Pablo Quintanilla Earns Top Six Result On Stage Four Of The Desafio Ruta 40

Successfully completing a tough stage four at this year’s Desafio Ruta 40 in sixth place, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Pablo Quintanilla has moved one step closer to securing a strong fourth place overall result in the penultimate round of the 2017 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.

Taking competitors high up in the Argentinean mountains, stage four of the Desafio Ruta 40 proved to be yet another great challenge. Enjoying a mistake free special stage Pablo brought his FR 450 Rally home in sixth position.

With one shorter stage still to be contested, the Chilean rally star is currently 20 minutes behind a provisional top three overall result. Focused on finishing the event with a good overall position, Pablo will be looking to collect as many points as possible for the championship hunt.

Leading riders towards the big finish in Tucumán, tomorrow’s stage five includes a special stage of 180km. The total distance to be covered on Thursday is 327km.

Pablo Quintanilla: “We had one more tough stage today. There were lots of off-pistes and some stony tracks in the mountains. Today we went pretty high up in the mountains and there were some big altitude changes. I tried to take it easy and do my own race without taking any risks. This rally had been long and demanding so I am trying to take care of my bike and my body. My goal for tomorrow is to retain my good overall classification and earn as many points as possible for the championship. The main goal for me this year has always been to defend my world title and my focus is on this at the moment.”

2017 Desafio Ruta 40 – Stage 4 Provisional Classification
1. Kevin Benavides (Honda) 4:46:12
2. Michael Metge (Honda) 4:48:42
3. Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) 4:49:30
4. Ricky Brabec (Honda) 4:51:59
5. Xavier de Soultrait (Yamaha) 4:53:24
6. Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) 4:56:51

2017 Desafio Ruta 40 – Provisional Overall Classification [After Stage 4]
1. Kevin Benavides (Honda) 16:53:27
2. Paulo Goncalves (Honda) 17:04:03
3. Xavier de Soultrait (Yamaha) 17:27:40
4. Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) 17:47:45
5. Ricky Brabec (Honda) 17:54:25
6. Martin Duplessis (KTM) 18:36:56