Carlos Sainz, winner of the Dakar 2024, Sébastien Loeb and Nasser Al-Attiyah, and Adrien Van Beveren or Pablo Quintanilla, on motorcycles, compete in the third race of the World Rally-Raid Championship, in Ribatejo and Alentejo
Many of the Dakar stars begin Rally-Raid Portugal this Wednesday, the third race on the World Rally-Raid Championship calendar.
The municipalities of Grândola and Santiago do Cacém will host the inaugural stage of the race in which drivers such as Carlos Sainz, winner of the Dakar 2024, Sébastien Loeb and Nasser Al-Attiyah, in cars, and Adrien Van Beveren or Pablo Quintanilla, on motorcycles, will compete on the sand and dirt tracks of Alentejo, Ribatejo and Spanish Extremadura. There will be five stages of a total route of more than 1800 kilometers, of which more than 1000 are timed.
Carlos Sainz, driving the new X-Raid Mini JCW, is one of the candidates for the W2RC title, and his historic triumph with Audi in the last Dakar gave him command of the World Championship, even without having participated in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, where he beat Nasser Al-Attiyah in Prodrive Hunter T1+. Only nine points separate the top two ahead of the Portuguese round.
But the Spaniard and his rival Qatar are not the only ones fighting for the scepter. Five of the next six places in W2RC are held by Toyota drivers, split between Toyota Gazoo Racing and Overdrive Racing. Guerlain Chicherit is third, 12 points behind Sainz, ahead of Guillaume De Mévius, who shone in the last Dakar, in second place. The Hilux T1+ of Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Lucas Moraes, Seth Quintero and Juan Cruz Yacopini are also candidates for first places.
João Ferreira is another strong candidate for victory, after having given up the SSV category to anticipate his return to the X-Raid Mini, similar to the one he used to achieve his second victory in the Baja Portalegre 500, in 2023.
On motorcycles, highlights include the Honda, Hero and Sherco factory teams, whose stars join the best Portuguese riders. Led by Ruben Faria, Monster Energy Honda has several candidates: the Spaniard Tosha Schairena, the Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren (3rd in the Dakar), the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla and the North American Skyler Howes. Despite the power of HRC, it is Hero Motorsport that arrives in Portugal leading the World Championship, both among drivers and constructors. Ross Branch, from Botswana, came close to winning the Dakar (2nd place) and moved to the top of the World Cup in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
This Tuesday, Grândola, the base of the race, was the stage for technical and administrative checks for the 169 teams, of 30 nationalities, registered. The fight against the clock begins, Wednesday (April 3), with a 3.53-kilometer Prologue, held in an area adjacent to the Grândola Fair and Exhibition Park.
The results of this qualifying show will define the competitors’ starting order for the two sectors on Wednesday afternoon: the first begins and ends in Santiago do Cacém; the second starts in Santiago do Cacém, but takes riders back to Grândola. In this part of the country, competitors will face a 100-kilometre course on sand surfaces, in the style of Rally-Raids held on other continents.
