Frenchman wins again in Portugal 17 years on. A battle right to the end secures victory for Sanders in the motorbike race.
Sébastian Loeb is one of the most successful rally drivers in history, with nine world titles, and interestingly his last of two victories at Rally Portugal was achieved in the Algarve in 2009. Seventeen years later, the Frenchman wins again in an event held in Portugal, this time driving a Dacia Sandrider in the World Rally-Raid Championship. On two wheels, Daniel Sanders repeats the victory from six months ago, this time ahead of Tosha Schareina and Adrien Van Beveren. The Portuguese squad, led by João Ferreira and Bruno Santos, proudly defended the national colours in the World Rally-Raid Championship.
In a stage described by Race Director Orlando Romana as reminiscent of the route he designed for the 2006 Dakar, full of technical challenges, drivers had to navigate the nearly 100 timed kilometres with extra caution.
At the end of the 98 kilometres of the first selective sector of the day, the duo Sébastian Loeb/Edouard Boulanger (Dacia) lost 24 seconds to teammates Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz (Dacia) – fastest in the selective sector – but remained firmly in the lead, which was never seriously threatened by Seth Quintero/Andrew Short (Toyota) or João Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro (Toyota). The final podium of the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal ended in this order, with the top three separated by 3m37s.
At the finish, winner Loeb recalled past times:
“It was a good rally for me, with great memories from the past. We had great moments in Faro, in rallies. The event was not easy on these very technical tracks, with such big cars, but the feeling was good and the car worked very well. We scored many points for the championship and the result was the best we could expect”, he said.
Applauded by the Portuguese crowd, who enjoy seeing drivers on the attack, Seth Quintero was pragmatic at the finish, highlighting the positive side of finishing behind Loeb:
“It’s positive to have a good race here in Portugal, a place I love. I had bad luck in the last two years, and this time I also had some. But if bad luck means finishing second, then it was a good rally”, he said.
After spending much of the rally attacking, João Ferreira reflected on the result:
“Third place was not the ambition I came with, but making the podium at home always feels good. And with that we scored many important points for the championship”, said the Portuguese driver.
Pinto wins in Challenger and Barbosa triumphs among the SSV
In the Challenger category, Alexandre Pinto and Bernardo Oliveira (Taurus) won again on the stages and secured first place ahead of Charles Munster/Xavier Panseri (KTM).
At the end, Pedro Gonçalves and Hugo Magalhães (Taurus) slipped to fourth place, with Rui Carneiro and Fausto Mota (KTM) taking third. Among the SSV competitors, Miguel Barbosa and Joel Lutas (Polaris) successfully defended the lead, ahead of João Monteiro and Nuno Morais (Can-Am) and Jeremias Gonzalez and Gonzalo Rinaldi (Can-Am), second and third respectively.
In the Stock category, “Mr. Dakar” Stéphane Peterhansel (Defender) was the winner, ahead of Rokas Baciuska (Defender) and Sara Price (Defender). The Frenchman wins for the first time in the category and adds the Portuguese event to his remarkable record.
Sanders puts out Schareina’s charge
With a 1m46s advantage over Tosha Schareina (Honda), Daniel Sanders (KTM) started the final day behind the Spaniard, but quickly gained time in the timed sector and secured the overall victory. Pushing hard, both riders left the competition behind, with Adrien Van Beveren (Honda) in third, more than two minutes back. The Frenchman’s performance is still impressive considering he suffered a serious crash here six months ago, making this his first podium since then.
Sanders finished with a 1m56s advantage over Schareina and reinforced the statistics in favour of the two riders who remain the only winners of the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal since the event was created in 2024.
At the end of this edition, overall winner Daniel “Chucky” Sanders smiled with satisfaction:
“It was another long stage, on slippery mountain trails, where I was fighting for the stage win with Tocha and had to push until the end. It was a very tough race in difficult conditions, but it was good to return to winning after the injury at Dakar”, said the Australian.
Schareina accepted second place:
“It was fun. Sanders and I pushed until the end, and this second place was not easy after so many kilometres. I’m happy for myself and for the team”, said the Spaniard.
Confirming third place, Van Beveren said he was happy with the effort:
“It was good. I enjoyed it a lot. I like this terrain, I like Portugal and the people, so I’m very happy. In September I ended up in a ravine, so finishing on the podium six months later is very good”, concluded the French rider.
After spending much of the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal fighting for the overall lead, Bruno Santos (Husqvarna) suffered from the damage caused by the previous day’s crash, losing the clutch early in the morning selective sector. Even so, the Husqvarna rider managed to keep the Rally2 lead and fifth overall. Martim Ventura (Honda) finished second in the category and Neels Theric (Kove) secured third place.
The Frenchman achieved the first ever World Rally-Raid Championship podium for the Chinese brand Kove, which came to Portugal aiming to develop its bike on unknown terrain.
In Rally3, Gonçalo Amaral (Honda) secured victory in the category he dominated from start to finish, challenged only by his brother Salvador Amaral (Honda) and Murun Purevdorj (KTM). In the Quad standings, Antanas Kanopkinas (CFMoto) was declared winner of the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, after teammate Adomas Gancierius received a penalty of more than one hour the day before for arriving late at the bivouac with transmission problems.
Portugal reshuffles the World Rally-Raid Championship standings
In the championship standings, Loeb moves past Ekstrom into second, while Al-Attiyah keeps first place. With the points scored in the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, and with Ford failing to score, Dacia strengthens its position at the top of the standings.
In bikes, Honda benefited from the points scored by Schareina and Van Beveren to move up in the World Rally-Raid Championship, while even a below-expected performance — finishing ninth — was not enough to remove Argentina’s Luciano Benavides from the top of the table. Daniel Sanders is now second, swapping positions with Ricky Brabec.