For much of the World Rally-Raid Championship‘s summer break, everyone expected Nasser Al-Attiyah to spend Friday’s final stage of the Desafío Ruta 40 preparing for a new chapter in his career as his contract with Toyota Gazoo Racing expired that day. While his free agency status is technically still in the air for 2024, he does not need to worry about that for now and could just enjoy his third win of 2023.
Now sticking with TGR through the end of the 2023 season, Al-Attiyah led a Toyota sweep of the T1 category in Argentina by winning nearly every stage in Argentina including the Prologue. He would have had a perfect rally if not for tyre punctures in the final moments of Stage #2 that befell him and every T1 driver, which Juan Cruz Yacopini capitalised upon to steal his maiden stage victory. Al-Attiyah still salvaged a second-place run that day before returning to his winning ways for the final three days.
The only T1 driver with multiple wins in 2023, having previously won the Dakar Rally and Sonora Rally, Al-Attiyah leads Yazeed Al-Rajhi in the W2RC by 51 points. He only needs four more points at the season-ending Rallye du Maroc in October to clinch his second straight title. His navigator Mathieu Baumel already secured the co-driver’s championship with a seventy-point advantage over Al-Rajhi’s partner Timo Gottschalk, who did not run Dakar.
“It’s always a good feeling to win and now I only need a few more points in Morocco for the championship,” Al-Attiyah commented. “It was great to be racing here in Argentina again and I’m already looking forward to coming back next year to defend the title.”
Even if Al-Attiyah was too powerful to defeat, Yacopini still had reason to celebrate as he finished a career-best second in his home race with the forementioned stage win being his first. While unable to catch the leader for the overall, he held off Al-Rajhi for the runner-up position.
Al-Rajhi struggled with attrition throughout the rally. After entering the final stage in second with a two-minute gap on Yacopini, he suffered four punctures and got stuck in a ditch which relegated him to last in class and allowed Yacopini to leapfrog him for the spot.
Eugenio Amos, the only T1 driver not competing for W2RC points, finished fourth with a podium in Stage #2. Denis Krotov was fifth in his début in a Toyota Hilux T1+.
Al-Attiyah’s win secured Toyota Gazoo Racing the manufacturer’s championship yet again with 230 points, over 100 more than second-placed X-raid Team‘s Mini JCW programme. The Hilux has won all four races in 2023, with Al-Rajhi taking the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
“Overall, we have every reason to be pleased with Nasser and Mathieu winning the race, and our Dakar-winning GR DKR Hilux T1+ again showing its strength,” said TGR W2RC boss Alain Dujardyn. “The fans here were amazingly enthusiastic, and we appreciate the support. I would also like to congratulate Juan Cruz Yacopini on his fantastic second place overall, achieved in front of his home crowd. In terms of the W2RC, we are happy to have already won the championships for co-driver and manufacturer, with just the driver title to be concluded in Morocco next month.”
All but one of the T1 entries in Argentina raced a Hilux, with the Mini of Sebastian Halpern being the exception; Krotov also usually races a Mini but switched to Toyota for Argentina. While the Mini JCW Rally Plus enjoyed success to begin the week when Krzysztof Hołowczyc won the Baja Poland, Halpern’s car suffered mechanical failures on Stages #2 and #3 that dropped him to last in the DR 40 ranking. As such, Halpern does not intend to race in Morocco or the 2024 Dakar Rally out of wariness for the Mini’s ability to keep up with Toyota, though he is open to racing with the manufacturer again in the future.
T1 overall results
| Finish | Overall Finish | Number | Driver | Co-Driver | Team | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 1 | 200 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Mathieu Baumel | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 15:10:03 | Leader |
| 2 | 2 | 203 | Juan Cruz Yacopini | Dani Oliveiras | Overdrive Racing | 15:32:06 | + 22:03 |
| 3 | 3 | 201 | Yazeed Al-Rajhi | Timo Gottschalk | Overdrive Racing | 15:40:30 | + 30:27 |
| 4 | 4 | 205 | Eugenio Amos* | Paolo Ceci | Overdrive Racing | 16:05:57 | + 55:54 |
| 5 | 10 | 204 | Denis Krotov | Konstantin Zhiltsov | X-raid Team | 18:08:33 | + 2:58:30 |
| 6 | 17 | 202 | Sebastian Halpern | Bernardo Graue | X-raid Team | 34:43:24 | + 20:33:21 |
T1 stage winners
| Stage | Driver | Time |
| Prologue | Nasser Al-Attiyah | 6:33 |
| Stage #1 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | 2:57:31 |
| Stage #2 | Juan Cruz Yacopini | 3:35:12 |
| Stage #3 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | 2:57:41 |
| Stage #4 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | 2:57:41 |
| Stage #5 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | 2:34:04 |
Overall winners
| Class | Number | Competitor | Team | Time |
| T1 | 200 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 15:10:03 |
| T3 | 302 | Mitch Guthrie | Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team | 16:22:31 |
| T4 | 403 | Gustavo Gallego* | South Racing Can-Am | 18:34:37 |
| RallyGP | 68 | Tosha Schareina* | Honda Team | 15:58:46 |
| Rally2 | 21 | Bradley Cox | BAS World KTM Racing Team | 17:01:01 |
| Rally3 | 122 | Ardit Kurtaj | Xraids Experience | 23:15:45 |
| Quad | 152 | Manuel Andújar | 7240 Team | 19:24:30 |
| Open Auto | 650 | Blas Zapag* | Copetrol Rally | 23:06:34 |
| Open T3 | 670 | Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli* | Ferioli Racing Team | 17:34:31 |
| Open T4 | 678 | Juan Jose Semino* | Xcorpion Rally Racing | 20:59:00 |
| Open Moto | 608 | Rodrigo de Abreu Sallum* | MED Racing Team | 22:36:24 |
| Open Quad | 623 | Santiago Rostan* | Pampa Rental Rally Team | 25:28:33 |
W2RC standings
Unlike T3 and T4, T1 does not have its own standings and instead uses a championship in which the aforementioned categories can also earn points based on their finishes among all FIA W2RC entries.
