MEDIA INFORMATION
bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal
April 2nd-7th, 2024
FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), round 3
For immediate release
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024
TOYOTA’S CHICHERIT AND BAUMEL LEAD AFTER DAY ONE IN PORTUGAL
GRÂNDOLA (PORTUGAL): The rekindled partnership of Guerlain Chicherit and Mathieu Baumel made the perfect start to their challenge for honours in the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal by winning the first selective section of 100.95km on Wednesday afternoon.
The stage was split into two sections and contained numerous narrow tree-lined tracks, small concrete bridges and tree stumps to catch out the unwary. Competitors were brought together for the final three-kilometres of the stage in Santiago do Cacém, where the final sprint to the finish was filmed live on television networks.
The Overdrive Racing Toyota crew won the opening section of 97km by 27 seconds from team-mates Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk and reached the night halt with a lead of 28 seconds.
Leader Chicherit said: “Good, really narrow and super slippery. It was easy to make mistakes. The car is going good and I feel really confident driving this car.”
Al-Rajhi added: “Very nice, we are very happy. Thanks to the organiser for making this race.”
Lithuania’s Vaidotas Zala and local co-driver Paulo Fiúza started from a lowly 36th position and overtook numerous cars in their Mini JCW Rally Plus to hold joint third place with Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Lucas Moraes and his Spanish co-driver Armand Monleón.
Moraes said: “Great to be here in Portugal. We had a little problem with the brakes but it was great fun. Let’s hope we can do the same tomorrow.”
Winning the Prologue enabled the two-time W2RC winner Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah to choose his most favourable starting position and the Qatari opted for 10th on the road with Marcos Baumgart and Joāo Ferreira setting out into the stage that ran between Grândola, Santiago do Cacém and Sines in first and second places.
Al-Attiyah and French co-driver Edouard Boulanger came home in sixth place in the first of three Prodrive Hunters behind fifth-placed title rival Carlos Sainz on his return to the X-Raid Team with co-driver Alex Haro.
Al-Attiyah said: “Very slippery but we finished without problems. The first 100km was not easy. It was very difficult but tomorrow we make a big push.” “A day of learning,” added W2RC leader Sainz.
South African’s Saood Variawa and French co-driver François Cazalet stormed through the field from a lowly starting position to hold seventh.
The Portuguese duo of João Dias and João Miranda delivered a stunning performance over the difficult terrain to guide their lightweight and nimble Santag Racing Can-Am Maverick X3 to eighth overall and first in the Challenger category.
Joāo Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro belied their lack of recent experience with the X-Raid JCW Rally Plus in the Ultimate class to hold ninth and finish ahead of the Challenger category duo of 10th-placed Alexandre Pinto (Can-Am) and Can-Am Factory Team’s Rokas Baciuška.
WRC legend Sébastien Loeb has switched to the Challenger category on this occasion but is not registered for W2RC points in his Taurus T3M. The Frenchman was classified in 12th and just ahead of local Challenger rivals Armindo Araújo and Mário Franco.
Loeb said: “A lot of mud inside the car and we struggle with visibility. We finish the day full of mud, but it’s okay.”
Overdrive Racing’s Juan Cruz Yacopini, Cristian Baumgart (X Rally Team Hunter), Yacopini’s team-mate Denis Krotov, Marcelo Gastaldi, Luis Portela and Helder Rodrigues completed the unofficial top 20 after Francisco Barreto and local championship front-runner João Ramos lost vital time late on.
The first two days of competition also count as the second round of the 2024 Portuguese All-Terrain Championship (CPTT). Tiago Reis is driving a Toyota Hilux this week, started the event as the defending champion and won the opening round at the Baja TT Montes Alentejos. He holds 25th overall.
The South Racing Can-Am Team’s João Monteiro and co-driver Nuno Morais were the early leaders of the SSV category. The W2RC’s SSV category leader Yasir Seaidan and co-driver Michael Metge are a distant second, 2min 45sec behind the Portuguese crew.
The Belgian brothers, Guillaume (Toyota) and Ghislain De Mévius (OT3), both lost vital minutes in their respective Ultimate and Challenger categories and plummeted down the rankings. Guillaume said: “Unfortunately we had some mechanical problems this morning so we will have to go on full attack tomorrow.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Moraes Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz stopped after 46km and Cristina Gutiérrez – the winner of the Challenger category at the Dakar – also hit technical trouble after 64km and will incur massive time penalties for failing to complete the stage in her Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team Taurus T3M.
COX PENALISED AND SCHAREINA FASTEST ON OPENING DAY IN MOTORCYCLES
Three-minute starting intervals were handed to the leading 10 riders and Prologue winner Tosha Schareina opted to start 10th with the dubious distinction of being first on the road falling to his Honda team-mate Skyler Howes.
The Spaniard initially came home in third place, despite getting lost at one point, although he was happy not to have to open the road on Thursday. However, that all changed when time penalties were imposed on three of his rivals and Schareina was handed the stage win and a 1min 35sec lead in the overall classification.
The Bas World KTM Racing Team’s Bradley Cox managed to call upon his experience of similar terrain around his native Durban in South Africa to initially top the overall Rally2 timings and finish the opening stage on top in the motorcycle category.
The stage was split into two sections of just over 97km to a regroup and then the remaining three-kilometres in Santiago do Cacém, where the final sprint to the finish in muddy and slippery conditions was filmed live on Portuguese television and other international networks.
Cox held off a late challenge from the Monster Energy Honda Team’s Adrien van Beveren to win the stage by 16 seconds to take an overall lead of eight seconds into the night halt in Grândola.
But three of the leading four riders were penalised by FIM officials after the stage with Van Beveren and Edgar Canet incurring 12-minute penalties and Cox taking a 20-minute hit. Van Beveren slipped to 14th, Canet dropped back to 17th and Cox fund himself in a lowly 27th.
Van Beveren said: ““It was not so easy to carry on and find a rhythm. It is different to the rally that I normally do…”
German Hero rider Sebastien Bühler has lived in Portugal most of his life and currently resides in Relíquias, 80km from the event’s base in Grândola. He settled quickly over familiar terrain and finished the stage with the fifth quickest time and climbed to second overall after the time penalties had been handed out.
W2RC leader Ross Branch of the Hero Motorsports Rally Team was classified in third, Sherco’s Lorenzo Santolini came home in fourth, Howes was fifth and Portugal’s António Maio (Yamaha) and Honda’s Pablo Quintanilla were sixth and seventh.
Branch said: “I had a big crash this morning. I came to a corner and came off the bike and decided to slow it down a little.”
Canet’s time penalty on the XRaids Experience KTM lifted Frenchman Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna) to the top of the Rally2 rankings and eighth overall, ahead of Portugal’s Bruno Santos and Frenchman Mathieu Doveze.
The Portuguese rider Gonçalo Amaral led the Rally3 section on his Honda and Manuel Andujar of Argentina moved into a useful lead of 6min 23sec over Lithuania’s Antanas Kanopkinas in the quad category. Andujar said: “I am going to keep fighting through the whole race.”
Kamil Wisniewski ground to a halt with overheating issues near the finish of the second part of the start but managed to reach the end in the quads. “My quad, no water,” said the Pole.
Tomorrow (Thursday), competitors tackle a second selective section of 193.04km.
Ends