Tosha Schareina became the first winner of the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal in motorcycles and collected his first points of the W2RC season, in a World Championship that continues to be led by Ross Branch. The Portuguese-German Sebastian Bühler also achieved his best ever result in the FIM World Championship.
Tosha Schareina's victory in the bikes’ race in Portugal and Spain wasn't exactly surprising. The 27-year-old official Monster Energy Honda rider was even tipped by his sporting director, Ruben Faria, as one of the main contenders for victory in the ACP race.
Schareina had started the season with a victory in the Dakar Prologue in January, but then suffered a violent crash in the first stage in Saudi Arabia, which put him out of action for a few months. After missing the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the former motocross rider returned to top form in the ACP race and collected 25 points, which now puts him in fifth place in the World Championship, tied with Abu Dhabi winner Aaron Mare, the rider who replaced the injured Sebastian Bühler in the official Hero team at the last minute.
Bühler, on the other hand, has also recovered his fitness and was in excellent form at the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, achieving his best ever result in the W2RC, second place. With this, the rider from Relíquias, in the municipality of Odemira, moved directly into seventh place in the World Championship, with 20 points.
His teammate, Ross Branch, has been in all three championship races so far and continues to lead the championship, taking second place in the Dakar and Abu Dhabi, and fifth place in the ACP race. Despite having 61 points, the Botswana rider saw Adrien Van Beveren close the gap in second place, as the French Honda rider gained five points on Branch and is now 21 points behind the leader.
The other categories that were at the European round are led by Romain Dumontier (Rally 2), the young Portuguese Gonçalo Amaral, who won the Rally 3 category at the ACP event, Konrad Dabrowski (Rally2 Junior) and Manuel Andújar (Quad).
The Desafío Ruta 40, in Argentina, is the next challenge for the W2RC riders, between June 1 and 7.