Daniel Sanders (Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing) scored his first W2RC win in Mexico winning the Sonora Rally on Friday. Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) finished third and tightened his grip on the championship lead with 62 points. Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna Factory Racing) finished ahead of him and climbed to second in the overall standings, with 55 points, relegating Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda) to third place with 53.
The Sonora Rally was the third of the five rounds on the calendar, marking the halfway point of the championship. The next leg will take place in the south of the Americas, where the Desafío Ruta 40 will run in Argentina from August 26 to September 1.
Daniel Sanders won the final stage of the Sonora Rally, bringing his total to four specials out of five. It was only the Australian's third W2RC race. After the 2022 Dakar, which he had left with a broken elbow after the rest day, the young GasGas rookie had only reappeared in the 2023 Dakar. Still nursing an aching arm last January, "Chucky" skipped the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge (ADDC). He burst back onto the stage with his first FIM world championship win, the third for GasGas, after Sunderland's victories in the Dakar and ADDC in 2022. Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna Factory Racing) continued his progression with second place.
Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) was disappointed at the end of the race. The veteran on the orange squad had given it his all to catch up with the front-runners following his navigation woes in stage 1. Opening the road in the finale, he managed to gain an edge over Luciano before another navigation blunder put paid to his chances just before the finish. Price ended up third. Leading the championship since the second round, the official KTM rider will find solace in his expanded margin at the top of the standings (66 points). Luciano Benavides moved up to second place (55 points) at the expense of Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda). The Frenchman, the victor of the second round, finished fifth in the event and is now third (53 points). Kevin Benavides (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), who won the Dakar but missed the second round, came in eleventh, good enough to limit the damage to just one place lost in the standings. The Argentinian is now fourth (43 points) and will be able to race firing on all cylinders at home when he plays on home turf at the end of August. Like him, Sanders had sat out the previous leg. His victory in the Sonora Rally propelled him to fifth place (39 points).
In the manufacturers' standings, KTM stretched its lead (113 points) thanks to the third and fourth place of Price and Walkner, who raked in a total of 29 points. Van Beveren and Ricky Brabec, who crossed the line fifth and seventh, respectively, earned Honda 20 points, the same amount that Luciano Benavides snatched for Husqvarna. Despite Skyler Howes's withdrawal, HVA held on to its third place and its 20-point gap over the reds.
In Rally2, Romain Dumontier (HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing) completed a clean sweep. The Frenchman finished with 17′47″ in hand over Jacob Argubright (Duust Diverse Racing) and 36′08″ over Paolo Lucci (BAS World KTM Racing). In the overall, the Italian clung on to the top of the championship, with 66 points versus 63 for "Dudu", who skipped the second round after his victorious Dakar campaign. Argubright followed the exact same path in climbing to fourth place (35 points), behind Jean-Loup Lepan (45 points).
In the first round of the Rally3 calendar, the Italian Massimo Camurri (25 points) prevailed over the Austrian Ardit Kurtaj (20 points) and the American Alexander Chepurko (16 points). In the quad category, the leader of the championship, Laisvydas Kancius, expanded his lead (69 points). The former Dakar winner Pablo Copetti (38 points), who did not race in Mexico, held on to his second place. Rodolfo Guillioli moved up to third place (33 points).
FIM World Rally-Raid Championship:
1. Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) : 62 pts
2. Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna Factory Racing) : 55 pts
3. Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda) : 53 pts
FIM Rally-Raid World Cup for Rally2:
1. Paolo Lucci (BAS World KTM Racing) : 66 pts
2. Romain Dumontier (HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing) : 63 pts
3. Jean-Loup Lepan (Nomade Racing) : 45 pts
FIM Rally-Raid World Cup for Rally3:
1. Massimo Camurri (Robert Mann FFR) : 25 pts
2. Ardit Kurtaj (High Desert Advengtures/ Duust Co) : 20 pts
3. Alexander Chepurko (Duust Diverse Racing) : 16 pts
FIM Rally-Raid World Cup for Quad:
1. Laisvydas Kancius (AG Dakar School) : 69 pts
2. Pablo Copetti : 38 pts
3. Rodolfo Guillioli : 33 pts
Manufacturers World Championship:
1. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing : 113 pts
2. Monster Energy Honda : 95 pts
3. Husqvarna Factory Racing : 89 pts
ASO