Drivers’ standings
| Rank | Driver | Points | Margin |
| 1 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | 189 | Leader |
| 2 | Yazeed Al-Rajhi | 138 | – 51 |
| 3 | Juan Cruz Yacopini | 109 | – 80 |
| 4 | Sébastien Loeb | 101 | – 88 |
| 5 | Sebastian Halpern | 89 | – 100 |
| 6 | Martin Prokop | 64 | – 125 |
| 7 | Mattias Ekström # | 59 | – 130 |
| 8 | Guerlain Chicherit | 55 | – 134 |
| 9 | Austin Jones | 43 | – 146 |
| 10 | Seth Quintero | 37 | – 152 |
| T-10 | Denis Krotov | 37 | – 152 |
| 12 | Mitch Guthrie | 35 | – 154 |
| 13 | Guoyu Zhang | 31 | – 158 |
| T-13 | Wei Han | 31 | – 158 |
| 15 | Rokas Baciuška | 24 | – 165 |
| 16 | Mathieu Serradori | 22 | – 167 |
| T-16 | Cristina Gutiérrez | 22 | – 167 |
| 18 | Francisco Lopéz Contardo | 15 | – 174 |
| 19 | João Ferreira | 14 | – 175 |
| 20 | Claude Fournier | 10 | – 179 |
| 21 | Zi Yunliang | 9 | – 180 |
| T-21 | Pau Navarro | 9 | – 180 |
| 23 | Eryk Goczał | 8 | – 181 |
| 24 | Aliyyah Koloc | 6 | – 183 |
| 25 | Jean-Luc Ceccaldi | 5 | – 184 |
| T-25 | David Zille | 5 | – 184 |
| 27 | Marek Goczał | 4 | – 185 |
| 28 | Shinsuke Umeda | 2 | – 187 |
| Carlos Sainz | 0 | – 189 | |
| Orlando Terranova | 0 | – 189 | |
| Erik van Loon | 0 | – 189 | |
| Stéphane Peterhansel | 0 | – 189 |
Italics – T3 entry
Underscore – T4 entry
Co-drivers’ standings
| Rank | Co-Driver | Driver | Points | Margin |
| 1 | Mathieu Baumel | Nasser Al-Attyah | 189 | Leader |
| 2 | Timo Gottschalk | Yazeed Al-Rajhi | 119 | – 70 |
| 3 | Dani Oliveiras | Juan Cruz Yacopini | 109 | – 80 |
| 4 | Fabian Lurquin | Sébastien Loeb | 101 | – 88 |
| 5 | Bernardo Graue | Sebastian Halpern | 89 | – 100 |
| 6 | Viktor Chytka | Martin Prokop | 64 | – 125 |
| 7 | Emil Bergkvist # | Mattias Ekström # | 59 | – 130 |
| 8 | Alex Winocq | Guerlain Chicherit | 55 | – 134 |
| 9 | Gustavo Gugelmin | Austin Jones | 43 | – 146 |
| 10 | Dennis Zenz | Seth Quintero | 37 | – 152 |
| T-10 | Konstantin Zhiltsov | Denis Krotov | 37 | – 152 |
| 12 | Kellon Walch | Mitch Guthrie | 35 | – 154 |
| 13 | Ma Li | Wei Han | 31 | – 158 |
| 14 | Oriol Mena # | Eryk Goczał, Guoyu Zhang | 29 | – 160 |
| 15 | Oriol Vidal Montijano | Rokas Baciuška | 24 | – 165 |
| 16 | Loïc Minaudier | Mathieu Serradori | 22 | – 167 |
| T-16 | Pablo Moreno Huete | Cristina Gutiérrez | 22 | – 167 |
| 18 | Dirk Von Zitzewitz | Yazeed Al-Rajhi | 19 | – 170 |
| 19 | Bruno Jacomy | Hernán Garcés | 11 | – 178 |
| 20 | Jean-Pierre Garvin | Guoyu Zhang | 10 | – 179 |
| T-20 | Szymon Gospodarczyk # | Michal Goczał, Claude Fournier | 10 | – 179 |
| 22 | François Cazalet # | Guillaume de Mévius, Pau Navarro | 9 | – 180 |
| T-22 | Sha He | Zi Yunliang | 9 | – 180 |
| 24 | Manuel Porem | João Ferreira | 8 | – 181 |
| 25 | Stéphane Duple | Aliyyah Koloc | 6 | – 183 |
| T-25 | Filipe Palmeiro | João Ferreira | 6 | – 183 |
| 27 | Cédric Duplé | Jean-Luc Ceccaldi | 5 | – 184 |
| T-27 | Sebastian Cesana | David Zille | 5 | – 184 |
| 29 | Maciej Marton | Marek Goczał | 4 | – 60 |
| T-29 | Juan Pablo Latrach | Francisco López Contardo | 4 | – 60 |
| 31 | Maurizio Dominella | Shinsuke Umeda | 2 | – 62 |
| Lucas Cruz | Carlos Sainz | 0 | – 189 | |
| Alex Haro Bravo | Orlando Terranova | 0 | – 189 | |
| Sébastien Delaunay | Erik van Loon | 0 | – 189 | |
| Édouard Boulanger | Stéphane Peterhansel | 0 | – 189 |
