MEDIA INFORMATION
bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal
April 2nd-7th, 2024
FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), round 3
For immediate release
Thursday, April 4th, 2024
AL-ATTIYAH AND BOULANGER ARE THE NEW LEADERS AFTER DAY TWO IN PORTUGAL
GRÂNDOLA (PORTUGAL): Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and his French co-driver Edouard Boulanger are the new leaders of the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal.
The Prodrive Hunter crew fended off a fierce challenge from Overdrive Racing’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi to carve out a narrow advantage of 20 seconds after the second day of frantic competition across muddy, slippery and extremely demanding tracks in rural Portugal. The stage win gave Al-Attiyah a valuable five W2RC points and enabled him to close to within seven of Carlos Sainz in the virtual overall rankings.
The leading Qatari said: “It’s good to win the stage. I’m happy. We were a little cautious because it’s a new race for everyone and it’s easy to make mistakes. We have to go stage-by-stage and accumulate points every day for the championship.”
Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk were the first crew to finish the day’s stage and the third quickest time sees the Saudi maintain second place.
Al-Rajhi said: “We opened the road after the (Guerlain) Chicherit crash, around km30. We did our best and Timo (Gottschalk) did a great job. I think it went well.”
Persistent fog forced race officials to delay the start of the second selective section (SS3) by 45 minutes for car competitors. Crews then tackled a stage of 166.29km.
Saood Variawa and his French co-driver François Cazalet started strongly and were the quickest to the 98km checkpoint. The South African lost a little time in the latter kilometres but held on to snatch the outright lead for the first time on a W2RC event. His delight was short-lived, however: he was awarded a 30-minute time penalty soon after the stage finished and plummeted out of contention.
Carlos Sainz and his co-driver Alex Haro remain firmly in the hunt for victory in the first of the X-Raid Mini JCW Rally Plus machines. The four-time Dakar winner was fifth quickest on the day and occupies third overall. Sainz said: “Everything went smoothly. The car is impeccable and the stage was quite technical, with muddy and narrow parts – typical of Portugal.”
Overnight leader Guerlain Chicherit stopped on two occasions early in the stage with technical issues after an accident and was passed by his main rivals. But the second stoppage after 79km was terminal for his stage ambitions and the Frenchman was forced to abandon the track and head back to the bivouac with a fistful of time penalties to follow.
His Overdrive Racing team-mate Guillaume De Mévius had suffered mechanical woes on Wednesday but the Belgian’s misery was compounded when he damaged his Toyota Hilux in an accident after 48km. Any ambitions of remaining in contention for top W2RC points were ruined.
Joāo Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro delivered a potent stage performance in their X-Raid JCW Rally Plus and moved up to fourth in the Ultimate category rankings with the fourth quickest time.
The Portuguese said: “Difficult. The first part of the special was very slippery with a lot of mud. After neutralization, in the second part, the surface was drier and we were able to have more fun. Fourth place overall, for now. It doesn’t look bad to me.”
Sébastien Loeb belied his lack of experience in the Challenger category and delivered a menacing performance in his Taurus T3M with co-driver Fabian Lurquin. The two-time winner of the WRC Rally of Portugal started the stage 27th on the road and overhauled all his Challenger rivals with the second quickest time behind Al-Attiyah. He moved up to fifth overall and first in class – 3min 54sec ahead of the seventh-placed Portuguese duo of João Dias and João Miranda in their Santag Racing Can-Am Maverick X3.
Loeb said: “We were always on the attack. We did our best with the car we have. It really went all out. It wasn’t possible to do much more.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Lucas Moraes and Spanish co-driver Armand Monleón hold sixth overall and Lithuania’s Vaidotas Zala and his local navigator Paulo Fiúza are eighth in the third of the Mini JCW Rally Plus machines built by X-Raid.
Alexandre Pinto is third in Challenger and ninth overall in his Can-Am and Marcus Baumgart rounds off the top 10 in the second of the Prodrive-built Hunters after setting the sixth quickest time on the day’s stage.
His brother Cristian holds 11th in the third Hunter, the Challenger duo of Nicolas Cavigliasso and Armindo Araújo are 12th and 13th and local championship contender João Ramos and Overdrive Racing’s Juan Cruz Yacopini complete the top 15. Cavigliasso is the highest-placed of the W2RC registered drivers in the Challenger section.
