The event was the fourth round of both the FIA World and European Baja Cups. The result for the Toyota Hilux crew with a winning margin of 6min 10.4sec pushes them firmly into contention for the Drivers’ and Navigators’ Championships and the Ultimate class in the FIA World Baja Cup.  

The triumphant Argentine said: “It was a perfect race for us. We really enjoyed it since we arrived here. We make P1 since the Prologue. Today was a little bit difficult in the morning when we had a puncture in the first special. But I am proud that we could still win the stage and win all the stages. Let’s see what happens at the next round in Spain.”

Their second-placed Toyota team-mates Martin Kaczmarski and Armand Monleón were not registered for either of the Baja Cups and that enabled third-placed Benediktas Vanagas to secure maximum points in the FIA European Baja Cup (see below) standings in his Toyota Hilux.

The Portuguese duo of Francisco Barreto and Carlos Silva guided their Toyota to fourth and second position in the FIA World Baja Cup rankings. Toyotas filled the top four places in the overall classification.

Barreto said: “The third pass through the stage today was the worst but we made the fourth place. The last section we came to the finish with five cylinders. We couldn’t do any better. Next time we will be better.”

Miroslav Zapletal is the leader of both the Ultimate and Master Driver categories but, despite finishing fifth overall and third in the FIA World Baja Cup standings in his Ford F-150 Evo, the Czech veteran saw his advantage in the Drivers’ Championship pegged back by Yacopini.

Oman’s Hamed Al-Wahaibi enjoyed one of his best off-road performances in an R-X Sport Can-Am Maverick R, despite running both of Friday’s stages with two-wheel drive following a driveshaft failure. He finished eighth overall and first of the FIA World Baja Cup SSVs, even after catching the car in front of him and running in dust for 30km on Saturday.

Dutchman Mitchel van den Brink teamed up with Bart van Heun in a Can-Am Maverick R and overcame a puncture to climb from 30th to finish 11th overall. He finished second in the FIA World Baja Cup’s SSV category to add to his recent outright success in Greece.

Van Den Brink said: “It was a very nice rally. Unfortunately, we got stuck behind someone for 80kms and they didn’t move. Then he let us pass and we could attack. We are happy to finish.”

The Italian Yamaha duo of Amerigo Ventura and Erika Mingozzi were 12th overall and third of the SSV entrants registered for the FIA World Baja Cup and remain in title contention. “It was a very challenging race,” said Ventura. “We had a small issue with the gearbox but we made it at the end.”

Paul Severn and Max Delfino finished 13th overall and fourth in the FIA World Baja Cup’s SSV section in a Polaris RZR Pro R but continue to lead the championship standings, despite ceding a little ground to van den Brink and van Heun in the respective title races. They are also in contention for the overall championship. Severn said: “We made it. It was a beautiful race but we had some technical issues with the car.”

Emirati Khalid Al-Jafla suffered serious time losses over the weekend but continues to lead the Challenger category in the FIA World Baja Cup in his Taurus T3 Max.

The final start list saw 35 cars line up for the revised opening Prologue stage of 10.99km between Cordenons and Fiera with 13 registered for the FIA World Baja Cup and a similar number chasing FIA European Baja Cup points.

Yacopini beat Challenger front-runner Tiago Reis by 11.4 seconds on the Prologue. Murat Kapanoğlu was the quickest of the SSV runners in third ahead of van den Brink.

Competitors then tackled a revised Rivignano stage of 35.33km between Castions and Muzzana that was repeated twice on Friday afternoon. The stage favoured the more powerful Ultimate category cars and they filled the top six positions on the opener with Yacopini leading the way from Barreto, Luis Recuenco, Kaczmarski, Vanagas and Mark Mustermann.

X-raid’s Denis Krotov and Can-Am’s Abdullah Al-Haydan failed to complete the stage and incurred a fistful of time penalties for not taking part in stage two. Reis led the Challenger runners and Sean Haran topped the SSV times from Ventura and Oliveira.

