The debut of the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) has attracted an impressive list of 169 entries for the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal. Carlos Sainz, Sébastien Loeb, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Ricky Brabec have all been confirmed for the Automóvel Club de Portugal event, which is based in Grândola from April 2 to 7.
A unique and unprecedented spectacle is in store in the Alentejo, Ribatejo and Spanish Extremadura regions. The stars of the Dakar arrive in Portugal for an intense competition with five stages and a total of 1,758 kilometers. With entries closed for the Automóvel Club de Portugal event, the third round of the W2RC calendar - and the only one held in Europe - has a squad where 65% of the teams are foreigners.
The list of 169 entrants, published on the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal website, features Carlos Sainz, the World Rally-Raid Championship leader and winner of the last Dakar, this time at the wheel of the latest MINI JCW Rally Plus from X-Raid. 'El Matador', as the two-time World Rally Champion is known, made history at the Dakar in January with Audi, becoming the first driver to win the great off-road marathon with four different brands - Volkswagen, Peugeot, MINI and Audi - and also achieving the first victory for a hybrid car in the ASO event. Sainz now joins X-Raid and navigator Alex Haro to continue the fight for the world title, promising to attract thousands of fans to the race in the Alentejo, Ribatejo and Extremadura.
In the German team, Sainz is joined by the young Portuguese João Ferreira, navigated by Filipe Palmeiro, a duo that returns to MINI after winning stages in the first two World Cup races, at the Dakar and in Abu Dhabi, in the SSV category, with a Can-Am. João Ferreira, who last year won the Baja Portalegre 500 with a MINI T1+, is one of the great national hopes among the W2RC elite, where he faces very strong opposition.
Sébastien Loeb is another former WRC champion who is now shining in Rally-Raids, and the French driver has chosen Portugal for his debut with a Taurus in the Challenger category (formerly the T3 category). Third in the Dakar, Loeb and navigator Fabian Lurquin are part of Dacia's program for the next Dakar, but will take the opportunity to discover the trails of Portugal and Spain with a prototype similar to the one that Spain's Cristina Gutiérrez used to win the Challenger category in Saudi Arabia. The Spanish driver is another name to watch in side-by-side prototypes, just a few months after becoming only the second woman to win the Dakar, succeeding Jutta Kleinschmidt, who won the overall race in 2001.
More favorites
Another contender for victory in the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal is Nasser Al-Attiyah, the two-time World Champion and five-time Dakar winner who, at the beginning of March, won the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and moved closer to Sainz in the championship. The Qatari driver returns to Portugal with the Prodrive Hunter T1+ that he debuted at the last Baja Portalegre 500, with Frenchman Edouard Boulanger at his side.
Toyota's armada is divided into two structures, the official Toyota Gazoo Racing, with the Brazilian Lucas Moraes, the American Seth Quintero and the South African Saood Variawa, and the experienced Overdrive Racing, with Guerlain Chicherit, Guillaume De Mévius (runner-up in the Dakar), Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Juan Cruz Yacopini, any of them capable of fighting for the podium places with the Hilux T1+.
Portuguese championship on the world stage
Also in the 'queen' Ultimate category are the Brazilian brothers Marcos and Cristian Baumgart, with two Prodrive Hunter T1+, and some of the usual protagonists of the Portuguese Cross-Country Championship (CPTT), such as Tiago Reis (Toyota), João Ramos (Toyota), Alejandro Martins (MINI), Francisco Barreto (Toyota), Maria Luís Gameiro (MINI) or the Spaniard Jose Luis Garcia (MINI), who won the T1 category at the start of the national championship. This will be the second race of the season for the CPTT, and the scores will be awarded at the end of Stage 2 on Thursday (April 4), with the national competitors then able to continue competing against the best in the world.
In addition to the aforementioned Loeb and Gutiérrez, the increasingly competitive Challenger category features World Championship leader Rokas Baciuska (Can-Am), American Austin Jones (Can-Am), winner in Abu Dhabi, Belgian Ghislain De Mévius, or Portuguese drivers with legitimate aspirations, such as João Dias (Can-Am), Armindo Araújo (Can-Am), Ricardo Porém (Can-Am MMP), Miguel Barbosa (Taurus), Luís Portela de Morais (G-Rally) or Hélder Rodrigues (Can-Am), among others. In the SSVs, the championship leader, Saudi Yasir Seaidan (Can-Am MMP), will have strong opposition from Portuguese specialists such as João Monteiro (Can-Am) or Gonçalo Guerreiro (Polaris), for example.
Thrills in store for bikes
With 64 entries in the motorcycle and quad race, the third round of the World Championship features several stars from the official Honda, Hero and Sherco teams. After winning his second Dakar, Ricky Brabec is one of the candidates for victory in the Monster Energy Honda team, led by Ruben Faria. The official HRC team has also entered former world cross-country champion Pablo Quintanilla, Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren, third in the last Dakar, Spaniard Tosha Schareina and American Skyler Howes.
Hero Motorsport arrives in Portugal in the lead of the World Championship, both in terms of drivers and constructors. Ross Branch moved to the front of the championship in Abu Dhabi and will be accompanied by the Portuguese-German Sebastian Bühler, another of the Indian brand's bets for the top spots, not least because of his experience in races held in the regions covered by BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal.
Sherco's official team, on the other hand, brings the Spaniard Lorenzo Santolino and the Indian Harith Noah, reinforcing a squad that includes Portuguese riders capable of shining, such as António Maio (Yamaha), Bruno Santos (Husqvarna) or Martim Ventura (KTM), just to name a few.
More than 1,000 timed kilometers
The third event on the W2RC calendar and the only one held in Europe, the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal is contested over five stages and 1,758 kilometers, more than 1,000 of them timed. The town of Grândola hosts the operational center, the bivouac and the Prologue of the event, on a route that crosses more than a dozen municipalities in Portugal and Spain: in addition to Grândola, also Santiago do Cacém, Abrantes, Alcácer do Sal, Almeirim, Chamusca, Coruche, Mação, Ponte de Sor, Salvaterra de Magos, Sines and Badajoz, in the neighboring country.
The route of Rally-Raid races is secret, but thousands of spectators are expected along the different selective sectors, with "Points of Interest" for the public revealed 48 hours before each stage. Sport TV will broadcast Stage 1 and Stage 5 live, on Wednesday (April 3) and Sunday (April 7) respectively, as well as daily summaries of the race.
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