2023 Desafio Ruta 40: Nasser Al-Attiyah clinches manufacturer’s title for Toyota

For much of the World Rally-Raid Championship‘s summer break, everyone expected Nasser Al-Attiyah to spend Friday’s final stage of the Desafío Ruta 40 preparing for a new chapter in his career as his contract with Toyota Gazoo Racing expired that day. While his free agency status is technically still in the air for 2024, he does not need to worry about that for now and could just enjoy his third win of 2023.

Now sticking with TGR through the end of the 2023 season, Al-Attiyah led a Toyota sweep of the T1 category in Argentina by winning nearly every stage in Argentina including the Prologue. He would have had a perfect rally if not for tyre punctures in the final moments of Stage #2 that befell him and every T1 driver, which Juan Cruz Yacopini capitalised upon to steal his maiden stage victory. Al-Attiyah still salvaged a second-place run that day before returning to his winning ways for the final three days.

The only T1 driver with multiple wins in 2023, having previously won the Dakar Rally and Sonora Rally, Al-Attiyah leads Yazeed Al-Rajhi in the W2RC by 51 points. He only needs four more points at the season-ending Rallye du Maroc in October to clinch his second straight title. His navigator Mathieu Baumel already secured the co-driver’s championship with a seventy-point advantage over Al-Rajhi’s partner Timo Gottschalk, who did not run Dakar.

“It’s always a good feeling to win and now I only need a few more points in Morocco for the championship,” Al-Attiyah commented. “It was great to be racing here in Argentina again and I’m already looking forward to coming back next year to defend the title.”

Even if Al-Attiyah was too powerful to defeat, Yacopini still had reason to celebrate as he finished a career-best second in his home race with the forementioned stage win being his first. While unable to catch the leader for the overall, he held off Al-Rajhi for the runner-up position.

Al-Rajhi struggled with attrition throughout the rally. After entering the final stage in second with a two-minute gap on Yacopini, he suffered four punctures and got stuck in a ditch which relegated him to last in class and allowed Yacopini to leapfrog him for the spot.

Eugenio Amos, the only T1 driver not competing for W2RC points, finished fourth with a podium in Stage #2. Denis Krotov was fifth in his début in a Toyota Hilux T1+.

Al-Attiyah’s win secured Toyota Gazoo Racing the manufacturer’s championship yet again with 230 points, over 100 more than second-placed X-raid Team‘s Mini JCW programme. The Hilux has won all four races in 2023, with Al-Rajhi taking the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.

“Overall, we have every reason to be pleased with Nasser and Mathieu winning the race, and our Dakar-winning GR DKR Hilux T1+ again showing its strength,” said TGR W2RC boss Alain Dujardyn. “The fans here were amazingly enthusiastic, and we appreciate the support. I would also like to congratulate Juan Cruz Yacopini on his fantastic second place overall, achieved in front of his home crowd. In terms of the W2RC, we are happy to have already won the championships for co-driver and manufacturer, with just the driver title to be concluded in Morocco next month.”

All but one of the T1 entries in Argentina raced a Hilux, with the Mini of Sebastian Halpern being the exception; Krotov also usually races a Mini but switched to Toyota for Argentina. While the Mini JCW Rally Plus enjoyed success to begin the week when Krzysztof Hołowczyc won the Baja Poland, Halpern’s car suffered mechanical failures on Stages #2 and #3 that dropped him to last in the DR 40 ranking. As such, Halpern does not intend to race in Morocco or the 2024 Dakar Rally out of wariness for the Mini’s ability to keep up with Toyota, though he is open to racing with the manufacturer again in the future.

T1 overall results

Finish	Overall Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Mathieu Baumel	Toyota Gazoo Racing	15:10:03	Leader
2	2	203	Juan Cruz Yacopini	Dani Oliveiras	Overdrive Racing	15:32:06	+ 22:03
3	3	201	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Timo Gottschalk	Overdrive Racing	15:40:30	+ 30:27
4	4	205	Eugenio Amos*	Paolo Ceci	Overdrive Racing	16:05:57	+ 55:54
5	10	204	Denis Krotov	Konstantin Zhiltsov	X-raid Team	18:08:33	+ 2:58:30
6	17	202	Sebastian Halpern	Bernardo Graue	X-raid Team	34:43:24	+ 20:33:21

T1 stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	Nasser Al-Attiyah	6:33
Stage #1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	2:57:31
Stage #2	Juan Cruz Yacopini	3:35:12
Stage #3	Nasser Al-Attiyah	2:57:41
Stage #4	Nasser Al-Attiyah	2:57:41
Stage #5	Nasser Al-Attiyah	2:34:04

