After racing with Husqvarna, Romain Dumontier made the swap to Honda for the Desafío Ruta 40. However whether or not on a Husqvarna 450 Rally Reproduction or a Honda CRF450 Rally, the World Rally-Raid Championship‘s Rally2 factors chief solely is aware of how one can win.
Dumontier traded blows with championship rival and defending race winner Bradley Cox all through all 5 levels, the previous claiming three straight levels with the latter’s two sandwiching them. Cox’s Stage #1 victory gave him the early edge over Dumontier by 1:23 earlier than the Frenchman got here to life together with his back-to-back-to-back wins. Though this allowed him to construct up some house between them, Cox by no means completed exterior the rostrum to maintain the margin.
Nineteen-year-old Edgar Canet, who impressed on the BP Final Rally-Raid in April, was additionally a part of the dialog as he and Cox swapped second and third place in the course of the three days. Getting into the fifth and last day, the highest three had been separated by simply 13:30. Though Cox gained the stage, he did not make up the seven-minute deficit to Dumontier as he solely gained by twenty-nine seconds.
The victory offers solely the slightest of respiratory room within the championship with one spherical remaining as Dumontier will increase his lead over Cox from three to eight factors.
“It’s my second time right here and my first win with a brand new bike, a Honda,” mentioned Dumontier. Coupled with Ricky Brabec in RallyGP, Honda was the primary producer of 2024 to win two class overalls in a given rally. “Very proud of the brand new staff; the bike is implausible. The rally was nice with three stage wins. Levels #3 and #4 had been essentially the most sophisticated; I needed to keep very targeted on the roadbook, and it went very properly for me.”
Prologue winner Jeremías Pascual was too far again to catch the highest three, however held a seven-minute edge over 2023 Rallye du Maroc Highway to Dakar winner Toby Hederics going into Stage #5. This mattered little as he ended up retiring, transferring Hederics as much as fourth. David Casteu rounded out the highest 5 and gained the Veteran Trophy.
Konrad Dąbrowski is the one different rider nonetheless mathematically in competition for the Rally2 championship as he trails Dumontier by twenty-three, however faces an uphill battle as he had been behind by eleven after Portugal. He struggled in Argentina from the beginning when he completed eleventh at school within the Prologue after struggling to journey by way of the fog, adopted by {an electrical} drawback that knocked him out of Stage #1. Dąbrowski recovered over the subsequent 4 levels with a end as excessive as fifth within the second, although the early bother relegated him to seventeenth and final amongst finishers.
Jatin Jain and Ramiro Barco, the one riders entered on Kove and Hero bikes, retired as a consequence of crashes. Jain had a misadventure in Argentina that he described as “like a journey to the centre of the Earth,” having landed in Córdoba solely to be taught his return flights had been cancelled; as soon as the race started, a rock knocked his bike’s chain off in Stage #1 and resulted in a delay earlier than a crash two days later resulted in terminal engine injury. Barco, a brand new check rider for RallyGP staff Hero MotoSports, fractured his tibia in a Stage #3 accident.
Rally2 general outcomes
Rally2 stage winners
W2RC Rally2 standings
For readability, rivals registered for the championship who haven’t earned factors are excluded.
