“The more things change, the more they stay the same” continues to hold true. The 2026 Baja Aragón had a seismic shift when it was moved from its traditional July slot to mid-September because of deadly wildfires across Spain.

Several new faces in new places showed up, hoping to use the baja as an early practice run ahead of the fall rallies like the Rallye du Maroc and eventually the 2027 Dakar Rally. Others, of course, were making late-season pushes in the FIA World or European Baja Cups or the FIM Bajas World Cup.

It might not be the middle of summer anymore, but João Ferreira and Lorenzo Santolino still turned up the heat once again. Even with the new date and rivals, they respectively repeated their FIA and FIM overall victories. It is the fifth time Aragón saw both the same car and bike winners in consecutive years after 2000–2001 (Jean-Louis Schlesser and Isidre Esteve; the combo also won together in 1998), 2014–2015 (Nani Roma and Gerard Farrés), 2016–2017 (Nasser Al-Attiyah and Joan Barreda; a third instance between them happened in 2021), and 2022–2023 (Al-Attiyah and Tosha Schareina).

Ferreira had scored his maiden win for Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa at the 2025 Baja Aragón in a dramatic comeback. This time, his victory was more convincing as he was fourth in the Prologue then won Stage 1 by 3:10.4 over Yazeed Al-Rajhi. Al-Rajhi, with Dennis Zenz as his backup navigator while Timo Gottschalk recovered from injury, ran into trouble on the last day.

Guillaume de Mévius topped the last stage while Ferreira was fourth, but the former was already out of contention because of a rollover on the first stage. His misfortune carried over to his X-raid colleagues too since José Luis Garcia also rolled in the same corner as de Mévius, Maria Gameiro was plagued by mechanical issues, and Paul Schmidt’s Fenic rolled right before the end of Stage 1. This left Lionel Baud’s Mini as the only X-raid entry to get home in one piece, but he had to tank some power because of FIA regulations.

“Baja Aragón certainly wasn’t the best event for us,” de Mévius remarked.

Ferreira led a Hilux overall podium sweep ahead of Luis Portela and teammate Saood Variawa. He called the race a “tough run, but the work done by the Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa team was really, really good. The car handled well, there were no issues, no mechanical problems at all. Filipe (Palmeiro) did a great job with the navigation, especially since we had to open the road for both stages.

“It wasn’t easy, but I’m very happy to have won two consecutive stages. We started with a three-minute lead, which isn’t much because anything can happen, but we were able to push hard in the fast sections. In the rocky areas, we took it a bit easier, yet we still managed to win by a margin of nearly four minutes.”

Defending his crown wasn’t as easy for Santolino, who got sick just before the race. Despite his condition, he still finished runner-up to David Braceras in the Prologue. Braceras is a former Spanish Motocross champ in MX2 who was making his rally debut, and was second to Santolino the next day.

However, Braceras crashed on the final day, enabling a now-healthy Santolino to pull away and win by 8:35.

“I’m really happy with this result. I found a really good feeling again with the rally bike, and it’s a great way to prepare for the next part of the season,” Santolino commented. “The conditions in Morocco will obviously be very different from those of a baja, but this victory is a very good result and, above all, excellent preparation for our main goal: the Dakar.”

Schareina, who three-peated in bikes from 2022 to 2024, skipped the 2025 race to run the Rally dos Sertões instead but planned to return in ’26. Things became easier for him with Aragón’s rescheduling and Sertões being moved too, but he ended up withdrawing because of injuries sustained in a crash at the latter.

Andrei Halabarodzka finished third in Stock under the Belarusian flag. He is the first driver to run an FIA-sanctioned cross-country rally with Belarus as his nationality since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, while the FIA controversially lifted its restriction on Russians and Belarusians repping their countries in August. Halabarodzka previously used the Kyrgyz flag during the ban. His Russian navigator Aleksei Ignatov, on the other hand, still competed under a Spanish license and flag.

Cristina Gutiérrez and Mónica Plaza debuted an expanded effort for Santana Racing Team, which had run the Dakar Rally in January with a rebadged Century CR7. This time, the team fielded its own T1+ car for Gutiérrez that impressed by finishing fourth overall, while Plaza retired in a rally-spec SUV.

Magdalena Zając was 20th in Ultimate in a new Hilux that she acquired after her usual car was totaled at Baja Poland.

