The second stage of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal was the longest at 429 kilometers in timed sections and bringing the race across the border into Spain. However, more than a handful of racers ended up in pain instead.

Stage 2 had an unusually high concentration of accidents that knocked out multiple competitors. RallyGP in particular suffered heavily as Ross Branch and Adrien Van Beveren both crashed out, ending their races.

Van Beveren was running second when he missed a sharp turn 187 kilometers into the stage and couldn’t brake in time, launching him off a cliff. He hurt his shoulder and suffered a slight concussion in the impact. KTM’s Luciano Benavides and Edgar Canet stopped to administer help for Van Beveren, which respectively earned them 19:05 and 23:06 in time credits.

It was Van Beveren’s first retirement from a W2RC race since the series’ inception in 2022.

Branch crashed after hitting a hidden rut in the grass early on, throwing him off his bike. He wasn’t seriously injured, but the damage to the Hero was enough to force him out. The DNF continues a tough season for the defending champion, who retired from the first two races at Dakar (crash) and Abu Dhabi (clutch failure) before a damaged oil cooler relegated him to last in South Africa.

His Rally2 teammate Tobias Ebster also couldn’t finish Stage 2 because his oil cooler was punctured at the start. Unlike Branch, his bike could continue after making the necessary repairs.

“I feel really sorry for my two teammates Ross and Tobias,” José Ignacio Cornejo commented. He was the only Hero rider to reach the finish on Thursday, finishing seventh in RallyGP. “I hope they are okay, that there are no injuries, and that they can come back stronger very soon. As for me, I’ll keep taking it day by day, stage by stage, and giving my best until the finish.”

Gaëtan Martinez won in Quad for the second day in a row, and has increased breathing room in his championship quest due to problems befalling his teammate Antanas Kanopkinas. Kanopkinas hit a tree that slowed him down mightily, causing him to finish fourth and last in Quad. He also trails Martinez by over 39 minutes and faces an uphill battle if he wants to get back into the title fight.

Things weren’t any better on the FIA side either. Mechanical failures and crashes knocked out 11 drivers including Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Akira Miura, and Denis Krotov on the Ultimate side. Usually a Stock driver, Miura was making a rare start in Ultimate only for his day to end when he rolled at KM 130. Mattias Ekström, who won Challenger in Stage 1, retired because an output shaft in his gearbox broke off. Enrico Gaspari’s DNF will have major ramifications in his SSV points pursuit of Alexandre Pinto, who finished third but tops for W2RC-contending drivers to earn five stage points.

Eryk Goczał was very close to joining them after he hit a tree, damaging his radiator and a wheel. He eventually reached the finish over two hours behind the leaders and without a shock absorber and the “steering rod on my side.”

In a similar story, Sébastien Loeb clipped a tree that broke the wishbone suspension on his Sandrider. With his steering bent, he had to wait for Dacia teammate Cristina Gutiérrez to come with spare parts.

Amid the chaos, it was business as usual for Toyota. After sweeping the top five on Wednesday, Hiluxes occupied eight of the top ten spots overall and nine of the top ten for Ultimate. Carlos Sainz’s Ford was the exception in the latter.

Sainz tried to chase down João Ferreira but couldn’t close the gap in time, settling for second behind Ferreira with 1:03 between them. Ferreira notched his first stage victory as an Ultimate driver.

With Gonçalo Guerreiro and João Dias respectively winning the stage for Challenger and SSV, all three FIA categories were claimed by Portuguese drivers in what’s technically their home race. Given Stage 2 crossed into Spain, it was perhaps fitting the runner-up Sainz is a Spaniard.

Stage 1 FIA winner Henk Lategan finished eighth after being slowed down by hitting an unmarked fence, two flat tires, and a broken driveshaft.

Stage 2 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	240	João Ferreira	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	3:02:51
Challenger	10	306	Gonçalo Guerreiro	Nasser Racing	3:11:54
SSV	15	404	João Dias*	Santag Racing	3:15:57

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	3:11:55
Rally2	5	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	3:17:51
Rally3	15	58	Thomas Zoldos	Thomas Zoldos	3:26:56
Quad	26	174	Gaëtan Martinez	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	3:55:03
E-Bike	41	17	Pedro Bianchi Prata*	Offroad Center Bianchi Prata	4:45:06

Leaders after Stage 2

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	240	João Ferreira	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	5:40:24
Challenger	8	306	Gonçalo Guerreiro	Nasser Racing	5:50:24
SSV	15	404	João Dias*	Santag Racing	5:59:46

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	5:55:35
Rally2	5	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	6:06:14
Rally3	15	58	Thomas Zoldos	Thomas Zoldos	6:33:32
Quad	26	174	Gaëtan Martinez	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	7:16:54
E-Bike	42	17	Pedro Bianchi Prata*	Offroad Center Bianchi Prata	12:32:53

Featured image credit: Eduardo Almeida / Edophoto / DPPI / ASO