Gonçalo Guerreiro has been a rising star in UTVs, especially in the production SSVs. While still fairly new to the purpose-built Challenger class, he’s proven to be quick there as well considering his runner-up finish at the Dakar Rally in January.

Eight months later, he returned to the category with a bang. In front of his home country, Guerreiro won the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal to claim his maiden Challenger overall victory.

Guerreiro, who’s been starring in the domestic CPTT, got the ball rolling by winning the Prologue. At first, it seemed like the race would be a duel between Guerreiro’s Taurus and the EKS X3+ of Mattias Ekström as the latter won Stage 1.

On the stat sheet, it certainly looked that way as the two traded stage wins. In reality, Ekström never had much of a chance after retiring from Stage 2 because an output shaft in his gearbox came off. He continued the race after that and won Stage 3 before exiting altogether on the last day.

With Ekström out of the picture, Guerreiro’s closest opposition was WRC2 driver Charles Munster in just his second W2RC race and fourth cross-country rally as a whole. Munster put up a solid effort with a second in Stages 1 and 3, then beat Ekström for the Stage 4 victory. Still, he was too far back to catch Guerreiro.

“I want to thank the team and also my co-driver Bruno (Jacomy) because everybody did an excellent job,” said Guerreiro. “Thanks to Nasser (Al-Attiyah) for putting so much confidence in me. I hope this result makes him proud.”

Pim Klaassen beat Dania Akeel for the last spot on the overall class podium, though the two joined Guerreiro in the top three for points-earning drivers. Akeel in turn held off championship leader Nicolás Cavigliasso.

Cavigliasso struggled throughout the week, and was frank about how he “[couldn’t] feel comfortable with the car”. Stage 3 all but doomed his chances of a good run after losing the rear brakes for nearly 250 kilometers. While a disappointing run for him, his wife Valentina Pertegarini clinched the Challenger navigators’ championship for the second year in a row.

Pertegarini had a 49-point lead over Stéphane Duplé going into Portugal, but Akeel had Carlos Sachs as her navigator rather than Duplé for the race. With Duplé absent, the new second-place Jacomy is 64 points back of Pertegarini.

Even with the rough race, her husband remains atop the drivers’ standings. In fact, his advantage barely shrank since Pau Navarro had a difficult weekend as well, with the gap between them decreasing from 31 to 29. Navarro was also a victim of Stage 3, running out of brake fluid during the day.

Adam Kuś and Miguel Barbosa also retired with mechanical issues.

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	6	306	Gonçalo Guerreiro	Bruno Jacomy	Nasser Racing	12:37:38	Leader
2	10	314	Charles Munster*	Sebastian Cesana	BBR Motorsport	12:55:26	+ 17:48
3	12	316	Pim Klaassen	Mark Laan	DaklaPack Rallysport	12:57:25	+ 19:47
4	14	304	Dania Akeel	Carlos Sachs	BBR Motorsport	13:05:35	+ 27:57
5	16	301	Nicolás Cavigliasso	Valentina Pertegarini	BBR Motorsport	13:12:38	+ 35:00
6	21	307	Pedro Gonçalves	Rui Franco	BBR Motorsport	13:40:39	+ 1:03:01
7	24	303	Pau Navarro	Jan Rosa Viñas	BBR Motorsport	13:56:53	+ 1:19:15
8	42	315	Nuno Rogério*	Pedro Santos	Turcar Racing Team	31:49:16	+ 19:11:38
9	43	311	Hélder Oliveira*	Carlos Mendes	Old Friends Rally Team	32:28:25	+ 19:50:47
DNF	DNF	305	Adam Kuś	Dmytro Tsyro	AKPOL Rally Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	308	Mattias Ekström	Emil Bergkvist	EKS RX	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	310	Miguel Barbosa*	João Rato	BP Ultimate Adventure Team	DNF	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Driver	Time
Prologue	2	Gonçalo Guerreiro	5:02.9
Stage 1	11	Mattias Ekström	2:37:23
Stage 2	10	Gonçalo Guerreiro	3:11:54
Stage 3	8	Mattias Ekström	3:12:16
Stage 4	7	Charles Munster*	2:27:57
Stage 5	8	Gonçalo Guerreiro	1:02:05

W2RC standings

Drivers

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Nicolás Cavigliasso	168	Leader
2	Pau Navarro	139	– 29
3	Dania Akeel	126	– 42
4	Gonçalo Guerreiro	113	– 55
5	Yasir Seaidan	76	– 92
6	Adam Kuś	73	– 95
7	Khalifa Al-Attiyah	52	– 116
8	David Zille	51	– 117
9	Puck Klaassen	40	– 128
10	Corbin Leaverton	39	– 129
11	Pim Klaassen	38	– 130
12	Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari	37	– 131
T-13	Mário Franco	18	– 150
T-13	Khalif Al-Jafla	18	– 150
T-13	Pedro Gonçalves	18	– 150
16	Eduard Pons	17	– 151
17	Rui Carneiro	2	– 166
18	Mattias Ekström	1	– 167

Navigators

Rank	Navigator	Points	Margin
1	Valentina Pertegarini	168	Leader
2	Bruno Jacomy	104	– 64
3	Stéphane Duplé	98	– 70
4	Jan Rosa i Viñas	89	– 79
5	Michaël Metge	76	– 92
6	Dmytro Tsyro	73	– 95
7	Carlos Sachs	61	– 107
8	Sebastian Cesana	51	– 117
9	Lisandro Sisterna	50	118
10	Charan Moore	40	– 128
11	Taye Perry	39	– 129
12	Mark Laan	38	– 130
13	Nasser Al-Kuwari	37	– 131
14	Rui Franco	32	– 136
15	Cadu Sachs	28	– 140
16	Andrei Rudnitski	18	– 150
17	Jaume Betriu	17	– 151
18	Hugo Magalhães	3	– 165
19	Ola Fløene	2	– 166
T-20	Emil Bergkvist	1	– 167
T-20	João Miranda	1	– 167

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