MM Technology aborted its original plan of fielding a truck for team owner Martin Macík Jr. as the postponement meant he wanted to prioritize the Rallye du Maroc. Still, MMT’s new client Karel Poslední won the Truck class to keep the brand’s win streak alive.

“I’ve been riding here on my motorcycle for about six years now, and the fans are amazing,” Poslední said. “It was an excellent rally, so a huge thank you to all the organizers and fans; I’m really happy. Thank you.”

FIA

Ultimate

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	1	214	João Ferreira	Filipe Palmeiro	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	6:24:18.4	Leader
2	2	217	Luis Portela	Carlos Jorge Mendes	Overdrive Racing	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	6:28:11.8	+ 3:53.4
3	3	201	Saood Variawa	Charan Moore	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	6:29:49.4	+ 5:31.0
4	4	215	Cristina Gutiérrez	Marc Solà	Santana Racing Team	Santana 400 T1+	T1+	6:30:43.1	+ 6:24.7
5	5	206	Francisco Barreto	Paulo Fiúza	SVR	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	6:33:45.5	+ 9:27.1
6	7	210	Cristian Baumgart	Luis Felipe Eckel	SVR	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	6:35:53.8	+ 11:35.4
7	8	228	Pim Klaassen	Leander Pienaar	DaklaPack Rallysport	DKR EVO Ultimate	T1+	6:36:12.2	+ 11:53.8
8	9	216	Santiago Carnicer	Sergio Peinado	GPR Sport	Toyota Hilux	T1+	6:37:47.9	+ 13:29.5
9	10	212	Mariusz Wiatr	Łukasz Łaskawiec	Pufy Racing	Ford F150 Evo	T1+	6:38:59.5	+ 14:41.1
10	12	205	Lionel Baud	Lucie Baud	X-raid Team	Mini John Cooper Works Rally 3.0d	T1+	6:40:20.5	+ 16:02.1
11	13	207	Benediktas Vanagas	Aisvydas Paliukėnas	Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics	Toyota Hilux	T1+	6:42:28.0	+ 18:09.6
12	16	204	Dania Akeel	Sébastien Delaunay	Overdrive Racing	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	6:48:42.3	+ 24:23.9
13	18	226	Jourdan Serderidis	Lucas Cruz	M-Sport Rally Raid Team	Ford Raptor	T1+	6:52:01.6	+ 27:43.2
14	20	211	Jose Rogeira	Paulo Marques	767/Prksport Rally Team	Ford Ranger T1+	T1+	6:52:26.4	+ 28:08.0
15	26	209	Maria Gameiro	Rosa Romero	X-raid Team	Mini John Cooper Works Rally 3.0d	T1+	7:06:19.9	+ 42:01.5
16	27	222	Khalid Al-Jafla	Andrei Rudnitski	SRG Motorsports	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	7:07:48.2	+ 43:29.8
17	29	203	Guillaume de Mévius	Mathieu Baumel	X-raid Team	Mini John Cooper Works Rally 3.0i	T1+	7:09:59.7	+ 45:41.3
18	32	213	José Luis Garcia	Manuel Navarro	X-raid Team	Mini John Cooper Works Rally 3.0i	T1+	7:15:44.5	+ 51:26.1
19	33	231	Steven Rotsaert	Laure Rotsaert	DaklaPack Rallysport	Red-Lined Revo T1+	T1+	7:16:57.3	+ 52:38.9
20	35	208	Magdalena Zając	Błażej Czekan	Proxcars TME Rally Team	Toyota Hilux	T1+	7:21:32.7	+ 57:14.3
21	38	234	Richard Timmerman	Kala Senders	Richard Timmerman	Toyota Hilux	T1.1	7:38:16.5	+ 1:13:58.1
22	43	235	Pieter de Backere	Anthony de Backere	Oeste Racing Competition	Toyota Hilux	T1.1	8:17:36.0	+ 1:53:17.6
23	46	200	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Dennis Zenz	Overdrive Racing	Toyota Hilux Overdrive	T1+	9:27:32.6	+ 3:03:14.2
DNF	DNF	221	Alejandro Martins	Nuno Morais	Alejandro Martins	Mini John Cooper Works Rallye 3.0d	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	227	Wlodzimierz Grajek	Szymon Marciniak	Wlodzimierz Grajek	Toyota Hilux	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	233	Rients Hofstra	Wouter De Graaff	Rients Hofstra	Red-Lined Revo GT-R	T1+	DNF	N/A

