RallyGP and Rally2 use the same motorcycles, meaning they are theoretically on a level playing field. It’s just that the former has more talented riders as they’re all factory backed or approved for the top category by the FIM.

Bruno Santos isn’t a factory rider, but he’s certainly making his case to be one. After finishing seventh at the Dakar Rally in January, he won the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal’s Rally2 class for the second time. As if three stage wins and holding the overall lead from Stage 1 to the end wasn’t impressive enough, he was routinely setting times on par with RallyGP riders.

In Stages 2 and 3, Santos finished as high as second among all riders regardless of category. He narrowly lost the former to RallyGP’s Tosha Schareina by just two seconds, then finished the latter 59 seconds behind eventual GP overall winner Daniel Sanders.

Adrien Van Beveren and Edgar Canet eventually caught up and knocked Santos off the overall podium, but he still finished a very strong fifth.

If only Pierer hadn’t consolidated its rally factory teams into KTM, or Husqvarna definitely would’ve gotten Santos into RallyGP by this point. Oh, well.

The weather conditions seemed to level the playing field between GP and R2 as those in the latter were often knocking on the top five door. Besides Santos, fellow Portuguese rider Martim Ventura collected a stage win and finished just one minute behind him in the Rally2 overall.

With how close the margin of victory was, Ventura probably could’ve caught Santos if not for early errors. He crashed in the Prologue and finished 11th in class, and struggled to find his rhythm the next day as he placed seventh. A roadbook glitch cost him some time in Stage 2 as he finished three minutes behind Santos, then was four minutes back in Stage 3.

After everything, he was relieved to walk away with a runner-up.

“I wanted more from this week,” said Ventura. “I had some issues before the race, but I managed to do quite a good job. There’s more races to come, the championship looks good, and I just have to keep working.”

His teammate Preston Campbell, as someone used to desert racing, had what he called a “difficult week” trying to adapt to the forest and mud and finished seventh.

After recording the manufacturer’s first stage wins at Dakar, Neels Theric notched Kove’s maiden class podium in third. Dakar winner Toni Mulec was fifth.

Enduropale du Touquet regular Jeremy Knuiman wrapped up a strong W2RC debut with an eighth, having started the race by winning the Prologue. Behind him was defending Rally3 champion and last year’s Portugal R3 winner Thomas Zoldos.

Three riders failed to finish. Libor Pletka would’ve been the 39th and final finisher, but was officially not classified since he retired from Stages 1 and 2 after misjudging a puddle and crashing.

“The sun was even shining on the last day, so in the end the bad start turned for the better,” Pletka remarked.

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	5	35	Bruno Santos	BS Frutas Patrícia Pilar	11:24:39	Leader
2	6	84	Martim Ventura	Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally2	11:25:43	+ 1:04
3	8	66	Neels Theric	Kove Factory Racing	11:30:36	+ 5:57
4	11	8	Micael Simão	Xraids Experience	11:39:04	+ 14:25
5	12	16	Toni Mulec	BAS World KTM Racing Team	11:43:03	+ 18:24
6	13	50	Alfredo Pellicer	Xraids Experience	1:43:35	+ 18:56
7	15	85	Preston Campbell	Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally2	11:48:45	+ 24:06
8	16	81	Jeremy Knuiman	Xraids Experience	12:06:10	+ 41:31
9	17	56	Thomas Zoldos	Aub’Moto	12:36:37	+ 1:11:58
10	18	49	Marti Escofet	Joyride Race Service	12:37:19	+ 1:12:40
11	19	148	Tomás de Gavardo	BAS World KTM Racing Team	13:01:43	+ 1:37:04
12	21	18	Dušan Drdaj	Cajdašrot Team	13:04:38	+ 1:39:59
13	22	36	David Pabiška	SP Moto Bohemia	13:14:48	+ 1:50:09
14	24	45	Antonio Ubis	Club Aventura Touareg	14:22:03	+ 2:57:24
15	25	71	Tiago Santos	Mário Patrão Adventure	14:22:23	+ 2:57:44
16	26	48	Lilimay Mansuy	Kove Factory Racing	14:55:47	+ 3:31:08
17	28	51	John Medina	Xraids Experience	15:19:50	+ 3:55:11
18	29	96	Raffaella Cabini	RS Moto	15:37:46	+ 4:13:07
19	32	41	Nicola Raspa	Roadab	16:19:33	+ 4:54:54
20	33	61	Jacek Bartoszek	BAS World KTM Racing Team	17:06:49	+ 5:42:10
21	36	40	Domenico Cipollone	Roadab	35:05:59	+ 23:41:20
22	38	88	Marc Sutter	Edelweiss Racing Team	59:37:47	+ 48:13:08
NC	NC	63	Libor Pletka	Libor Pletka	63:04:43*	+ 51:40:04
DNF	DNF	59	Stéphane Joly	Aub’Moto	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	82	Jatin Jain	Desert Storm	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	123	Lucas Secco	Edelweiss Racing Team	DNF	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Rider	Total Time
Prologue	6	Jeremy Knuiman	3:07.3
Stage 1	5	Bruno Santos	1:37:17
Stage 2	2	Bruno Santos	2:54:02
Stage 3	2	Bruno Santos	2:38:54
Stage 4	4	Martim Ventura	2:52:35
Stage 5	4	Micael Simão	1:06:38

Featured image credit: Matteo Gebbia / Edophoto / DPPI / ASO