With the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal being the last race of the W2RC season for Quads (they will not be at Morocco), teammates Antanas Kanopkinas and Gaëtan Martinez were left to battle among themselves for glory. Both were tied for the points lead entering Portugal, meaning whoever finished ahead of the other clinched the title.

Unfortunately for Kanopkinas, he quickly found himself in a hole after hitting a tree in Stage 2. Consequently, he fell behind Martinez by 40:34 going into the third stage. While he still faces a tall order in erasing the gap, Kanopkinas was able to slice it in half with a dominant performance on Friday.

Kanopkinas avoided “major incidents or mistakes” to be the fastest Quad rider throughout the day. Both CFMOTO riders suffered a flat tire, but Kanopkinas was able to nurse his to the finish and still comfortably score the stage win with five minutes on Marek Łój.

“Overall, it was a good day and I enjoyed it,” said Kanopkinas. “The quad suffered some minor damage, but nothing serious.”

Martinez, on the other hand, finished nearly 19 minutes back of Kanopkinas after having to coast for 60 kilometers with his flat. While Kanopkinas still has a ways to go with two days remaining, the margin between them was decreased to 21:38.

“I just hope the wheel doesn’t come off, but I’m riding together with Antanas so everything is fine,” Martinez commented.

Stage wins do not award points for FIM classes like they do in FIA, where Henk Lategan earned himself four more points as he tries to chase down Nasser Al-Attiyah. Lategan finished second while Al-Attiyah finished 23rd after a tough day with mechanical issues while leading.

Although Al-Attiyah fell off the pace, Dacia teammate Sébastien Loeb managed to break the Toyota stranglehold by winning the stage over Lategan by just 33 seconds. An army of Toyotas still followed as they finished second through fifth, including Lucas Moraes in third to take the overall lead.

Original FIA overall leader João Ferreira retired from the stage after crashing at KM 162. The FIM lead also saw an upheaval as Daniel Sanders had to race conservatively to protect his rapidly degrading tires, causing him to fall to second. Sanders also go a minute added for speeding in the liaison.

Tosha Schareina capitalized to win the stage and take the top spot for bikes, the first time since Stage 3 of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge that Honda led an overall.

Like Sanders, Schareina’s teammate Ricky Brabec had a rough day on his bald tires. The slippery terrain caused him to crash near the finish. Still, he salvaged a fourth.

“Maybe I was trying to go a little bit too fast,” Brabec remarked. “After refueling, I knew my tires were smoked but it was the last push to make up a little bit of time. I saw the times and I wasn’t far off, so I was trying to find traction and ride in a high gear and be mellow with the throttle.

“After 60 kilometers, I felt like I was losing time, then I tried to push a little bit too much. I came over one rise with a sweeping right-hander and was going in a little bit too hot, couldn’t slow down, saw there was a fence on the outside, like a ditch with a berm, and I realized I was going too fast to end up straight in the fence. I slid into the bank, once I did that it kind of sucked me in and then I low-sided it against the ditch.”

Stage 3 was split into two Selective Sections. The latter, officially SS4, was briefly neutralized due to a forest fire nearby. Loeb initially lost his stage win as the FIA tried to figure out time credits because of the delays caused by the fire before handing it back to him with his adjusted time.

Michał Goczał received a 30-minute penalty and suspended disqualification after his navigator Diego Ortega pulled his phone from the sealed pouch to notify the team of a gearbox issue, but failed to inform race control as well. The pouch, where cell phones and other devices must be stored during races, was a sore topic for the FIA during the Dakar Rally in January.

Goczał eventually finished the stage in first gear.

Stage 3 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	219	Sébastien Loeb	Dacia Sandriders	3:06:08
Challenger	8	308	Mattias Ekström	EKS RX	3:12:16
SSV	20	404	João Dias*	Santag Racing	3:18:47

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	68	Tosha Schareina	Monster Energy Honda HRC	3:13:51
Rally2	6	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	3:20:20
Rally3	20	58	Thomas Zoldos	Thomas Zoldos	3:32:51
Quad	25	173	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	3:51:53
E-Bike	41	17	Pedro Bianchi Prata*	Offroad Center Bianchi Prata	1:16:03

Leaders after Stage 3

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	203	Lucas Moraes	Toyota Gazoo Racing	8:46:15
Challenger	7	306	Gonçalo Guerreiro	Nasser Racing	9:06:59
SSV	12	404	João Dias*	Santag Racing	9:18:33

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	68	Tosha Schareina	Monster Energy Honda HRC	9:11:02
Rally2	5	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	9:26:34
Rally3	15	58	Thomas Zoldos	Thomas Zoldos	10:06:23
Quad	25	174	Gaëtan Martinez	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	11:27:32
E-Bike	40	17	Pedro Bianchi Prata*	Offroad Center Bianchi Prata	17:02:47

Featured image credit: Helena Clancy / Edophoto / DPPI / ASO