Challenger

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	6	313	Gonçalo Guerreiro	Joel Lutas	Nasser Racing	Taurus Evo Max	6:34:19.8	Leader
2	11	301	Mitchel van den Brink	Bart van Heun	Eurol Rally Sport South Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	6:39:58.7	+ 5:38.9
3	14	310	Henk Klaassen	Sasha Siripanyavuthi	DaklaPack Rallysport	Taurus T3 Max	6:45:24.8	+ 11:05.0
4	15	321	Raphael Astier	Loïc Minaudier	Raphael Astier	Taurus Evo Max	6:48:08.5	+ 13:48.7
5	21	304	Marek Kubiczek	Artur Kordala	Marek Kubiczek	Taurus Evo Max	6:52:54.3	+ 18:34.5
6	22	302	Dinis Rogeira	Nelson Ramos	767/PRK Sport Rally Team	Can-Am Maverick X3	6:57:19.3	+ 22:59.5
7	23	306	Eduard Pons	Candido Carrera	Nasser Racing	Taurus Evo Max	7:00:24.3	+ 26:04.5
8	24	326	Luis Climent	Ricardo Ranero	MI Motorsport	Can-Am Maverick X3	7:05:00.4	+ 30:40.6
9	25	308	Sander Derikx	Michael Schuttel	DaklaPack Rallysport	Taurus Evo Max	7:05:34.2	+ 31:14.4
10	28	325	Luis Carneiro	Hugo Magalhães	Luis Carneiro	MMP T3	7:09:06.6	+ 34:46.8
11	36	312	Paul Schmidt	Jeannette Kvick	X-raid Team	X-raid Fenic	7:28:33.0	+ 54:13.2
12	39	324	Johan Senders	Yvet Senders	Johan Senders	Taurus T3 Max	7:42:40.7	+ 1:08:20.9
13	42	332	Alexis Romero	Álvaro Valduérteles	Escudería Lanzarote-Titerroygatra	Herrator Inzane 901	8:16:24.8	+ 1:42:05.0
14	49	307	Roberto Rodriguez	Herman Rodriguez	Roberto Rodriguez Gamboa	Herrator Inzane 901	10:34:44.4	+ 4:00:24.6
15	50	333	Raul Delgado	Jose Luis Rosa	Raul Delgado Chacon	Herrator Inzane 901	10:48:50.2	+ 4:14:30.4
DNF	DNF	311	Romuald Lasne	Delphine Delfino	Romuald Lasne	Can-Am Maverick X3	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	323	Jérôme Naquart	Paul Durame	Jérôme Naquart	Can-Am Maverick R	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	330	Laura Bonillo	Miguel García	GPR Sport	GPR 24	DNF	N/A

SSV

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	17	408	Afonso Oliveira	Daniel Jordao	South Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	6:50:28.3	Leader
2	19	405	Ruben Rodrigues	Rui Jorge Moreira	Rio Seco Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	6:52:06.5	+ 1:38.2
3	30	406	Ernest Kuś	Maksymilian Staniszewski	Ernest Kus	Can-Am Maverick X3 XRS Turbo RR	T4	7:10:18.6	+ 19:50.3
4	31	400	Mansour Al-Helei	Khalid Al-Kendi	R-X Sport	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	7:13:59.7	+ 23:31.4
5	34	415	David Asensio	Pablo Izcue	MI Motorsport	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	7:7:12.8	+ 26:44.5
6	37	401	Fernando Álvarez	Xavier Panseri	South Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	7:33:45.9	+ 43:17.6
7	40	412	Giovanni Manfrinato	Michele Manfrinato	Giovanni Manfrinato	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	7:44:09.0	+ 53:40.7
8	47	404	Filipe Lopes	Gonçalo Reis	Rio Seco Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	9:56:09.2	+ 3:05:40.9
9	48	403	Paulo Rodrigues	Fausto Mota	Rio Seco Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	10:31:02.1	+ 3:40:33.8
DNF	DNF	411	Herlander Araújo	Tiago Magalhaes	Herlander Araujo	Polaris RZR Pro R	T4	DNF	N/A

