2026 Desafio Ruta 40: Seth Quintero beats Al-Attiyah for first Ultimate win

Seth Quintero is one of rally raid’s brightest prospects, but victory in the Ultimate class eluded him as older drivers like Nasser Al-Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb kept him at bay.

After two and a half years of coming up short, the kid’s finally got it done. Even if he had to fight tooth and nail for it.

Quintero didn’t win any stages, but found himself leading the Desafío Ruta 40 at the end of the penultimate day by just seven seconds over Al-Attiyah. He had been running well leading up to Stage 4, finishing fourth on the first leg despite being the first car on track followed by sixth, third, and fifth. The only real snags he faced early on were a puncture apiece in Stages 2 and 3, a broken damper in the latter that was replaced while in the transfer zone,

Ironically, the fourth stage was also his worst day performance-wise despite taking the lead. After catching up to Sébastien Loeb, he got trapped in his dust before suffering two punctures at KMs 170 and 200.

Even then, he ended up in first after teammate Henk Lategan struggled with power steering problems and flat tires that day. He also received a three-minute penalty for arriving at the time control late, which Lategan felt was “a bit harsh.” These dropped Lategan to third, while Al-Attiyah moved up into second.

Al-Attiyah’s chances were officially killed on the last day by a wheel change. Quintero finished third, but two minutes ahead of Al-Attiyah to seal the victory. Lategan won the stage, passing Al-Attiyah and completing a 1–2 finish for Toyota Gazoo Racing.

“We were fighting hard to the end, but we had a puncture and then we were stuck behind Seb with all the dust,” said Al-Attiyah. “We couldn’t do anything, but this is motorsport and we finished third, which is good for the championship. We’ll see for Morocco.”

Quintero was more than relieved to finally stand atop the box. He is the first American driver to win a rally raid overall (which excludes riders and class winners) in the World Rally-Raid Championship era. His last W2RC race victory of any kind was in the T3 class at the 2023 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge en route to the title.

“We tried our absolute best every single day. TGR W2RC gave me the tools to do what I needed to do, and we came away with the victory,” Quintero stated. “It feels amazing. I am really happy to win here in front of all these fantastic fans and to give TGR W2RC this victory. We have been working so hard this year. Everyone’s hard work paid off and I’m glad I could finally achieve this for them because I am so thankful to be part of this family.”

Loeb was fourth to cap off a frustrating rally. Tire failures plagued the points leader all race long, but he was able to finish second overall in Stage 3 and 5 to keep it close with the leaders. He remains atop the standings with 114 points to Al-Attiyah’s 111 and Quintero’s 101.

While TGR was pleased with the result, it wasn’t all celebratory. Akira Miura was running tenth after three stages before an upright issue took him out. A suspension failure on the final stage ended his race for good.

Ford had a tough going that was only salvaged by Nani Roma’s top-ten finish. Carlos Sainz won a stage but it came a day after a broken belt forced him to retire. Mitch Guthrie and ally Denis Krotov were DNFs, while Martin Prokop placed 12th and Kees Koolen 14th as privateers.

Roma and Sebastián Halpern were the only drivers in the top ten who didn’t race a Hilux or Sandrider. Halpern, making his return to the W2RC after a two-year absence, ran top 20 in the first half before stringing together three straight top-ten runs that included a seventh in Stage 4.

After his 2023 and 2024 Ruta 40s were plagued by mechanical issues on his diesel-powered Mini, Halpern was more than happy that his petrol-based 3.0i held up.

“Given the extremely strong competition here, I think a top-ten finish is a damn good result for us and the entire team,” he stated. “It was a really, really tough race that challenged us every single day, and the pace the drivers are setting here is deeply impressive. Since we hadn’t raced in two years, we lacked a bit of rhythm at the beginning.

