By RaceScene Publisher on Sunday, 09 June 2024
Category: The Checkered Flag

2024 Desafio Ruta 40: Ricardo Ramilo scores SSV overall win, points picture shaken up

The World Rally-Raid Championship‘s SSV title will come down to the season finale in Morocco.

Yasir Seaidan went into the Desafío Ruta 40 hoping to build upon his advantage over Sebastián Guayasamín, Ricardo Ramilo, and Rebecca Busi. However, a mechanical issue on the first stage made him the category’s lone retirement instead while the three rivals occupied the podium to insert themselves into the championship fight.

With Seaidan out, Ramilo won three stages en route to his maiden W2RC outright victory; he was the class’ highest-finishing W2RC driver at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid in April, finishing second overall behind non-points driver João Monteiro. The stage wins—which netted fifteen bonus points alongside thirty for the overall triumph—gave him a much needed boost as he whittled the margin to Seaidan from 63 to 20 points.

The remaining trio along with Enrico Gaspari, fifth in points prior to Argentina, were separated by just ten minutes through the first half of the rally. An especially egregious standings shuffle occurred in Stage #2 when the four received speeding penalties, Ramilo’s costing him over three minutes while the others were less than half a minute at most, dropping him to fourth while Gaspari won the leg. Ramilo proceeded to reclaim the lead the next day from Gaspari when a rock punctured the latter’s tyre fifty kilometres from the finish.

Gaspari was taken out of contention following a disastrous Stage #4 that began with another puncture at KM 20 which dropped him and fellow competitors Puck Klaassen, Nazareno López, and Oscar Santos into a metre-deep fesh fesh hole. After helping them out, Gaspari’s wheel came off and destroyed the brakes. He and Cesare Rickler attempted to put together an improvised system but was unable to make the finish in time. They rejoined the race for the last day but finished a distant fifth.

As the contenders narrowed down to three, Busi and Guayasamín trailed Ramilo by 14:51 and 15:41 entering the final stage, respectively. With enough of a cushion, Ramilo was able to take his foot off the gas while Guayasamín beat Gaspari and Busi by less than a minute, edging out the latter for runner-up by five.

Even without the win, Guayasamín is the new points leader with the Rallye du Maroc looming. After going into Argentina trailing by 37, he now leads Seaidan by six while Ramilo is twenty points back and Busi 41.

Claude Fournier never finished higher than fourth throughout the rally, but his conservative approach paid off as he reached the conclusion without major issue.

SSV overall results

FinishNumberDriverCo-DriverTeamTimeMargin
1402Ricardo RamiloFausto MotaScuderia Ramilo20:35:43Leader
2401Sebastián GuayasamínFernando AcostaBE Racing20:47:45+ 12:02
3403Rebecca BusiSergio LafuenteOnlyFans Racing20:47:50+ 12:07
4407Claude FournierSerge GounonMMP Compétition22:53:12+ 2:17:29
5409Enrico GaspariCesare RicklerTH-Trucks Team39:53:48+ 19:18:05
DNF400Yasir SeaidanMichaël MetgeRace World TeamDNFN/A

SSV stage winners

StageDriverTime
PrologueYasir Seaidan17:25.3
Stage #1Ricardo Ramilo4:36:53
Stage #2Enrico Gaspari4:51:17
Stage #3Ricardo Ramilo3:46:35
Stage #4Ricardo Ramilo4:13:17
Stage #5Sebastián Guayasamín2:58:50

W2RC SSV standings

For readability, competitors registered for the championship who have not earned points are excluded.

Drivers’ standings

RankDriverPointsMargin
1Sebastián Guayasamín161Leader
2Yasir Seaidan155– 6
3Ricardo Ramilo141– 20
4Rebecca Busi120– 41
5Enrico Gaspari75– 86
6Sara Price74– 87
7João Ferreira73– 88
8Claude Fournier69– 92
9Cristiano de Sousa Batista52– 109
10Michele Cinotto22– 139
11Eduard Pons16– 145
12André Thewessen13– 148

Co-drivers’ standings

RankCo-DriverPointsMargin
1Fausto Mota172Leader
2Fernando Acosta161– 11
3Sergio Lafuente120– 52
4Adrien Metge91– 81
5Jeremy Gray74– 98
6Filipe Palmeiro73– 99
7Serge Gounon69– 103
8Michaël Metge64– 108
9Aku Facundo Jaton31– 141
10Cesare Rickler30– 142
11Maurizio Dominella22– 150
12Marc Solà Terradellas21– 151
13Jaume Betriu16– 156
14Alberto Marcon14– 158
15Dmytro Tsyro13– 159
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