Stock

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	41	502	Fernando Barreiros	Jose Marques	Fernando Barreiros	Isuzu D-Max	T2.1	8:07:54.1	Leader
2	44	501	Majed Al-Thunayyan	Omar Allahim	Majed Al-Thunayyan	Nissan Patrol	T2.1	8:29:36.1	+ 21:42.0
3	45	503	Andrei Halabarodzka	Aleksei Ignatov	Andrei Halabarodzka	Toyota Land Cruiser	T2.1	8:36:36.5	+ 28:42.4
4	51	500	Almashna Al-Shammari	Abdullah Al-Shammari	R-X Sport	Nissan Patrol	T2.1	11:53:24.2	+ 3:45:30.1

FIM

Bike

Finish	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	1	2	Lorenzo Santolino	Sherco TVS Rally Factory Team	Sherco 450 SEF	6:57:27	Leader
2	2	11	Alfredo Pellicer	Xraids Experience	KTM 450 Rally Factory Replica	7:08:56	+ 11:29
3	3	26	Hugo Blanjoue	Hugo Blanjoue	Honda CRF450RX	7:21:33	+ 24:06
4	7	12	Ethan Lane	MX Ride Dubai	KTM 450 EXC-F	7:47:43	+ 50:16
5	9	27	Sara García	Sara García Álvarez	Yamaha WR450F Rally Replica	7:59:35	+ 1:02:08
6	11	6	Abdulhalim Al-Mogeera	Abdulhalim Al-Mogeera	Husqvarna FE 450	8:09:47	+ 1:12:20
7	14	15	Paulo Cardoso	Paulo Cardoso	Kove 450 Rally	8:13:51	+ 1:6:24
8	15	16	Richárd Hodola	Richárd Hodola	KTM 450 EXC-F	8:21:12	+ 1:23:45
9	16	33	Rajendra Revallar	Sherco TVS Rally Factory Team	Sherco 450 SEF	8:21:39	+ 1:24:12
10	17	8	Mohammad Al-Balooshi	MX Ride Dubai	KTM 450 EXC-F	8:30:24	+ 1:32:57
11	19	32	Amit Jagtap	Xraids Experience	KTM 450 Rally Factory Replica	8:59:47	+ 2:02:20
12	20	22	Joanna Modrzewska	Joanna Modrzewska	Triumph TF 450-E	9:16:40	+ 2:19:13
13	21	30	Mark Hatfield	Xraids Experience	KTM 450 Rally Factory Replica	9:19:25	+ 2:21:58
14	23	31	Priyankka Dutta	Xraids Experience	KTM 450 EXC-F	12:00:22	+ 5:02:55
15	24	29	Maria Taranto	Maria Taranto	Honda CRF450RX	13:34:59	+ 6:37:32
DNF	DNF	5	David Braceras	David Braceras	Honda CRF450RX	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	34	Sylvain Salicru	Sylvain Salicru	KTM 450 EXC-F	DNF	N/A

Quad

Finish	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	4	109	Tomás Coutinho	Tomás Coutinho Paulo	Yamaha YFZ450R	7:24:56	Leader
2	5	101	Antoine Sanchez	Antoine Sanchez	Yamaha Raptor 700	7:42:23	+ 17:27
3	6	110	Marcin Wilkolek	Marcin Wilkolek	Yamaha Raptor 700	7:47:27	+ 22:31
4	8	106	Jorge Sampaio	Knull Racing	Yamaha YFZ450R	7:54:07	+ 29:11
5	13	105	Ahmed Al-Jaber	Ahmed Al-Jaber	CFMOTO CFORCE 850 XC	8:13:20	+ 48:24
6	18	112	Hani Al-Noumesi	Hani Al-Noumesi	Yamaha YFZ450R	8:32:32	+ 1:07:36
7	22	111	Martim Pedroso	Martim Pedroso	Quaddy 450 R	11:03:17	+ 3:38:21
DNF	DNF	103	Dani Vila	Dani Vila	Yamaha Raptor 700	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	108	Abdulaziz Al-Atawi	Abdulaziz Al-Atawi	Yamaha Raptor 700	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	113	Toni Vingut	Toni Vingut	Yamaha Raptor 700	DNF	N/A

Trail

Finish	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	10	35	Matteo Bottino	Matteo Bottino	Kove 800X Rally	8:00:38	Leader
2	12	36	Julio López	Julio López	Kove 800X Rally	8:10:31	+ 9:53