The South Racing Can-Am Team’s João Monteiro and co-driver Nuno Morais continue to set the pace in the SSV section in their Maverick XRS Turbo RR. The stage win went to the W2RC’s SSV category leader Yasir Seaidan and he moved ahead of Spanish rival Ricardo Ramilo and into second place in the unofficial rankings after stage two. The Saudi now trails Monteiro by 2min 10sec.
BÜHLER TRIMS SCHAREINA’S LEAD WITH STAGE TWO WIN
German Hero rider Sebastien Bühler applied pressure on overnight leader Tosha Schareina from the start of Thursday’s 166.29km stage and managed to reduce the Spaniard’s lead to 2min 56sec with the fastest time.
Bühler actually began the day 5min 35sec adrift after four minutes of time penalties were added to his time on Wednesday evening. But he managed to overhaul Sherco’s Lorenzo Santolini and Skyler Howes to snatch second place.
Bühler said: “I felt good throughout the entire stage. There was a lot of water on the road before the refuelling. I tried to be fast but to be careful with the bike, because in fast areas the risk is huge. After that, the special flowed and I am very happy with this result.”
Schareina rode the stage with a wrist brace on his left arm as added protection against any niggling repercussions from the wrist fracture that he had sustained on the first stage of the Dakar Rally in January.
Behind the two battling Monster Energy Honda Team and Hero Motorsports Rally Team riders, Howes and Santolino waged their own personal tussle for third place and Howes managed to move 13 seconds ahead of his rival and into third.
Santolini actually began the day in second, 4min 02sec behind the leader, after more time penalties had been imposed on several of his closest rivals. Howes had been third overnight as a result of a two-minute time penalty for W2RC leader Ross Branch of the Hero Motorsports Rally Team.
Portugal’s António Maio (Yamaha) and Pablo Quintanilla (Honda) hold fifth and sixth overall. Ross Branch holds eighth overall.
Maio said: “The first part of the special had a lot of puddles, with a lot of mud and poor visibility due to the fog. The bike failed a little in the water crossings. Fortunately, the second half of the stage was drier and went better. I had a safe stage, without major mistakes and that is the most important thing.”
Bruno Santos stormed into Rally2 contention with the third fastest time and the Portuguese Husqvarna rider now holds seventh place and leads the Rally2 category by 5min 09sec from 10th-placed Frenchman Mathieu Doveze. Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna) is third in Rally2 and 11th overall.
A delighted Santos said: “It was an excellent day for me. I felt very comfortable, I always had a good pace. The route was treacherous, with some very slippery areas. We are in our country and we can attack with more confidence!”
Frenchman Adrien van Beveren began the day 14th on the road after his costly time penalty on Wednesday but the Honda factory rider delivered a supreme performance on the muddy and winding stage to card the second quickest time and climb from 14th to ninth.
Van Beveren said: “I’m really enjoying this race. I love running in Portugal. I love this type of terrain. It’s completely different from what we’re used to in the desert. It’s a technical route that requires a lot of concentration in the water crossings. It would be difficult to beat Sebastian Bühler here, because we’re running in his ‘garden’. But I’m happy for him and I’ll continue to do my best.”
Harith Noah won the Rally2 class at the recent Dakar Rally but stopped after 48km of the day’s stage with clutch issues. The Sherco rider had started out this morning classified sixth in the Rally2 standings.
The Portuguese rider Gonçalo Amaral holds 16th overall and continues to lead the Rally3 section on his Honda by 22 minutes from his brother Salvador.
Argentina’s Manuel Andujar continues to dominate the quad category a day after the ASO’s David Castera announced that quads would not have their own classification at the 2025 Dakar Rally. The Yamaha rider finished the stage 5min 03sec in front of Pole Kamil Wisniewski, although Gaetan Martinez of France moved up to second in the rankings, albeit 8min 57sec adrift of the Argentine. Lithuania’s Antanas Kanopkinas is third.
Tomorrow (Friday), competitors will tackle a stage of 374.10km which is the longest of the entire event but may be subject to late weather-related modifications.
Ends