The BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal’s SSV class was a Portuguese party. 11-and-a-half of the 14 teams entered were nationals, with the exceptions being the British-Dutch duo of Richard Aczel and Wouter Rosegaar, all-Austrian Vic Flip and Gerhard Schmiedberger, and Enrico Gaspari of Italy who was paired up with Portuguese navigator Fausto Mota.

Unsurprisingly, the running order was dominated by the locals too. Portuguese crews won every stage for SSVs and locked out the top nine. João Dias led the way, enjoying his maiden W2RC race win despite not competing for points.

Alexandre Pinto went into the race with a 19-point advantage over Gaspari, the only other points-earning driver signed up. With none of their other rivals entered, they were each assured five and four stage points every day as they technically finished first and second among W2RC drivers for all five stages. Neither won any stages save for Pinto claiming the non-points Prologue, though Pinto finished higher than Gaspari in all five legs to “win” them in the W2RC’s eyes.

Thus, he earned 25 additional points to go with his 30 for being the top points receiver whereas Gaspari recorded 20 stage points and 25 for finishing second. By the end, Pinto’s lead over Gaspari grew to 33 with one race remaining.

Even with this caveat, Pinto was still more than competitive against the non-W2RC drivers too as he finished in the top five across every stage. He was second to Luís Portela in Stage 1, fith in Stage 3, and third in the other three.

Despite his Stage 1 win, Portela was knocked out of contention the next day when he crashed into an olive tree.

“It wasn’t the result we wanted, but after all the circumstances and only getting the car on Friday before the race, I can only be happy with the work we started,” Portela commented. “Winning a stage at ‘home’ and being among the fastest, with so few kilometers in the car and fighting against much more experienced drivers, makes me confident that with hard work and my team we’ll have many great days ahead.”

Luís Cidade tied with Dias for the most stage wins with two on the final days, but he already retired from a stage earlier so he had little chance of making an impact in the overall.

Paulo Rodrigues finished fourth to win the Road to Dakar, earning him a ticket to the 2026 Dakar Rally.

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	11	404	João Dias*	Rui Pita	Santag Racing	T4	12:56:28	Leader
2	17	401	Alexandre Pinto	Bernardo Oliveira	Old Friends Rally Team	T4	13:14:54	+ 18:26
3	18	410	Rúben Rodrigues*	Rui Paulo	Rio Seco Racing	SSV1	13:24:50	+ 28:22
4	19	407	Paulo Rodrigues* #	João Miranda	Paulo Rodrigues	SSV1	13:34:40	+ 38:12
5	23	417	Filipe Lopes* #	Gonçalo Reis	Rio Seco Racing	SSV1	13:48:25	+ 51:57
6	26	416	Mário Ferreira* #	Miguel Silva	Santag Racing	T4	14:04:10	+ 1:07:42
7	41	415	Ricardo Sousa* #	Jorge Henriques	Old Friends Rally Team	T4	31:48:47	+ 18:52:19
8	45	405	Afonso Oliveira*	Fábio Belo	South Racing Can-Am	T4	32:47:45	+ 19:51:17
9	47	406	Luís Cidade* #	Valter Cardoso	South Racing Can-Am	SSV1	37:29:57	+ 24:33:29
10	48	414	Richard Aczel*	Wouter Rosegaar	South Racing Can-Am	SSV1	37:33:34	+ 24:37:06
11	49	402	Enrico Gaspari	Fausto Mota	Old Friends Rally Team	T4	42:35:43	+ 29:39:15
12	50	408	Luís Portela*	David Megre	BP Ultimate Adventure Team	T4	54:03:39	+ 41:07:11
13	51	413	José Óscar Nogueira*	Arcélio Couto	Old Friends Rally Team	T4	61:14:04	+ 48:17:36
DNF	DNF	412	Vic Flip*	Gerhard Schmiedberger	MM Rallye	SSV1	DNF	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Driver	Time
Prologue	7	Alexandre Pinto	5:08.9
Stage 1	19	Luís Portela*	2:42:00
Stage 2	15	João Dias*	3:15:57
Stage 3	20	João Dias*	3:18:47
Stage 4	20	Luís Cidade*	2:31:57
Stage 5	24	Luís Cidade*	1:04:25

W2RC standings

Drivers

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Alexandre Pinto	223	Leader
2	Enrico Gaspari	190	– 33
3	Michele Cinotto	105	– 118
4	Claude Fournier	81	– 142
5	Sara Price	55	– 168
6	Mário Franco	50	– 173
7	Roger Grouwels	45	– 178
8	Manuel Andújar	42	– 181
9	Mansour Al-Helei	29	– 194
10	Fernando Álvarez	12	– 211
T-11	Diego Martinez	2	– 221
T-11	Carlos Vento	2	– 221

Navigators

Rank	Navigator	Points	Margin
1	Bernardo Oliveira	223	Leader
2	Fausto Mota	140	– 83
3	Maurizio Dominella	78	– 145
4	Sean Berriman	55	– 168
5	Patrick Jimbert	53	– 170
T-6	Antoine Lecourbe	50	– 173
T-6	João Miranda	50	– 173
8	Rudolf Meijer	45	– 178
9	Bernardo Graue	42	– 181
10	Khalid Al-Kendi	29	– 194
11	Grégory Revest-Arnoux	28	– 195
12	Alberto Bertoldi	27	– 196
13	Xavier Panseri	12	– 211
T-14	Jorge Brandão	2	– 221
T-14	Sergio Lafuente	2	– 221

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