Yacopini was again fastest on the second pass and headed to the night halt with a lead of 27.6 seconds over Barreto. But the Argentine was then handed a two-minute speeding penalty and slipped back to fourth overall behind Barreto, Vanagas and Kaczmarski. Reis and Diego Martinez topped the Challenger and SSV categories in fifth and 10th overall.

A demanding final day was split into three stages of 120.05km apiece and each stage was divided into sections of 84.10km and 35.95km. Yacopini regained the overall lead with the fastest time on the opener but Reis lost over 40 minutes and his Challenger advantage and Martinez also ceded a lot of time in the SSV class.

The quickest times on the fourth and fifth stages eventually sealed Yacopini’s victory, although final results were not issued until late on Saturday night following a timing dispute that affected a number of competitors.

Fifteen crews were held for longer than the allotted time to allow the passage of emergency services to attend an external incident involving a citizen living in the vicinity of the neutralisation section near stage four. The time lost was later deducted from their times for SS4.

Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah Al-Haydan retired his Can-Am. Fellow countryman Majed Al-Thunayyan didn’t make the trip to Italy but continues to lead the Stock category, although Portugal’s Fernando Barreiros closed the gap by claiming maximum FIA World Baja Cup points in his 27th-placed Isuzu D-Max.

Vanagas and Paliukenas secure maximum points in FIA European Baja Cup

Third overall was sufficient for the Lithuanian Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics crew of Benediktas Vanagas and Aisvydas Paliukenas to take maximum points in the FIA European Baja Cup and their Ultimate class.

Vanagas said: “P3 overall and P1 in the European Baja Cup. It was a really tough event. The organisers did a good job and minimised the amount of water on the route. It was better for everybody. Now we can look ahead to the Hungarian Baja.”

Poland’s Wlodzimierz Grajek teamed up with Michal Goleniewski to finish sixth overall in a Toyota Hilux and pick up points for being second in the FIA European Baja Cup and the regional Ultimate class. Grajek said: “The last stage was difficult and we were tired. It was physically difficult for me but we are happy to finish with the car in one piece.”

The British duo of Sean Haran and Martin Hales finished seventh overall in a Polaris RXR Pro R and topped the SSV rankings in the FIA European Baja Cup for the first time. Haran was also classified third of the FIA European Baja Cup contenders.

Portugal’s Afonso Oliveira and Fabio Belo picked up points for second in SSV in another Polaris to close the gap on series leader and Baja Troia Turkey winner Yağiz Birinci. Both Balasz Molnar and Murat Kapanoğlu retired their Can-Ams on the final day.

With Miklós Trebitsch (Raitec RT3B) not registered for either of the FIA championships, fellow Hungarian Lőrinc Mészáros picked up maximum points in Challenger towards the FIA European Baja Cup in his 14th-placed G Rally Team OT3. Spain’s Miguel Angel Valero claimed another useful points’ haul in second and continues to lead the category from Portugal’s Tiago Reis. He is also in contention for the overall Drivers’ Championship.

Poland’s Bartholmiej Wajzer and his navigator Ernest Gorecki arrived in Italy with a 64-point lead in the FIA European Baja Cup and was the leader of both the Master Driver and Stock classes in his Toyota Land Cruiser KDJ 155. He finished 25th and continues to press on towards the overall championship title after winning the Stock class again.

It was a disappointing outing for Denis Krotov and Konstantin Zhiltsov in their X-Raid Mini JCW 3.0i. Technical issues hampered their progress early on and they finished down in 23rd overall and third in the Ultimate class section of the FIA European Baja Cup.

Both the FIA World and European Baja Cups resume with Baja Spain Aragón on July 24th-27th.

