A historic first
History was made today in the Desafío Ruta 40 YPF. Second among the W2RC entrants in Challenger, Puck Klaassen (KTM X-Bow powered by G Rally) will be leaving Argentina in the championship lead. It is a first not only for her, but for female drivers in general! Trailblazers such as Cristina Gutiérrez, Sara Price and Dania Akeel had already vied for top honours before. Klaassen, 23, has taken over where they left off and confirmed her status as one of the rising stars of international rally raids. If she can hold on to the top spot in the two rounds left this season, she will become the first female driver to win the W2RC, and the second female competitor overall, after the Argentinian Valentina Pertegarini, who secured the navigators' title in Challenger in 2024 and 2025.
No figure sums up the ferocious battle for FIA honours better than the 12 leader changes since the 2026 Desafío Ruta 40 YPF got under way. There were 5 just today. Seth Quintero and his Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC teammate Henk Lategan traded places early in the stage, with Nasser Al Attiyah (The Dacia Sandriders) joining the fray later on! Quintero, the first overall leader at the first time check of the first stage, is topping the board again. However, Al Attiyah is just 7 seconds away, with Lategan also within striking distance at 1′53″, so the American has his work cut out for him if he wants to take his first W2RC trophy. For him, 13 would truly be the unluckiest number!
409
At 409 kilometres, this was the longest special in the 2026 Desafío Ruta 40 YPF. Daniel Sanders spent 4 hours, 16 minutes and 55 seconds alone at the front, with his thoughts as his sole companion, with no references beyond his road book and navigational acumen. And that was not enough to stop him from claiming the special. Seeing him win after opening from flag to flag is starting to become a regular occurrence. He had already pulled it off over 128 km yesterday, but repeating it over such a massive distance, in San Rafael, was an unprecedented feat. This exploit raises the bar on his own record for most stage victories in RallyGP (32), as well as the Australian record on the national front (37). The Desafío Ruta 40 YPF —the only race on the current W2RC calendar missing from his trophy cabinet— is now his to lose. No Australian has ever won here before, no matter the category. Sanders will be opening the road again in tomorrow's 306 km special and, as we saw today, that is no reason to bet against him.
4
Fifth in San Juan yesterday, João Ferreira (Toyota Gazoo Racing SA) has moved up 4 places to take over the helm of the 2026 Desafío Ruta 40 YPF. The Portuguese driver leads an all-Toyota top 4 also consisting of Seth Quintero at 9 seconds, Saood Variawa at 1′39″ and Henk Lategan at 2′53″. The 4-time manufacturers' world champions are striving to prevent Dacia from scooping up a 4th consecutive W2RC victory, following the 2025 Rallye du Maroc (Sébastien Loeb) and this year's Dakar (Nasser Al Attiyah) and bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal (Loeb). Can you guess who the top-ranked driver not in a Toyota is? Al Attiyah in his Dacia Sandrider, 3′06″ down! This is only the third time that Ferreira leads the FIA standings in a championship round and the first time he does it overseas, as he had only held the top spot in Portugal in 2025 (stage 2) and 2026 (stage 1).
1
First things first! Competing in his first World Rally-Raid Championship round, Monster Energy Honda HRC's fresh recruit Bruno Crivilin has picked up his first Rally2 special in the first stage of the 2026 Desafío Ruta 40 YPF. But wait: this is also Brazil's first win on two wheels in the history of the W2RC… and the first Honda podium lock-out in the class, as Crivilin was closely followed by his teammates Martim Ventura (+22″) and Preston Campbell (+40″).
