenn Brinkman*	Dale Moscatt	Glenn Brinkman	DNF	N/A
DNF	323	Yungang Zi*	Zengrong Wang	GRallyTeam/BAIC ORV	DNF	N/A
DSQ	309	Dania Akeel	Taye Perry	South Racing Can-Am	DSQ	N/A

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

T3 stage winners

Stage	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Prologue	302	Seth Quintero	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	5:14
Stage #1	302	Seth Quintero	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	3:28:31
Stage #2	300	Mattias Ekström	South Racing Can-Am	3:52:09
Stage #3	303	Mitch Guthrie	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	4:06:33
Stage #4	302	Seth Quintero	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	2:36:55
Stage #5	303	Mitch Guthrie	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	2:42:56

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
T1	207	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Overdrive Racing	16:28:06
T3	302	Seth Quintero	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	16:58:31
T4	400	Rokas Baciuška	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing	17:25:47
RallyGP	42	Adrien Van Beveren	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	17:13:39
Rally2	96	Tobias Ebster*	SRG Motorsports	2:36:51
Quad	174	Abdulaziz Ahli	Abu Dhabi Team	22:01:51

W2RC T3 standings

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Seth Quintero	127	Leader
2	Austin Jones	122	– 5
3	Mitch Guthrie	81	– 46
4	Francisco López Contardo	55	– 72
5	Cristina Gutiérrez	52	– 75
6	João Ferreira	51	– 76
7	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	41	– 86
8	Claude Fournier	35	– 92
9	Aliyyah Koloc	34	– 93
10	David Zille	24	– 103
11	Hélder Rodrigues	22	– 105
12	Mattias Ekström	16	– 111
13	Dania Akeel	15	– 112
14	Erik van Loon	13	– 114
15	Annett Fischer	11	– 116

Co-drivers’ standings

Rank	Co-Driver	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Dennis Zenz	Seth Quintero	127	Leader
2	Gustavo Gugelmin	Austin Jones	122	– 5
3	Kellon Walch	Mitch Guthrie	81	– 46
4	Juan Pablo Latrach	Francisco López Contardo	55	– 72
5	Pablo Moreno Huete	Cristina Gutiérrez	52	– 75
6	Filipe Palmeiro	João Ferreira	51	– 76
7	Cédric Duplé	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	41	– 86
8	Stéphane Duple	Aliyyah Koloc	34	– 93
9	Sebastián Cesana	David Zille	24	– 103
10	Gonçalo Reis	Hélder Rodrigues	22	– 105
11	Arnold Brucy	Claude Fournier	20	– 107
12	Emil Bergkvist	Mattias Ekström	16	– 111
T-13	Szymon Gospodarczyk	Claude Fournier	15	– 112
T-13	Sergio Lafuente	Dania Akeel	15	– 112
15	Sébastien Delaunay	Erik van Loon	13	– 114
16	Annie Seel	Annett Fischer	11	– 116