2025 Italian Baja – final result:

1. Juan Cruz Yacopini (ARG)/Daniel Oliveras (ESP) Toyota Hilux Overdrive                                          5hr 40min 40.2sec*

2. Martin Kaczmarski (POL)/Armand Monleón (ESP) Toyota Hilux Overdrive                                       5hr 46min 50.6sec

3. Benediktas Vanagas (LTU)/Aisvydas Paliukenas (LTU) Toyota Hilux                                                 5hr 47min 56.7sec+

4. Francisco Barreto (POR)/Carlos Silva (POR) Toyota Hilux                                                                  5hr 53min 51.1sec*

5. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)/Marek Sykora (SVK) Ford F-150 Evo                                                            5hr 59min 12.2sec*

6. Wlodzimierz Grajek (POL)/Michal Goleniewski (POL) Toyota Hilux                                                  6hr 02min 17.9sec+

7. Sean Haran (GBR)/Martin Hales (GBR) Polaris RXR Pro R                                                                  6hr 14min 11.9sec+

8. Hamed Al-Wahaibi (OMA)/Khaled Al-Kendi (UAE) Can-Am Maverick R                                           6hr 16min 51.1sec*

9. Luis Recuenco (ESP)/Daniel Camara (ESP) Toyota Hilux                                                                    6hr 18min 29.5sec

10. Miklós Trebitsch (HUN)/Sandor Trebitsch (HUN) Bedu Pro X3                                                       6hr 19min 09.2sec

11. Mitchel Van Den Brink (NED)/Bart Van Heun (NED) Can-Am Maverick R                                       6hr 20min 40.3sec*

12. Amerigo Ventura (ITA)/Erika Mingozzi (ITA) Yamaha YXZ 1000R                                                                      6hr 22min 43.2sec*

13. Paul Severn (GBR)/Max Delfino (FRA) Polaris RXR Pro R Sport                                                       6hr 32min 56.2sec*

14. Lőrinc Mészáros (HUN)/Albert Horn (HUN) G Rally Team OT3                                                       6hr 38min 15.6sec+

15. Rebecca Busi (ITA)/Sergio Lafuente (URU) Can-Am Maverick R                                                                       6hr 40min 16.0sec

16. Afonso Oliveira (POR)/Fabio Belo (POR) Polaris RXR Pro R                                                             6hr 43min 12.1sec+

17. Miguel Angel Valero (ESP)/Carlos Moreno Ruiz (ESP) VN Competition T34                                                     6hr 48min 06.7sec+

18. Tiago Reis (POR)/Paulo Fiúza (POR) Taurus T3 Max                                                                        9hr 29min 56.9sec+

19. Diego Martinez (ARG)/Bernardo Graue (ARG) Can-Am Maverick R                                                9hr 43min 10.8sec*

20. Yağiz Birinci (TUR)/Evangelos Sotirchos (GRE) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR                            9hr 59min 18.1sec+

21. Khalid Al-Jafla (UAE)/Andrei Rudnitski (LTU) Taurus T3 Max                                                          10hr 11min 37.4sec*

22. Vic Flip (AUT)/Gerhard Schmiedberger (AUT) Can-Am Maverick R                                                10hr 22min 24.4sec

23. Denis Krotov (KGZ)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (ISR) Mini JCW Rally 3.0i                                                  11hr 41min 19.2sec+

24. Maha Al-Hamali (KSA)/Michael Metge (FRA) Can-Am Maverick R                                                 12hr 26min 02.4sec*

25. Barthomiej Wajzer (POL)/Ernest Górecki (POL) Toyota Land Cruiser KDJ 155                                14hr 50min 38.8sec+

26. Magdalena Zając (POL)/ Czekan Błażej (POL) Toyota Hilux                                                             14hr 54min 59.7sec+

27. Fernando Barreiros (POR)/Jose Sa Pies (POR) Isuzu D-Max                                                            18hr 20min 40.7sec*

28. Eugenio Amos (ITA)/Paolo Ceci (ITA) Can-Am Maverick R                                                              18hr 21min 58.1sec*

*denotes registered for FIA World Baja Cup

+denotes registered for FIA European Baja Cup