2024 Desafio Ruta 40: Romain Dumontier claims Rally2 in Honda debut

After racing with Husqvarna, Romain Dumontier made the switch to Honda for the Desafío Ruta 40. But whether on a Husqvarna 450 Rally Replica or a Honda CRF450 Rally, the World Rally-Raid Championship‘s Rally2 points leader only knows how to win.

Dumontier traded blows with championship rival and defending race winner Bradley Cox throughout all five stages, the former claiming three straight stages with the latter’s two sandwiching them. Cox’s Stage #1 victory gave him the early edge over Dumontier by 1:23 before the Frenchman came to life with his back-to-back-to-back wins. Although this allowed him to build up some space between them, Cox never finished outside the podium to keep the margin.

Nineteen-year-old Edgar Canet, who impressed at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid in April, was also part of the conversation as he and Cox swapped second and third place during the three days. Entering the fifth and final day, the top three were separated by just 13:30. Although Cox won the stage, he failed to make up the seven-minute deficit to Dumontier as he only won by twenty-nine seconds.

The victory provides only the slightest of breathing room in the championship with one round remaining as Dumontier increases his lead over Cox from three to eight points.

“It’s my second time here and my first win with a new bike, a Honda,” said Dumontier. Coupled with Ricky Brabec in RallyGP, Honda was the first manufacturer of 2024 to win two class overalls in a given rally. “Very happy with the new team; the bike is fantastic. The rally was great with three stage wins. Stages #3 and #4 were the most complicated; I had to stay very focused on the roadbook, and it went very well for me.”

Prologue winner Jeremías Pascual was too far back to catch the top three, but held a seven-minute edge over 2023 Rallye du Maroc Road to Dakar winner Toby Hederics going into Stage #5. This mattered little as he ended up retiring, moving Hederics up to fourth. David Casteu rounded out the top five and won the Veteran Trophy.

Konrad Dąbrowski is the only other rider still mathematically in contention for the Rally2 championship as he trails Dumontier by twenty-three, but faces an uphill battle as he had been behind by eleven after Portugal. He struggled in Argentina from the start when he finished eleventh in class in the Prologue after struggling to ride through the fog, followed by an electrical problem that knocked him out of Stage #1. Dąbrowski recovered over the next four stages with a finish as high as fifth in the second, though the early trouble relegated him to seventeenth and last among finishers.

Jatin Jain and Ramiro Barco, the only riders entered on Kove and Hero bikes, retired due to crashes. Jain had a misadventure in Argentina that he described as “like a journey to the centre of the Earth,” having landed in Córdoba only to learn his return flights were cancelled; once the race began, a rock knocked his bike’s chain off in Stage #1 and resulted in a delay before a crash two days later resulted in terminal engine damage. Barco, a new test rider for RallyGP team Hero MotoSports, fractured his tibia in a Stage #3 accident.

Rally2 overall results

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Time	Margin
1	16	Romain Dumontier	Team Dumontier Racing	18:57:19	Leader
2	18	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	19:03:50	+ 6:31
3	69	Edgar Canet*	Xraids Experience	19:10:36	+ 13:17
4	21	Toby Hederics*	BAS World KTM Racing Team	20:05:40	+ 1:08:21
5	32	David Casteu*	Xraids Experience	20:33:03	+ 1:35:44
6	58	Robbie Wallace*	Xraids Experience	20:43:03	+ 1:45:44
7	66	Rolando Martinez*	Xraids Experience	22:49:44	+ 3:52:25
8	85	Leonardo Cola*	Leonardo Cola	23:05:28	+ 4:08:09
9	99	Juan Santiago Rostan*	Xraids Experience	23:13:29	+ 4:16:10
10	33	Carlos Malo Peña*	MED Racing Team	23:32:56	+ 4:35:37
11	31	Alvaro Coppola*	MED Racing Team	24:15:33	+ 5:18:14
12	70	José Pablo Curletto*	Xraids Experience	24:18:32	+ 5:21:13
13	20	Jiří Brož	BAS World KTM Racing Team	24:35:44	+ 5:38:25
14	144	Fabián von Thuengen*	Fabián von Thuengen	24:36:21	+ 5:39:02
15	23	Nathan Rafferty*	BAS World KTM Racing Team	24:40:34	+ 5:43:15
16	43	Ferran Zaragoza*	Pedregà Team	28:42:39	+ 9:45:20
17	26	Konrad Dąbrowski	DUUST Rally Team	32:08:02	+ 13:10:43
DNF	19	Ramiro Barco Oliva	Hero MotoSports	DNF	N/A
DNF	45	Jatin Jain*	Xraids Experience	DNF	N/A
DNF	63	Jeremías Pascual*	Pedregà Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	83	Gustavo Milutín Vila	Max Clean Rally Team	DNF	N/A

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship
Bold – Junior Trophy
Italics – Veteran Trophy

Rally2 stage winners

Stage	Rider	Time
Prologue	Jeremías Pascual*	17:29.4
Stage #1	Bradley Cox	4:13:32
Stage #2	Romain Dumontier	4:24:27
Stage #3	Romain Dumontier	3:27:20
Stage #4	Romain Dumontier	3:47:59
Stage #5	Bradley Cox	2:43:23

W2RC Rally2 standings

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

Rank	Rider	Points	Margin
1	Romain Dumontier	83	Leader
2	Bradley Cox	75	– 8
3	Konrad Dąbrowski	60	– 23
4	Jean-Loup Lepan	57	– 26
5	Jan Brabec	35	– 48
6	Mathieu Dovèze	33	– 50
7	Toni Mulec	20	– 63
8	Jiří Brož	16	– 67
9	Diego Llanos	15	– 68
10	Tobias Ebster	14	– 69
11	Charan Moore	12	– 71
12	Sébastien Herbet	11	– 72
13	Charlie Herbst	8	– 75
14	David McBride	6	– 77
15	Oran O’Kelly	5	– 78
16	Sebastián Urquía	3	– 80
17	Rachid Al-Lal Lahadil	2	– 81