The car drivers started the first competitive day of the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, with the dispute in a 3.53 kilometer long Prologue, in the heart of the town of Grândola.
With an impressive time of 3m41s, five-time Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah and his French co-driver Edouard Boulanger won the Prologue held this morning. Driving a Prodrive Hunter, they finished six seconds ahead of Brazilian Lucas Moraes and will be able to choose their starting position for the opening stage of the afternoon, with 100.95 kilometers contested in the municipalities of Grândola, Santiago do Cacém and Sines . “A fantastic Prologue, short but spectacular. Everything is great with the car, so it was a good start for us”, highlighted the Qatari driver.
But the big surprise of the Prologue was the performance of three Portuguese teams: Luís Portela Morais/David Megre (OT3), Miguel Barbosa/Luis Ramalho (Taurus) and João Dias/João Miranda (Can-Am) finished second, third and fourth places overall and led the times in the Challenger category. Luís Portela Morais said: “A very difficult route and we were almost overturned! But we have to be calm. The car is immaculate and we still have many kilometers to go until Sunday.”
Lucas Moraes and Spanish co-driver Armand Monleón, from Toyota Gazoo Racing, were two seconds faster than teammates Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz in the Ultimate category, having priority over the Challenger teams in choosing starting positions, under the Art. 34.5.2 of the FIA 2024 Off-Road Rallies Sporting Regulations.
Rokas Baciuška, from the Can-Am Factory Team, also had an impressive performance, finishing in sixth place with co-driver Oriol Vidal, but in fourth place in the Challenger category, in a Can-Am Maverick X3. Cristina Gutiérrez also beat Quintero in her Taurus T3M and pushed the American to eighth. The Portuguese Luis Cidade and Armindo Araújo completed the top 10 with their Can-Am, while João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro, in their debut, in the Ultimate class, with the X-Raid JCW Rally Plus, set the 13th best time.
Carlos Sainz, four-time winner of the Dakar Rally, started the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal cautiously, having been ranked 23rd, between the two X Rally Team Hunter de Marcos and Cristian Baumgart in the Ultimate class.
Sébastien Loeb, nine-time WRC champion, who will participate in a full W2RC program with Dacia in 2025, is taking part in the Portuguese race with the aim of getting to know the route, at the controls of a Taurus T3M. The Frenchman recorded a time of 3m57s in the Challenger category, which placed him in 25th position in the general classification.
Despite not being registered in the W2RC, Gonçalo Guerreiro led the SSV times, with a Polaris. João Monteiro, from South Racing Can-Am, was second and Yasir Seaidan, leader of the W2RC championship, recorded the third best time.
The prologue played this morning determined the starting order for the first two qualifiers that will be played this afternoon.
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