In 2018, Matthias Walkner won the Dakar Rally for bikes after taking the lead in Argentina and not letting go until the finish in Córdoba. Eight years later, he’s now a World Rally-Raid Championship race winner on four wheels, also on Argentine soil.

Walkner’s motorcycle career was upended by injuries sustained in a testing crash for the 2024 Dakar. Unable to race a bike competitively and safely anymore, he made the switch to driving. His four-wheeled W2RC at Portugal in March came in the SSV class and ended with a retirement before moving up to Challenger for the Desafío Ruta 40.

A week before going to Argentina, Walkner won the Baja Europe for his maiden triumph as a driver. He rode the high off the win in Poland to claim the DR 40 Challenger victory by the narrowest of margins.

“I’m super happy to get my first win at a World Championship race on four wheels,” Walkner stated. “My first race with Pablo (Moreno) and with BBR. The win means a lot to me and I’m happy we could show a really good pace all week.”

Alexandre Pinto dominated the race while Walkner failed to win any stages, but he didn’t need to when he was farming second-place finishes and just had to wait for Pinto to slip up. Walkner finished runner-up in four of five legs, right behind Pinto in the first two—by 6:32 and 28 seconds—then Puck Klaassen by 39 and six seconds in Stages 3 and 4.

Sure enough, Pinto slipped up. He and navigator Bernardo Oliveira contracted the flu during the second stage, throwing him off his rhythm. He finished third in Stage 3, 3:04 behind Klaassen, then was 8:18 back of Klaassen in Stage 4 to lose the overall lead to Walkner.

Now trailing Walkner by 3:37, Pinto won the final stage but could only erase 3:08 from the gap. He still receives max points in the W2RC since Walkner isn’t registered for the championship, but loses the points lead to Klaassen.

To add insult to injury, Pinto was eventually fined €500 because he didn’t have a fuel pipe at post-race inspection. The pipe is used to extract a fuel sample from the car and check the vehicle’s minimum weight.

“We started the rally in the best possible way, winning the first two stages and taking the overall lead. However, the following three stages were extremely demanding, and strong flu symptoms significantly affected our physical condition. On top of that, a few setbacks along the route cost us valuable time and ultimately the lead of the race,” Pinto explained. “On the final stage, we gave everything we had to fight for the win, but it wasn’t enough to recover the time needed. In the end, we finished just 29 seconds shy of victory.

“Despite that, we leave this event extremely satisfied to have secured the win for the W2RC and moved up to second place in the World Championship standings.”

After losing her power steering for much of Stage 1, Klaassen was pleased to reach the finish and assume the points lead. While she finished behind Pinto, the much smaller field with only three points-earning drivers meant Klaassen’s third earned her far more points than in either of the first two races with 47. This in turn propelled her from fifth in the standings into first, going past Pinto as well as the retired Pedro Gonçalves and absent Rui Carneiro and Charles Munster.

Nazareno López rounded out the finishers, while Gonçalves retired due to a wrist injury sustained in Stage 1.

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	10	307	Matthias Walkner*	Pablo Moreno	BBR Motorsport	17:13:12	Leader
2	11	301	Alexandre Pinto	Bernardo Oliveira	Old Friends Rally Team	17:13:41	+ 0:29
3	12	302	Puck Klaassen	Augusto Sanz	KTM X-Bow powered by G Rally Team	17:16:51	+ 3:39
4	24	308	Nazareno López*	Fernando Acosta	BBR Motorsport	29:24:44	+ 12:11:32
DNF	DNF	306	Pedro Gonçalves	Sébastien Delaunay	BBR Motorsport	DNF	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Driver	Total Time
Stage 1	12	Alexandre Pinto	3:47:14
Stage 2	13	Alexandre Pinto	1:50:54
Stage 3	16	Puck Klaassen	4:52:05
Stage 4	16	Puck Klaassen	3:50:00
Stage 5	12	Alexandre Pinto	2:42:06

Featured image credit: Matteo Gebbia / Edophoto / DPPI / ASO