Nasser Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Edouard Boulanger continue to lead bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal after the fourth stage in Western Spain on Saturday afternoon.
The Qatari opened the road and erred on the side of caution over the demanding and abrasive terrain. The defending W2RC champion was content to come home with the seventh quickest time but he saw his lead trimmed to 2min 41sec when second-placed João Ferreira came home fifth on the day’s stage.
Al-Attiyah said: “We opened the road and tried not to waste time. It was an okay day. I’m happy to finish the stage without any problems. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow.”
After an almost Dakar-like day for its duration on Friday, Saturday’s itinerary offered a competitive section entirely in Spain. The 208km stage ran to the south of Badajoz in the vicinity of the communes of Zafra and Fregenal de la Sierra before a long road section returned competitors to Grândola in Portugal.
Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro remain Al-Attiyah’s closest challengers in the first of the two front-running X-Raid Mini JCW Rally Plus machines. Carlos Sainz and Alex Haro moved up to third place in the second car – 59 seconds behind the Portuguese after picking up another 20-second penalty - with Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleón holding fourth in the first of the Hiluxes, a further eight seconds adrift.
Ferreira said: “We managed to set a strong pace and gain time from Nasser, who is our direct opponent. On the other hand, the advantage we have over Carlos is nothing..because it’s Carlos Sainz! But I’m very happy.”
Finishing fourth on the day enabled Sainz to pick up two stage points and he edged into an unofficial five-point advantage over Al-Attiyah in the W2RC Drivers’ Championship. Sainz said: “It was a good day. We attacked as much as possible.”
Moraes said: “Very cool special with less water. It was good to go. Of course, we are in contention for the top three overall, so we can’t exaggerate. Let’s speed up tomorrow.”
Overdrive Racing’s Guillaume De Mévius and Yazeed Al-Rajhi were the early pace-setters and they were joined by Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Seth Quintero at the front of a stage where the five-point bonus for victory eventually fell to Al-Rajhi with Quintero collecting four and De Mévius picking up three to give Toyota a 1-2-3 finish. Al-Rajhi’s stage performance enabled the Saudi to climb from ninth to fifth in the general classification.
Al-Rajhi said: “We caught the car in front of us and drove 40km behind it. With each stop, I told him we were behind and to let us pass. When we finally managed to do so, we increased the pace and managed to win the special stage.”
Quintero added: “It’s fantastic to see so many people throughout this race. Today’s stage was no exception.”
“It was the first day without any problems for us,” said De Mévius. “It was good to reach the end of this stage and know that we were finally able to ride at our best.”
Sébastien Loeb (Taurus) won the Challenger special today, but Rokas Baciuska (Can-Am) maintained his lead in the category, although he slipped to sixth overall.
Ghislain De Mévius’s delight at winning the special was short-lived, however, and the Belgian was handed a five-minute time penalty at the end of the stage.
Brazilian driver Cristian Baumgart holds seventh in the second of the Prodrive Hunters, Portuguese driver Francisco Barreto (Toyota) overhauled fellow countryman Armindo Araújo (Can-Am) to snatch eighth and Ricardo Porém (Can-Am) rounded off the top 10 with Porém running second of the W2RC-registered Challenger drivers.
Sébastien Loeb and co-driver Fabian Lurquin ceded a lot of time to their rivals on day three after suffering engine overheating issues on their Taurus T3M. The nine-time WRC champion noticeably eased his pace to prevent serious engine damage but was on the attack on day four in a bid to move up the Challenger standings.
The Frenchman initially finished seventh overall on the day, 1min 04sec ahead of João Dias in his Santag Racing Can-Am Maverick X3, with the G Rally Team’s Luis Portela coming home in third. But Loeb was later awarded a 2min 10sec penalty and this gifted the stage win to Dias for a few minutes. Dias was then penalised by two minutes himself and Loeb regained the stage win!
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Saood Variawa had been one of the early pace-setters in the Ultimate category but he was penalised for three speeding infractions on day three and the Stewards decided to impose a two-hour penalty on the South African and give him a disqualification from the event, suspended as long as there were no further speeding breaches. Variawa took the decision to retire before the day’s stage after additional mechanical issues.
João Monteiro and co-driver Nuno Morais extended their lead in the SSV category and held 14th overall, but attention in the W2RC focused on the registered drivers running behind.
Spaniard Ricardo Ramilo continues to hold second in the category and first of the W2RC contenders after championship leader Yasir Seaidan’s technical woes on Friday.