Toyota dominated the first half of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, and Dacia hoped to strike back in the second. After Sébastien Loeb won Stage 3, the trio of him, Nasser Al-Attiyah, and Cristina Gutiérrez put together the Sandriders’ best stage outing yet on Saturday when they all placed in the top five.

Despite starting 18th, Al-Attiyah was the top dog in the return to Portugal from start to finish. He also won the Prologue to start the rally, but luck had eluded him since.

Loeb was just two minutes behind, while Gutiérrez finished fifth. While the Sandriders have scored a 1–2 overall finish before at their debut in the 2024 Rallye du Maroc (also courtesy of Al-Attiyah and Loeb), Saturday marked the first time they did so in a stage and the first with all three drivers recording top-five runs.

Despite the stage win, Al-Attiyah is too far back to win the overall. Loeb faces an outside chance as he trails Lucas Moraes by 10:42, but will need some lucky swings. Gutiérrez is fifth in the general ranking; if she can avoid trouble on the last day, she’ll score her best career finish.

Moraes finished fourth to maintain the overall lead, but faces increased pressure from his Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate Henk Lategan. The two are separated by just 34 seconds after Lategan placed third in Saturday’s action.

While Moraes has a challenger breathing down his neck, Daniel Sanders got some breathing room on the bike side. After losing the motorcycle overall to Tosha Schareina in Stage 3, he regained the top spot by winning the fourth stage while Schareina made a critical error that cost him nearly five minutes.

After going into Stage 4 leading Sanders by 1:42, Schareina now trails by 3:12.

“Everything was going well until 20 kilometers from the end,” Schareina started. “One note was not clear and I was confused and ended up riding in circles. I lost like four minutes and it was so frustrating, especially as it was just 20 kilos from the finish. This is part of the game. We have to check now with the organization what happened in that note and then I will try to clear my mind and attack again tomorrow.”

It wasn’t all bad news at Honda, at least. Martim Ventura scored his and HRC’s maiden stage victory in Rally2, edging out fellow Portuguese rider Bruno Santos by just 11 seconds. Sanders’ KTM Rally2 colleague Edgar Canet saw his stage win streak snap, but still leads Santos by five mintues going into the last day.

Ventura’s chances of the overall are also out the window as he’s ninth and over an hour back, hampered by a clutch problem in Stage 1.

“Finally a day when we had no dust,” Ventura quipped. “I’m super happy because if it is confirmed we won the Rally2 today then I’m happy for me, but also for the bike as it’s the first win for it in Rally2.

“We are starting to show the potential of the bike. I’m very comfortable riding it, it’s good into the corners, has good stability, it’s super good on the rocks, so I’m super happy.”

The top three in Challenger were separated by just 37 seconds. Charles Munster scored his first rally raid stage win ahead of Mattias Ekström by 28 seconds and Gonçalo Guerreiro by 37. Ekström had initially been 18 seconds back until he was penalized for speeding. Munster’s stage win also moves him past Pim Klaassen for second overall among Challenger cars, though he trails Guerreiro by 14:34.

Luís Cidade won in SSV ahead of João Dias by 1:16, though mechanical trouble throughout the early stages means he only be able to compete with Richard Aczel for ninth in the class overall. Dias leads Alexandre Pinto by 16:42.

The Quad race and championship battle between Gaëtan Martinez and Antanas Kanopkinas reached its endgame on Saturday, with the scale weighing almost solely in the former’s favor. Although Kanopkinas managed to decrease his deficit to Martinez by winning Stage 3, he missed a corner and suffered damage that included a bent rear suspension arm. While he salvaged a second behind Martinez, he now trails by 24:27.

Barring disaster on Sunday, Martinez should have the Quad title locked up.

João Ferreira was among the day’s victims, bowing out after battling with Al-Attiyah for the lead early on only to suffer more mechanical issues. Bradley Cox had clutch issues on his Sherco that cost him an hour.

Carlos Sainz hit a rock 140 kilometers in and sprung a leak, causing his Ford Raptor to run out of power steering fluid that rendered the jacks inoperable. While trying to lift the car to change a flat, the clutch broke.

“A pity, as we were fighting for a podium,” Sainz commented.

Stage 4 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia Sandriders	2:22:36
Challenger	7	314	Charles Munster*	BBR Motorsport	2:27:57
SSV	20	406	Luís Cidade*	South Racing Can-Am	2:31:57

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	2:26:52
Rally2	7	84	Martim Ventura	Honda HRC	2:33:43
Rally3	19	58	Thomas Zoldos	Thomas Zoldos	2:44:41
Quad	27	174	Gaëtan Martinez	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	3:02:32
E-Bike	37	17	Pedro Bianchi Prata*	Offroad Center Bianchi Prata	3:17:03

Leaders after Stage 4

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	203	Lucas Moraes	Toyota Gazoo Racing	11:11:40
Challenger	6	306	Gonçalo Guerreiro	Nasser Racing	11:35:33
SSV	11	404	João Dias*	Santag Racing	11:51:46

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	11:39:36
Rally2	5	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	12:01:33
Rally3	15	58	Thomas Zoldos	Thomas Zoldos	12:51:04
Quad	25	174	Gaëtan Martinez	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	14:30:15
E-Bike	40	17	Pedro Bianchi Prata*	Offroad Center Bianchi Prata	20:19:50

Featured image credit: Irina Petrichei / EdoPhoto / DPPI / ASO