Dacia Sandriders chase a third straight victory in Argentina
The Dacia Sandriders, leaders of the World Rally Raid Championship, arrive in South America on unfamiliar ground as they look to tighten their grip on the series. The third round of the season, Argentina’s Desafío Ruta 40, runs from 24 to 29 May and will test the momentum built on victories at this year’s Dakar Rally and the Portuguese round.
Dacia currently leads the manufacturers’, drivers’ and navigators’ standings. That is a neat little triple crown, but the 3000 kilometre Argentine ordeal now asks a different question. Can the team keep winning when the landscape, logistics and rhythm all change?
Dacia wants to extend its lead on three fronts
After two major victories in a row, The Dacia Sandriders arrive in Argentina as the team everyone else must chase. The squad fields its usual three experienced crews, all competing in Ultimate class cars powered by synthetic fuel.
This will be Dacia’s debut on the famous South American rally, which means the engineers and strategists face a fresh set of challenges in car setup, reliability and route management.
Frenchman Sébastien Loeb leads the drivers’ standings alongside navigator Édouard Boulanger after taking a hard earned win in Portugal in March. Loeb sits seven points ahead of team mate Nasser Al Attiyah, which gives the championship fight a useful dose of internal tension. Healthy, perhaps. Comfortable, certainly not.
Familiar roads, new strategic tests
Dacia may be new to the event, but its drivers are not short of South American experience. Qatari star Nasser Al Attiyah, sharing the car with Fabian Lurquin, won Desafío Ruta 40 in 2023. He also secured three of his six Dakar Rally victories when the marathon was still held on South American soil.
The team’s third crew, Brazil’s Lucas Moraes and Germany’s Dennis Zenz, also has a podium in its sights after finishing fourth on the Portuguese round.
This year’s 13th Desafío Ruta 40 returns to the San Rafael area of Mendoza province after several years away. Competitors face 2993 kilometres in total, including 1726 kilometres split across five demanding special stages.
The terrain promises little mercy. Coastal dunes, riverbeds, salt flats and rocky high mountain tracks all sit on the menu. In other words, exactly the sort of week that makes a neat championship lead look suddenly fragile.
Sustainable technology faces a severe endurance test
Dacia runs its Sandrider cars on synthetic sustainable fuel developed in partnership with Aramco, while BFGoodrich supplies the tyres. With only two rounds left after Argentina, this rally becomes more than another points scoring exercise. It is a serious examination of technology, durability and nerve.
The pressure from rivals and the tight championship table leave little room for romantic heroics. Dacia must minimise risks, manage its pace and show tactical maturity if it wants to leave Argentina still leading the World Rally Raid Championship.
A third straight victory would turn early season form into something more convincing. But in rally raid, especially in Argentina, confidence is usually the first thing the terrain tries to bury.
