Desafio Ruta 40 video highlights and results – Brabec wins, Honda dominate

Video highlights and final classification of the 2024 Desafio Ruta 40 in Argentina where the Monster Energy Honda Rally team dominated the five stage, World Rally-Raid Championship round with Ricky Brabec taking the overall victory.

Down to the wire results normally go between different teams and riders, 2023 Dakar being an exception. But the 2024 Deafio Ruta 40 will be noted in the history books as the race where Honda didn’t just dominate this W2RC round but set their riders free to actually race each other right to the line – in the end just 15 seconds separated first from second places.

2024 Desafio Ruta 40 final stage in a nutshell:

A “red tide” swept the Rally GP class at the Ruta 40 with Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda) romping home with seconds to spare over his teammate Tosha Schareina and Adrien Van Beveren.
Going into the final stage with a deficit of 1′27″, Spaniard Tosha Schareina gave the American Brabec no respite during the 2018 kilometre special.
The lead never dropped below 22 seconds however as Ricky managed the advantage, despite his teammate winning the last special, crossing the line with a margin of 15 seconds — the narrowest ever recorded in a W2RC Rally GP race.
Adrien Van Beveren made it a Honda clean sweep on the podium ahead of Skyler Howes in fourth to red-wash the top of the results.
Ross Branch came in fifth to somehow retain his championship lead. The Hero MotoSports factory rider now has 72 points to Brabec’s 63 and VBA’s 56 with just one round remaining.
In Rally 2, Romain Dumontier wrung every ounce of performance out of his new Honda and did his part for a historic double for HRC. The championship leader took the spoils ahead of Bradley Cox (BAS World KTM Racing) and padded his lead over the South African.
In Rally 3, John Medina (Xraids Experience) won the race and seized the lead in the category. In the quad class, Manuel Andújar defended his title in Argentina and sewed up the World Cup before the final round.
The final round of season 3 of the championship will be the Rallye du Maroc, scheduled from 5 to 11 October.