Moto Open

450cc

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	60	Sergio Navarro	Sergio Navarro	Husqvarna FE 450	7:06:02	Leader
2	51	Javi Vega	Pont Grup	Kove 450 Rally EX	7:13:52	+ 7:50
3	52	Sergio Salvador Bernad #	Encozar	GasGas EC 450F	7:16:16	+ 10:14
4	55	Carlos Martín Blesa #	Dakarlos Rally Team	KTM 450 EXC-F	7:42:39	+ 36:37
5	53	Miguel Sanz Garces #	Liberato Factory Team	Honda CRF450RX	7:49:03	+ 43:01
6	57	David Vidal #	David Vidal Gracia	KTM 450 EXC-F	7:52:43	+ 46:41
7	67	Nora Esteban	Pedregà Team	Kove 450 Rally	8:25:55	+ 1:19:53
8	56	Alberto López Ruiz	Cap976 Rally Team	KTM 450 Rally	8:33:55	+ 1:27:53
9	58	Esther Merino	Esther Merino	Husqvarna FE 450	9:16:54	+ 2:10:52
10	65	Miguel Jordan Oncins #	Miguel Jordan Oncins	KTM 350 EXC-F	13:20:43	+ 6:14:41
DNF	64	Gines Belzunces Viudez	Club Aventura Touareg	KTM 450 EXC-F	DNF	N/A

Over 450cc

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	80	Raúl Moreno Martínez #	Offroad San Mateo	KTM 510 EXC-F	7:25:53	Leader
2	83	Antonio Ubis Diaz	Club Aventura Touareg	KTM 500 EXC-F	7:55:49	+ 29:56
3	81	Alberto Domingo Moreno	Adventure Joan Pedrero	KTM 500 EXC-F	8:06:16	+ 40:23
4	82	Jose Manuel Martínez Gonzalo #	Cap 976 Rally Team	KTM 500 EXC-F	8:39:30	+ 1:13:37
5	84	Jose Venancio Souto Román	Club Aventura Touareg	KTM 500 EXC-F	10:24:18	+ 2:58:25

Trail

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	90	Toni Povedano Reina	Suzuki Ibérica	Suzuki V-STROM 800DE	8:25:31	Leader

Quad

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	122	Aitor Martin Charles #	Aitor Martin Charles	Yamaha Raptor 700	7:44:20	Leader
2	121	Julio Escuder Ferrer #	Fundación Térvalis Baja Cer0²	Polaris Predator 500	7:54:11	+ 9:51
3	124	Ivan Diaz Nicolas	Club Aventura Touareg	Can-Am Renegade	8:32:49	+ 48:29
4	123	Miguel Angel Arranz #	Motos Uson – Quads Dulanzi	Yamaha Raptor 700	8:44:15	+ 59:55
DNF	120	David Gómez Mesones	Piteras Racing	Yamaha YFZ450R	DNF	N/A

Open

Trofeo Aragón

Finish	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	604	Juan Manuel Agoiz Fleta	Nerea Clavero Fidalgo	Escudería Jiloca	Ford Ranger	7:44:36.1	Leader
2	613	Jose Vidal Gracia	Juan José Pérez Bonilla	MI Motorsport	Can-Am Maverick X3	10:46:13.3	+ 3:01:37.2
3	654	Ángel Gimenez	Sergio Soriano López	Escudería Centro	Toyota Hilux	10:53:04.3	+ 3:08:28.2
DNF	601	Mónica Plaza	Marta Plaza	Santana Racing Team	Santana SUV T1	DNF	N/A

Truck

Finish	Number	Driver	Navigator	Mechanic	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	806	Karel Poslední	Karel Dongres	Filip Škrobánek	Valtorro Unlimited	MMT EVO4	5:04:44.6	Leader
2	808	Gerrit Zuurmond	Jan van der Vaet	Jaap Zuurmond	Rainbow Truck Team	MAN TGA	5:05:03.7	+ 19.1
3	811	Tjeerd van Ballegooij	Anthony Dekker	Dick Zuurmond	Rainbow Truck Team	MAN TGN	5:06:03.4	+ 1:18.8
4	809	William de Groot	Koen Hendriks	Remon van der Steen	De Groot Sport	MMT EVO4	5:06:16.7	+ 1:32.1

Featured image credit: Toni Grases / Octagon Esedos S.L.