With Enrico Gaspari not entered for the Rallye du Maroc, Alexandre Pinto and his navigator Bernardo Oliveira are officially the 2025 World Rally-Raid Champions in the SSV category. They are the first Portuguese racers to claim a W2RC title.

Oliveira had already clinched the navigators’ title after the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal since he held an insurmountable 83-point lead over Gaspari’s co-driver Fausto Mota. Gaspari had worked with Antoine Lecourbe in Abu Dhabi while Mota was onboard for Dakar, South Africa, and Portugal.

Pinto began the 2025 season by finishing third at the Dakar Rally, but Brock Heger and Francisco López Contardo are not registered for the W2RC so Pinto earned maximum points. The same happened at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge when he was second behind Jeremías González Ferioli.

His “win streak” ended in the South African Safari Rally since Mário Franco and Michele Cinotto are points-earning drivers, but was still third among such competitors and sixth overall for SSV drivers. Although Gaspari struggled with mechanical issues in South Africa, he slowly whittled down the margin to Pinto down to 19.

Pinto and Gaspari were the only SSV points drivers in Portugal. While none of them won a stage save for Pinto claiming the Prologue, Pinto finished ahead of Gaspari on all five days. This grew his lead back to 33 points with one race to go.

Since Gaspari and Mota are not signed up for the Rallye du Maroc, Pinto is the first FIA class driver’s champion of 2025 while Oliveira joins Challenger’s Valentina Pertegarini as navigators who claimed a title before the season finale.

“I have so much to say, but I’ll be brief. As my navigator and longtime partner said: ‘Only we know what we’ve been through to get to this point,’” Pinto recounted.

“It’s been months and years of focus, consistency, resilience, sacrifice, but, above all, a lot of love for what we do. That’s what took us to the top of the podium.

“I want to leave a message: never give up on your dreams! Go after them, believe in them, because it really is possible.”

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