“To be honest, the Mini ran phenomenally and without the slightest issue. The team was also incredible and did a fantastic job. Edu (Pulenta) did a first-class job as co-driver, too: he called every course, every river, and all the waypoints perfectly. Overall, I am super happy with the new car, which pulls extremely hard. The petrol engine has truly changed the car completely. The suspension works brilliantly as well. We are completely happy all around: with the car, the team, the navigator, and all the work that was put in.”

Eryk Goczał was tenth, a solid finish on paper but definitely a disappointment after starting the race by winning the first stage. He had a pair of punctures and lost fourth gear the next day, then lost even more time to navigation errors and getting stuck behind slower cars. After scoring a second in Stage 4, the driveshaft failed just 30 kilometers from the race finish on the last leg. He and Szymon Gospodarczyk improvised by moving the front driveshaft to the rear, which “effectively turned out car into something like a buggy. Somehow, we managed to reach the finish like that.”

Fellow Hilux driver Kevin Benavides was 13th in his maiden Ultimate race. The former Dakar bike winner was impressive early on as he finished P2 to Al-Attiyah by just 18 seconds in Stage 2, but the progress was nullified just a day later when a shock absorber and caused him to get stuck on his side in the dunes.

João Ferreira was leading the overall until he and Lucas Moraes crashed together in Stage 3. Both were able to continue and finish the race, albeit at the bottom of the order.

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	1	203	Seth Quintero	Andrew Short	Toyota Gazoo Racing	15:55:38	Leader
2	2	202	Henk Lategan	Brett Cummings	Toyota Gazoo Racing	15:57:33	+ 1:55
3	3	299	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Fabian Lurquin	Dacia Sandriders	15:58:04	+ 2:26
4	4	219	Sébastien Loeb	Édouard Boulanger	Dacia Sandriders	15:59:32	+ 3:54
5	5	218	Saood Variawa	François Cazalet	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	16:27:42	+ 32:04
6	6	201	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Timo Gottschalk	Overdrive Racing	16:47:29	+ 51:51
7	7	238	Marcelo Gastaldi*	Carlos Eduardo Sachs	SVR	16:50:23	+ 54:45
8	8	227	Nani Roma	Álex Haro	Ford Racing	16:56:25	+ 1:00:47
9	9	250	Sebastián Halpern*	Eduardo Pulenta	X-raid Mini JCW Team	17:01:26	+ 1:05:48
10	13	205	Eryk Goczał	Szymon Gospodarczyk	Energylandia Rally Team	17:31:35	+ 1:35:57
11	14	210	Hernán Garcés	Juan Latrach	Overdrive Racing	17:49:45	+ 1:54:07
12	15	221	Martin Prokop	Viktor Chytka	ORLEN Jipocar Team	17:58:43	+ 2:03:05
13	16	247	Kevin Benavides*	Lisandro Sisterna	Overdrive Racing	18:10:41	+ 2:15:03
14	20	231	Kees Koolen	Wouter Rosegaar	RD Limited	20:12:57	+ 4:17:19
15	25	222	Marcos Baumgart	Kleber Cincea	SVR	30:44:54	+ 14:49:16
16	26	236	Cristian Baumgart	Luis Felipe Eckel	SVR	32:32:37	+ 16:36:59
17	27	240	João Ferreira	Filipe Palmeiro	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	35:56:46	+ 20:01:08
18	28	230	Lucio Álvarez	Bernardo Graue	SVR	36:00:36	+ 20:04:58
19	29	225	Carlos Sainz	Daniel Oliveras	Ford Racing	36:07:37	+ 20:11:59
20	30	206	Marek Goczał	Maciej Marton	Energylandia Rally Team	36:15:02	+ 20:19:24
21	31	223	Lucas Moraes	Dennis Zenz	Dacia Sandriders	36:28:34	+ 20:32:56
DNF	DNF	204	Akira Miura	Armand Monleón	Toyota Gazoo Racing	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	217	Denis Krotov	Konstantin Zhiltsov	M-Sport Rally-Raid Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	228	Mitch Guthrie	Kellon Walch	Ford Racing	DNF	N/A