Yazeed Al Rajhi was the winner of the fourth and penultimate stage of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal. This is a race valid for the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) – the third of a season that started in January with the Dakar 2024.
There were 253km timed between Badajoz and Grândola, with Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing/Toyota) being the fastest completing the distance in 2h33m43s. With that, he surpassed the young Seth Quintero (Toyota) by just 25 seconds. The day was quite balanced and Guillaume de Mevius (Overdrive Racing/Toyota) finished third, 36 seconds behind the winner.
The top five was completed by two X-Raid MINIs – Carlos Sainz in fourth and João Ferreira in fifth. The Spaniard was subject to a ten-second penalty, which made no difference in his classification in the stage. Al-Attiyah (Nasser Racing by Prodrive) set the seventh fastest time of the day.
Still, despite the time lost to the pursuers, the Qatari continues to lead the race, with a 2m41s advantage over Ferreira to manage on the final day. Sainz is third and, after Saturday’s victory, Al Rajhi moved into fifth place overall.
Sébastien Loeb (Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA by BFG/Taurus) set the pace on Saturday in the Challenger category by being 54 seconds faster than João Dias (Santag Racing/Can-Am), but Rokas Baciuska (Can-Am Factory Team) still leads the category and even reinforced his position – with a 7m11s margin over Armindo Araújo (Santag Racing/Can-Am).
In SSV, Ricardo Ramilo (Taurus) was the fastest in the stage, being only 48 seconds faster than Rúben Rodrigues (Can-Am). The overall category is led by João Monteiro (South Racing Can-Am), who saw his lead over Ramilo drop to 14m05s.
Tomorrow, the fifth and final stage of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal starts and finishes in Grândola, challenging the drivers with 105km of timed sections.
