Nasser Al-Attiyah won the second stage of the Desafío Ruta 40 YPF and re‑entered the championship conversation on the 128‑kilometre special between San Juan and San Rafael, where Kevin Benavides came close to springing a surprise. The Argentine finished second, just 18 seconds behind the Qatari, in only his second participation in the Ultimate rally‑raid class. Joao Ferreira, fourth on the stage, became the new overall leader.

Photo By Red Bull Content Pool

Benavides finishes 2nd, 18 seconds behind in Ultimate

Benavides, winner of the Dakar on bikes in 2021 and 2023, suffered a serious training accident in 2024 that left him in a coma for ten days and accelerated his move to cars. His debut in the top category came this very weekend in a Toyota Hilux from the Overdrive Racing team. Tuesday’s second place leaves him tenth in the overall standings, twelve minutes and two seconds behind the leader.

Photo By Red Bull Content Pool

The special saw partial leads traded among the Toyota cars of Seth Quintero, Ferreira himself, and Saood Variawa, who shared the fastest times at each checkpoint. Al‑Attiyah, third 28 seconds behind at the 66‑kilometre mark, pushed hard over the final thirty kilometres and sealed his eighth stage victory in the history of the event, the first for Dacia in Argentina. Variawa finished third, 21 seconds behind.

Ferreira takes overall lead by just 9 seconds

With his fourth place on the stage, Ferreira assumed the overall lead with an accumulated time of 5 hours, 22 minutes and 32 seconds. The Portuguese, driving an official Gazoo Racing Toyota, leads Quintero by only 9 seconds. Variawa sits third, one minute and 39 seconds back, and Henk Lategan fourth, 2 minutes and 53 seconds behind. Al‑Attiyah climbed to fifth, 3 minutes and 6 seconds behind the new leader.
Monday’s leader, Eryk Goczal, paid the price for opening the road and lost more than fourteen minutes. The Pole from Energylandia dropped to ninth place overall, 11 minutes and 23 seconds behind Ferreira. Sébastien Loeb remains eighth, 9 minutes and 26 seconds back, and Carlos Sainz is sixth, 6 minutes and one second behind.

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The third stage takes place tomorrow in San Rafael over a route of 409 timed kilometres, the longest special of the 2026 edition. The overall classification has the top six drivers separated by less than six minutes, and the leading pair, Ferreira and Quintero, are just 9 seconds apart.

