The penultimate event of the five-round 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) was the Desafío Ruta 40, which took place in Argentina on 1-7 June. As promised, the 1000km route across a central stretch of the country challenged teams with its rugged terrain – a week-long punishment for the drivers and vehicles. As such it presented Toyota Gazoo Racing with an important opportunity to demonstrate the team’s resilience and determination, as well as extend its lead in the championship. What was the W2RC 2024 result?
Round four: Desafío Ruta 40
The finale of the 2024 Desafío Ruta 40 saw competitors make the return leg to Córdoba, the city where the event began a week ago. It required travelling some 320 miles – 135 miles of which was timed – across an unrelenting landscape of gravel, gravel and more gravel.
Having experienced a disappointing fourth stage the day before, Toyota drivers Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon started the fifth and final stage behind teammates Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz. But they quickly made amends in their GR DKR Hilux Evo T1U and topped the timesheets by mile 23, just 0.4 second ahead of Quintero and Zenz.
Unfortunately, Moraes and Monleon went on to lose control of the lead. But while the title in Argentina was now beyond their grasp, there were still vital championship points on offer. So the duo pushed hard through the dust of some slower competitors ahead and crossed the finish line of the final stage in fourth position. Although just short of a podium place, the points accrued were enough to see them climb to third in the drivers’ standings and remain in contention for top honours at the end of the season.
Quintero and Zenz went one better in the final stage, delivering a great drive to capture third place. The young American driver and German navigator were desperate to build on their victory in stage three and came within five seconds of the leaders soon after the 100-mile mark. But while they couldn’t claim the win, the pair did enough to secure another podium position.
It had been a hard but successful week, ultimately decided by the outcome of the final stage. But taking the finishing positions of all five stages into account, Moraes and Monleon concluded the event in fifth position, while teammates Quintero and Zenz took eleventh place. Together the crews were proud to have produced two stage wins and two third-place finishes across five days of racing action. Which means that all roads now lead to the final in Morocco in October.
W2RC 2024 results: Desafío Ruta 40 final standings
| 1 | #202 | Y Al Rajhi / T Gottschalk | Overdrive Racing | 17h 38m 21s |
| 2 | #200 | N Al-Attiyah / E Boulanger | Nasser Racing by Prodrive | +40s |
| 3 | #211 | S Halpern / B Graue | X-Raid MINI JCW Team | +46m 14s |
| 4 | #208 | D Krotov / K Zhiltsov | Overdrive Racing | +1h 02m 29s |
| 5 | #203 | L Moraes / A Monleon | Toyota Gazoo Racing | +1h 13m 03s |
| 11 | #206 | S Quintero / D Zenz | Toyota Gazoo Racing | +2h 24m 42s |
W2RC 2024: manufacturer championship standings
| POSITION | MANUFACTURER | POINTS |
| 1 | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 190 |
| 2 | Nasser Racing by Prodrive | 160 |
| 3 | X-Raid MINI JCW Team | 97 |
| 3 | Team Audi Sport | 76 |
W2RC 2024: What’s next?
The fifth and final round of this year’s FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) is the Rallye du Maroc, which will be contested in Morocco on 5-11 October. There is no doubt that Toyota Gazoo Racing has the talent, the team and the vehicles to win this event, but will everything come together to give Toyota its third consecutive manufacturers’ title?
