“I’m from Northern France so mud is something I kind of like, even if wet gloves is not the best.”
– Adrian Van Beveren

Rain made for very slick conditions in Wednesday’s BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal stage. Maybe a bit too slick for some, as evidenced by Laia Sanz going off course after a navigation error and sliding into a pole.

Despite being just the first day of racing for FIA (FIM ran the Prologue on Tuesday), ten drivers have already been taken out by crashes or mechanical issues. Dania Akeel was the top Challenger driver for much of the stage before water and mud clogged the engine and she couldn’t shift out of fifth gear, forcing her to retire.

“That meant it was tricky to take the corners in the twisty areas and the turns,” Akeel explained. “Leading was really nice given those conditions in an area where I could only use fifth gear. I slid in the water and in the mud, and I couldn’t manage without the full capacity of the car.”

Ford suffered heavily. Both factory drivers retired when Mattias Ekström crashed 134 kilometers into the stage while Carlos Sainz had an engine issue spring up at KM 123, while technical partners Denis Krotov and Martin Prokop both ran into engine problems.

The flagship Toyota Gazoo Racing and its South American cousin had mixed results at the office. Henk Lategan drifted between two large trees and his Hilux’s right rear clipped one, damaging the rear suspension. Saood Variawa also hit a tree, knocking him out of the stage as well.

On the bright side, TGRSA and TGR finished 1–2 as João Ferreira led Seth Quintero. The two were separated by 17 seconds, with TGRSA’s Guy Botterill in fourth and privateer Yazeed Al-Rajhi rounding out the top five. Sébastien Loeb was third to prevent a Toyota podium sweep.

“It was a really good, if tricky, day for us,” said Quintero. He had arrived in Portugal fairly late after his flight from the Midwest was delayed. “The roads are very unpredictable and narrow, muddy, with lots of water crossings. Very early on, we decided it wasn’t worth taking big risks. We just focused on finding our rhythm and it worked out better than expected.”

After Akeel’s exit, Ricardo Porém scored the first W2RC stage win for the Kaizen S1, though it won’t be included in series records since he isn’t registered for points. Paul Spierings, who was third behind Porém and Juan Gasso, is officially the W2RC Challenger stage victor ahead of Mitchel van den Brink. The latter finished the stage without his hood because it kept popping off, so he decided to remove it altogether.

Matthias Walkner’s first stage as a driver was overshadowed by front suspension damage that left him stuck in 2WD for the rest of the day. He managed to finish the leg, albeit last in SSV.

The race wasn’t any easier for the bikes. Tosha Schareina ran out of power while going through a river crossing, which stopped his bike for about 40 seconds, but salvaged a second-place finish 2:10 behind Daniel Sanders.

Ricky Brabec got stuck in a water hole, then crashed and lost his visor. He also got dinged with a speeding penalty.

Stage 1 was split into two Selective Sections, the latter being the Prologue course but in reverse. SS2 is a new track for drivers since the FIA no longer has a prologue, while Brabec wasn’t a fan of doing it again.

“This is kind of stupid, they do it for no reason,” Brabec opined. “it’s part of racing, I guess.

Stage winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	240	João Ferreira	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	1:33:58
Challenger	8	311	Ricardo Porém*	Cattiva Sport	1:37:04
SSV	11	403	Luís Cidade	South Racing	1:37:40
Stock	19	502	Rokas Baciuška	Defender Rally	1:40:23

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	1	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	1:32:01
Rally2	5	35	Bruno Santos	BS Frutas Patrícia Pilar	1:37:17
Rally3	18	69	Gonçalo Amaral	Wingmotor Honda	1:47:44
Quad	23	171	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	1:53:29
Experimental	30	17	Pedro Bianchi Prata*	Offroad Center Bianchi Prata	2:13:16

Overall leaders

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	1	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	1:35:02
Rally2	5	35	Bruno Santos	BS Frutas Patrícia Pilar	1:40:25
Rally3	18	69	Gonçalo Amaral	Wingmotor Honda	1:50:56
Quad	23	171	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	1:56:54
Experimental	30	17	Pedro Bianchi Prata*	Offroad Center Bianchi Prata	2:16:48

Irina Petrichei / Edophoto / DPPI / ASO