Nasser Al-Attiyah winning a stage is not a new phenomenon, but tying for the win with his own driver probably is.

Al-Attiyah had the fastest time in the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid’s Prologue of 5:02.9, but Gonçalo Guerreiro also recorded the same exact time down to the tenths. While Guerreiro is in a different category and theoretically an inferior vehicle as his Taurus T3 Max usually doesn’t match up to Al-Attiyah’s Dacia Sandrider, the Portuguese environment is notorious—especially at the baja level—for leveling the playing field between UTVs and prototypes.

Guerreiro also happens to drive for Al-Attiyah’s Nasser Racing team.

While both had identical times, Al-Attiyah was given the stage win. Under Article 34.4.2 of the FIA regulations, the tiebreaker goes to whoever set the time first, which Al-Attiyah obviosuly did as the first driver on track.

Another Challenger, the EKS X3+ of Mattias Ekström, was third overall and just five-tenths of a second behind Al-Attiyah and Guerreiro. Portugal is the first W2RC race for the X3+, a T3 car that Ekström’s team developed and debuted at the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura in neighboring Spain in May.

Ultimately, however, the Prologue in the FIA’s case only means getting to pick a start order for Stage 1. While Guerreiro officially finished second Tuesday, he will start Wednesday’s leg 22nd well after the priority drivers in Ultimate.

The FIM didn’t have a dead heat, but their Prologue times count toward the overall. Daniel Sanders led a KTM 1–2–3 ahead of Red Bull KTM teammate Edgar Canet and Michael Docherty, respectively beating them by two and seven seconds.

Tosha Schareina was the closest RallyGP bike to Sanders in fourth and ten seconds back, giving Sanders the slightest room to begin the ‘real’ race on Wednesday. Sanders, having won all three W2RC races so far in 2025, only needs to score a podium finish at the end to secure the championship.

Preston Campbell had an impressive outing of seventh overall and fourth in class in the maiden stage for Honda HRC’s new Rally2 division. Portugal is just his second rally raid after winning the Sonora Rally in March.

“The first Prologue was really good,” said Campbell. “I had fun and I felt good on the bike. I had some pre-race nerves but overall it was super fun. I think I did okay, made it through the Prologue and now ready for Stage 1.”

While the Prologue only lasted about five to seven minutes, some had a tough going. Justin Gerlach, racing in Portugal for the first time, struggled with the unfamiliar terrain to place 40th overall in FIM and 21st for Rally2. When he spoke with 131 Off-Road in March, he hoped his experience at Rallye Breslau in Poland could translate to the Portuguese forests, but alas.

“I already knew that the tight corners wouldn’t suit me well,” Gerlach commented. “Maybe I wasn’t mentally prepared. The track was slippery at times, grippy at times, and sandy at times.”

Seth Quintero had a driveshaft failure midway through the day that slowed him to an 18th overall (ninth in Ultimate). Carlos Sainz briefly stopped with a mechanical issue before he got going again, causing the latter him to finish dead last in FIA and 1:28 behind Al-Attiyah; of course, it won’t impact his overall standing since the FIA doesn’t count Prologue times.

Sainz will be the first driver out in Stage 1.

Prologue winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia Sandriders	5:02.9
Challenger	2	306	Gonçalo Guerreiro	Nasser Racing	5:02.9
SSV	7	401	Alexandre Pinto	Old Friends Rally Team	5:08.9

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	4:47.0
Rally2	2	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	4:49.9
Rally3	11	58	Thomas Zoldos	Thomas Zoldos	5:04.6
Quad	26	173	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	5:25.3
E-Bike	31	17	Pedro Bianchi Prata	Offroad Center Bianchi Prata	5:31.6

Featured image credit: Edoardo Bauer / Edophoto / DPPI / ASO