Stéphane Peterhansel has accomplished plenty in his legendary rally career, and the 14-time Dakar Rally winner is on the verge of adding a Stock class win to his trophy case. He just needs to play it smart on Sunday.
Following Stage 4, Peterhansel leads the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal’s Stock class with one day to go. Despite being the oldest of the three Defender drivers, his experience has been key in navigating through the thick mud and water crossings such that he never finished worse than second across the first three legs.
He was still solid on Saturday, but was noticeably further back as he finished third and last in class. More pertinently, he was 3:03 behind Rokas Baciuška.
Although Sara Price became the first repeat stage winner of Portugal for Stock drivers, she was taken out of overall contention by brake issues in Stage 3 that caused her to finish over an hour back. As a result, the overall win will come down to her two teammates.
Peterhansel had won Stage 3 to take the overall lead with Baciuška nearly seven minutes back, but Stage 4’s result has halved that gap to 3:54. With Stage 5’s Selective Section being just 101 kilometers long, Peterhansel has breathing room to race conservatively but any misstep could allow Baciuška to leapfrog him.
Price beat Baciuška for the stage win by just 23 seconds, the second closest margin of victory for Stock since the W2RC’s inception. Excluding prologues, it is one of eight instances where the top two in T2 was separated by less than a minute:
- 2026 Dakar, Stage 7: 21 seconds
- 2026 Portugal, Stage 4: 23 seconds
- 2024 Dakar, Stage 12: 30 seconds
- 2024 Dakar, Stage 11: 36 seconds
- 2026 Dakar, Stage 5: 37 seconds
- 2023 Dakar, Stage 8: 42 seconds
- 2026 Dakar, Stage 11: 49 seconds
- 2026 Portugal, Stage 2: 47 seconds
- 2026 Portugal, Stage 1: Exactly 1 minute
While the Stock battle is compelling in its own right, it is not the closest going into the final day by any means. That honor belongs to RallyGP, where Daniel Sanders has dominated since the start but faces a similar situation to Peterhansel in which his main adversary is rapidly gaining.
Tosha Schareina won Stage 4 to slice his deficit to Sanders from 3:11 to just 1:46. Given the struggles his teammates faced on Saturday, he’s basically the last chance Honda has to keep KTM from starting the season two-for-two. Ricky Brabec felt “everything was off” for him on the day as he can’t find his rhythm following his Stage 3 crash, while Skyler Howes lost his front brake just six kilometers into the stage and crashed multiple times. Adrien Van Beveren was a quiet third.
“It was a long day, almost ten hours on the bike from 5 in the morning to now. There was a long liaison too,” said Schareina. “It was the first day with no rain but the terrain was so muddy and so many puddles. It was good, the mission for today was win the stage, take all the possible time to Daniel, we took a minute and a half and for sure we will have a good battle tomorrow.”
Honda’s Rally2 division is also trying to play catch-up as Martim Ventura won the stage to reduce the gap on Bruno Santos. However, it’s more uphill for Ventura as he still trails by nine minutes.
The FIA lead will come down to either Dacia or Toyota as Sébastien Loeb leads Seth Quintero by 2:30. João Ferreira rebounded from his recent off day to win, positioning himself as an outside shot with 3:53 between him and Loeb. Even if Ferreira can’t catch the top two, he can still close his home race on the overall podium if he beats teammate Guy Botterill, who is 41 seconds back after being slowed by a tire puncture 27 km from the finish.
Lucas Del Rio was taken out by a broken left rear axle, the shit icing on the turd cake after getting a suspended disqualification following Stage 4. Ricardo Porém, who was running third overall in Challenger, also exited with electrical issues; this in turn sets up the overall as being between Alexandre Pinto and Charles Munster, who are 4:51 apart.
In SSV, Miguel Barbosa leads João Monteiro by 3:36.
Stage winners
FIA
| Class | Overall | Number | Driver | Team | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultimate | 1 | 240 | João Ferreira | Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa | 2:44:37 |
| Challenger | 8 | 301 | Alexandre Pinto | Old Friends Rally Team | 2:52:20 |
| SSV | 12 | 403 | Luís Cidade | South Racing | 2:54:35 |
| Stock | 23 | 504 | Sara Price | Defender Rally | 2:59:47 |
FIM
| Class | Overall | Number | Rider | Team | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RallyGP | 1 | 68 | Tosha Schareina | Monster Energy Honda HRC | 2:50:08 |
| Rally2 | 4 | 84 | Martim Ventura | Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally2 | 2:52:35 |
| Rally3 | 19 | 69 | Gonçalo Amaral | Wingmotor Honda | 3:18:00 |
| Quad | 24 | 173 | Adomas Gančierius | CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team | 3:28:19 |
| Experimental | 37 | 17 | Pedro Bianchi Prata* | Offroad Center Bianchi Prata | 4:07:06 |
Overall leaders
FIA
| Class | Overall | Number | Driver | Team | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultimate | 1 | 219 | Sébastien Loeb | Dacia Sandriders | 9:55:19 |
| Challenger | 9 | 301 | Alexandre Pinto | Old Friends Rally Team | 10:27:12 |
| SSV | 14 | 406 | Miguel Barbosa* | BP Ultimate Adventure Team | 10:36:32 |
| Stock | 16 | 500 | Stéphane Peterhansel | Defender Rally | 10:48:29 |
FIM
| Class | Overall | Number | Rider | Team | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RallyGP | 1 | 1 | Daniel Sanders | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 9:59:23 |
| Rally2 | 4 | 35 | Bruno Santos | BS Frutas Patrícia Pilar | 10:09:43 |
| Rally3 | 20 | 69 | Gonçalo Amaral | Wingmotor Honda | 11:47:58 |
| Quad | 23 | 173 | Adomas Gančierius | CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team | 12:20:35 |
| Experimental | 33 | 17 | Pedro Bianchi Prata* | Offroad Center Bianchi Prata | 14:48:06 |
Featured image credit: Edoardo Bauer / Edophoto / DPPI / ASO
Leave a Reply