Since the creation of the World Rally-Raid Championship in 2022, only three Rally2 riders have won a stage outright ahead of their classmates and those in RallyGP.

Bruno Santos came so close to becoming the fifth on Thursday. The Portugal native was the fastest rider for much of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal’s Stage 2 while Tosha Schareina battled with his teammate Adrien Van Beveren, though Schareina eventually closed the gap as the stage crossed into his home country of Spain. In the final 25 kilometers, Schareina worked up enough pace to beat Santos by just two seconds.

“At the beginning it rained so much, we had so many puddles and it wasn’t easy,” said Schareina. “It was so fast at the start and I wasn’t comfortable, but from the middle to the end of the stage, I felt better on my bike. During the second part in Spain, the sun was shining, all the crowds were pushing us on which was really good.”

Santos settled for second between Schareina and Van Beveren. Martim Ventura was the next closest Rally2 rider in sixth overall.

Danilo Petrucci (2022 Dakar Rally, Stage 5), Bradley Cox (2023 Sonora Rally, Prologue), and Michael Docherty (2024 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Stage 1) remain the only Rally2 competitors to win a W2RC stage overall.

“It was a very exciting day. I rode really well,” said Santos. “It was a day where I got to really taste a stage victory from start to finish. I was eyeing the overall win today mainly because the crowd here made their presence felt throughout the entire day. Everyone was crowding up by the track and shouting that I was number one.

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to secure the overall. I missed it by just two seconds. Still, I am very happy with my strong performance and leading Rally2. It’s great to see that I can maintain a strong pace and that I still have more to give in this race.”

Van Beveren was slowed down by a faulty GPS beacon and losing power when he hit a puddle too quick and got water into his bike. Thursday’s leg was still a wet affair as pouring rain fell on the liaison to the Selective Section in the morning, but not as bad as Stage 1 since the sun eventually came out and dried the track as the race crossed into Spain.

“I was riding like Jesus on water: gliding over the surface, with just an occasional splash,” Adomas Gančierius quipped about the wet portion.

With the weather more compliant and Stage 2 being the longest of the race, the Ultimate class finally resumed its normal domination. T1 cars occupied 15 of the top 16 spots, with Alexandre Pinto breaking up the party by finishing an impressive fifth in his Taurus T3 Max.

Similar to Santos being surrounded by Hondas, Guy Botterill and Seth Quintero were in the middle of a Sandrider sandwich. Sébastien Loeb claimed the stage win by just nine seconds on Botterill, while Quintero held off Loeb’s Dacia teammate Lucas Moraes for third.

Despite the improved conditions in Spain, everyone still had to fight their way through the water-filled trenches of Portugal first. Miroslav Zapletal had a long day in this regard as he got stuck in a shallow river crossing and had to wait for race organizers to send a rescue truck, then he helped another car get out of a swamp. Too much water got into José Ignacio Cornejo’s bike as he waded through a river crossing, causing it to shut down and forcing his first retirement since joining Hero MotoSports in 2024.

Eryk Goczał ran into early electrical problems, but salvaged a top-ten overall finish for the day. Like in Stage 1, Henk Lategan hit a tree but the Hilux survived this time with “just some damaged body panels” as he finished sixth.

João Ferreira wasn’t as lucky, going from Stage 1 winner to seventh after struggling as the opening car. Mitchel van den Brink, who finished second in Challenger on Wednesday, had an engine malfunction that caused him to limp to the finish at 25 km/h.

Gančierius scored his first stage win in Quad ahead of CFMOTO teammate Anatanas Kanopkinas, who clipped a tree and broke two of his CV joint boots, rear suspension arms, and exhaust. Kanopkinas’ rear suspension also took damage on a hard landing. After completing the special, Gančierius towed Kanopkinas on the liaison to the bivouac to protect the latter’s quad.

Stage winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	219	Sébastien Loeb	Dacia Sandriders	2:47:47
Challenger	5	301	Alexandre Pinto	Old Friends Rally Team	2:50:23
SSV	19	401	João Monteiro	Can-Am Factory Team	2:58:04
Stock	26	504	Sara Price	Defender Rally	3:03:10

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	68	Tosha Schareina	Monster Energy Honda HRC	2:54:00
Rally2	2	35	Bruno Santos	BS Frutas Patrícia Pilar	2:54:02
Rally3	17	69	Gonçalo Amaral	Wingmotor Honda	3:16:05
Quad	23	173	Adomas Gančierius	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	3:29:26
Experimental	38	17	Pedro Bianchi Prata*	Offroad Center Bianchi Prata	4:33:16

Overall leaders

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	219	Sébastien Loeb	Dacia Sandriders	4:22:13
Challenger	10	311	Ricardo Porém*	Kaizen Factory Team	4:34:29
SSV	14	408	Luís Portela Morais*	BP Ultimate Adventure Team	4:36:40
Stock	23	502	Rokas Baciuška	Defender Rally	4:45:05

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	1	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	4:29:55
Rally2	4	35	Bruno Santos	BS Frutas Patrícia Pilar	4:34:27
Rally3	17	69	Gonçalo Amaral	Wingmotor Honda	5:07:01
Quad	23	173	Adomas Gančierius	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	5:28:17
Experimental	35	17	Pedro Bianchi Prata*	Offroad Center Bianchi Prata	6:50:04

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