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
T1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Toyota Gazoo Racing	15:10:03
T3	302	Mitch Guthrie	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	16:22:31
T4	403	Gustavo Gallego*	South Racing Can-Am	18:34:37
RallyGP	68	Tosha Schareina*	Honda Team	15:58:46
Rally2	21	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	17:01:01
Rally3	122	Ardit Kurtaj	Xraids Experience	23:15:45
Quad	152	Manuel Andújar	7240 Team	19:24:30
Open Auto	650	Blas Zapag*	Copetrol Rally	23:06:34
Open T3	670	Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli*	Ferioli Racing Team	17:34:31
Open T4	678	Juan Jose Semino*	Xcorpion Rally Racing	20:59:00
Open Moto	608	Rodrigo de Abreu Sallum*	MED Racing Team	22:36:24
Open Quad	623	Santiago Rostan*	Pampa Rental Rally Team	25:28:33

W2RC standings

Unlike T3 and T4, T1 does not have its own standings and instead uses a championship in which the aforementioned categories can also earn points based on their finishes among all FIA W2RC entries.

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	189	Leader
2	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	138	– 51
3	Juan Cruz Yacopini	109	– 80
4	Sébastien Loeb	101	– 88
5	Sebastian Halpern	89	– 100
6	Martin Prokop	64	– 125
7	Mattias Ekström #	59	– 130
8	Guerlain Chicherit	55	– 134
9	Austin Jones	43	– 146
10	Seth Quintero	37	– 152
T-10	Denis Krotov	37	– 152
12	Mitch Guthrie	35	– 154
13	Guoyu Zhang	31	– 158
T-13	Wei Han	31	– 158
15	Rokas Baciuška	24	– 165
16	Mathieu Serradori	22	– 167
T-16	Cristina Gutiérrez	22	– 167
18	Francisco Lopéz Contardo	15	– 174
19	João Ferreira	14	– 175
20	Claude Fournier	10	– 179
21	Zi Yunliang	9	– 180
T-21	Pau Navarro	9	– 180
23	Eryk Goczał	8	– 181
24	Aliyyah Koloc	6	– 183
25	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	5	– 184
T-25	David Zille	5	– 184
27	Marek Goczał	4	– 185
28	Shinsuke Umeda	2	– 187
	Carlos Sainz	0	– 189
	Orlando Terranova	0	– 189
	Erik van Loon	0	– 189
	Stéphane Peterhansel	0	– 189

# – Competed in multiple classes
Italics – T3 entry
Underscore – T4 entry

Co-drivers’ standings

Rank	Co-Driver	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Mathieu Baumel	Nasser Al-Attyah	189	Leader
2	Timo Gottschalk	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	119	– 70
3	Dani Oliveiras	Juan Cruz Yacopini	109	– 80
4	Fabian Lurquin	Sébastien Loeb	101	– 88
5	Bernardo Graue	Sebastian Halpern	89	– 100
6	Viktor Chytka	Martin Prokop	64	– 125
7	Emil Bergkvist #	Mattias Ekström #	59	– 130
8	Alex Winocq	Guerlain Chicherit	55	– 134
9	Gustavo Gugelmin	Austin Jones	43	– 146
10	Dennis Zenz	Seth Quintero	37	– 152
T-10	Konstantin Zhiltsov	Denis Krotov	37	– 152
12	Kellon Walch	Mitch Guthrie	35	– 154
13	Ma Li	Wei Han	31	– 158
14	Oriol Mena #	Eryk Goczał, Guoyu Zhang	29	– 160
15	Oriol Vidal Montijano	Rokas Baciuška	24	– 165
16	Loïc Minaudier	Mathieu Serradori	22	– 167
T-16	Pablo Moreno Huete	Cristina Gutiérrez	22	– 167
18	Dirk Von Zitzewitz	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	19	– 170
19	Bruno Jacomy	Hernán Garcés	11	– 178
20	Jean-Pierre Garvin	Guoyu Zhang	10	– 179
T-20	Szymon Gospodarczyk #	Michal Goczał, Claude Fournier	10	– 179
22	François Cazalet #	Guillaume de Mévius, Pau Navarro	9	– 180
T-22	Sha He	Zi Yunliang	9	– 180
24	Manuel Porem	João Ferreira	8	– 181
25	Stéphane Duple	Aliyyah Koloc	6	– 183
T-25	Filipe Palmeiro	João Ferreira	6	– 183
27	Cédric Duplé	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	5	– 184
T-27	Sebastian Cesana	David Zille	5	– 184
29	Maciej Marton	Marek Goczał	4	– 60
T-29	Juan Pablo Latrach	Francisco López Contardo	4	– 60
31	Maurizio Dominella	Shinsuke Umeda	2	– 62
	Lucas Cruz	Carlos Sainz	0	– 189
	Alex Haro Bravo	Orlando Terranova	0	– 189
	Sébastien Delaunay	Erik van Loon	0	– 189
	Édouard Boulanger	Stéphane Peterhansel	0	– 189