Ruta 40 Rally Raid 2026 - Stage 2

Pos	Nº	Drivers	class	team	car	time	difference
1	#299	N. AL-ATTIYAH F. LURQUIN	Ultimate	THE DACIA SANDRIDERS	DACIA SANDRIDER	1:45:42	—
2	#218	S. VARIAWA F. CAZALET	Ultimate	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING SA	TOYOTA HILUX IMT EVO	1:46:03	+0:00:21
3	#247	K. BENAVIDES L. SISTERNA	Ultimate	OVERDRIVE RACING	TOYOTA HILUX IMT EVO	1:46:10	+0:00:28
4	#240	J. FERREIRA F. PALMEIRO	Ultimate	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING SA	TOYOTA HILUX IMT EVO	1:46:44	+0:01:02
5	#223	L. MORAES D. ZENZ	Ultimate	THE DACIA SANDRIDERS	DACIA SANDRIDER	1:46:47	+0:01:05
6	#203	S. QUINTERO A. SHORT	Ultimate	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING W2RC	TOYOTA HILUX GR	1:47:05	+0:01:23
7	#206	M. GOCZAL M. MARTON	Ultimate	ENERGYLANDIA RALLY TEAM	TOYOTA HILUX DKR EVO	1:48:11	+0:02:29
8	#202	H. LATEGAN B. CUMMINGS	Ultimate	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING W2RC	TOYOTA HILUX GR	1:48:15	+0:02:33
9	#219	S. LOEB E. BOULANGER	Ultimate	THE DACIA SANDRIDERS	DACIA SANDRIDER	1:48:22	+0:02:40
10	#217	D. KROTOV K. ZHILTSOV	Ultimate	M-SPORT RALLY RAID TEAM	FORD RAPTOR	1:49:00	+0:03:18
11	#221	M. PROKOP V. CHYTKA	Ultimate	ORLEN JIPOCAR TEAM	FORD RAPTOR	1:49:52	+0:04:10
12	#230	L. ALVAREZ B. GRAUE	Ultimate	SVR	TOYOTA HILUX IMT EVO	1:50:05	+0:04:23
13	#301	A. PINTO B. OLIVEIRA	Challenger	OLD FRIENDS RALLY TEAM	TAURUS T3 MAX	1:50:54	+0:05:12
14	#238	M. GASTALDI C. SACHS	Ultimate	SVR	TOYOTA HILUX IMT EVO	1:51:10	+0:05:28
15	#307	M. WALKNER P. MORENO	Challenger	BBR MOTORSPORT	TAURUS T3 MAX	1:51:22	+0:05:40
16	#227	N. ROMA A. HARO	Ultimate	FORD RACING	FORD RAPTOR	1:51:26	+0:05:44
17	#302	P. KLAASSEN A. SANZ	Challenger	KTM X-BOW POWERED BY G RALLY TEAM	GRALLYTEAM G-ECKO	1:52:03	+0:06:21
18	#204	A. MIURA A. MONLEON	Ultimate	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING W2RC	TOYOTA HILUX GR	1:52:37	+0:06:55
19	#225	C. SAINZ D. OLIVERAS	Ultimate	FORD RACING	FORD RAPTOR	1:53:38	+0:07:56
20	#201	Y. AL RAJHI T. GOTTSCHALK	Ultimate	OVERDRIVE RACING	TOYOTA HILUX GR	1:54:02	+0:08:20
21	#222	M. BAUMGART K. CINCEA	Ultimate	SVR	TOYOTA HILUX IMT EVO	1:54:37	+0:08:55
22	#210	H. GARCÉS J. LATRACH	Ultimate	OVERDRIVE RACING	TOYOTA HILUX GR	1:55:15	+0:09:33
23	#402	J. GONZALEZ FERIOLI G. RINALDI	SSV	CAN-AM FACTORY TEAM	BRP CAN-AM MAVERICK R	1:55:49	+0:10:07
24	#228	M. GUTHRIE K. WALCH	Ultimate	FORD RACING	FORD RAPTOR	1:56:16	+0:10:34
25	#250	S. HALPERN E. SAGUI	Ultimate	X-RAID TEAM	X-RAID MINI JCW RALLY 3.0I	1:57:15	+0:11:33
26	#236	C. BAUMGART L. ECKEL	Ultimate	SVR	TOYOTA HILUX IMT EVO	1:57:23	+0:11:41
27	#502	R. BACIUSKA O. VIDAL	Stock	DEFENDER RALLY	DEFENDER DAKAR D7X-R	1:58:49	+0:13:07
28	#500	S. PETERHANSEL M. METGE	Stock	DEFENDER RALLY	DEFENDER DAKAR D7X-R	1:59:31	+0:13:49
29	#205	E. GOCZAL S. GOSPODARCZYK	Ultimate	ENERGYLANDIA RALLY TEAM	TOYOTA HILUX DKR EVO	1:59:56	+0:14:14
30	#504	S. PRICE S. GRAY	Stock	DEFENDER RALLY	DEFENDER DAKAR D7X-R	2:01:05	+0:15:23
31	#231	K. KOOLEN W. ROSEGAAR	Ultimate	RD LIMITED	FORD RAPTOR	2:04:11	+0:18:29
32	#404	M. SIDABRAS E. CESOKAS	SSV	IZOTON SPORT	BRP CAN-AM MAVERICK R	2:07:13	+0:21:31
33	#410	J. PIFERRER X. BLANCO	SSV	BUGGY MASTERS TEAM	BRP CAN-AM MAVERICK R	2:14:35	+0:28:53