Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah and his co-driver Edouard Boulanger continue to lead the Rally-Raid Portugal after the fourth stage in Western Spain on Saturday afternoon.
The Qatari opened the road and erred on the side of caution over the demanding and abrasive terrain. The defending W2RC champion was content to come home with the eighth quickest time but he saw his lead trimmed to 2min 41sec when second-placed Joao Ferreira came home fifth on the day’s stage.
Al-Attiyah said: “We opened the road and tried not to waste time. It was an okay day. I’m happy to finish the stage without any problems. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow.”
With just north of 70km in timed sections on the menu today, the race is al-Attiyah’s to lose. After an almost Dakar-like day for its duration on Friday, Saturday’s itinerary offered a competitive section entirely in Spain. The 208km stage ran to the south of Badajoz in the vicinity of the communes of Zafra and Fregenal de la Sierra before a long road section returned competitors to Grândola in Portugal.
Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro remain al-Attiyah’s closest challengers in the first of the two front-running X-Raid Mini JCW Rally Plus machines. Carlos Sainz and Alex Haro moved up to third place in the second car – 59 seconds behind the Portuguese after picking up another 20-second penalty – with Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon holding fourth in the first of the Hiluxes, a further eight seconds adrift.
Ferreira said: “We managed to set a strong pace and gain time from Nasser, who is our direct opponent. On the other hand, the advantage we have over Carlos is nothing..because it’s Carlos Sainz! But I’m very happy.”
Finishing fourth on the day enabled Sainz to pick up two stage points and he edged into an unofficial five-point advantage over al-Attiyah in the W2RC Drivers’ Championship. Sainz said: “It was a good day. We attacked as much as possible.”
Moraes said: “Very cool special with less water. It was good to go. Of course, we are in contention for the top three overall, so we can’t exaggerate. Let’s speed up tomorrow.”
Overdrive Racing’s Guillaume De Mevius and Yazeed al-Rajhi were the early pace-setters and they were joined by Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Seth Quintero at the front of a stage where the five-point bonus for victory eventually fell to al-Rajhi with Quintero collecting four and De Mévius picking up three. Al-Rajhi’s stage performance enabled the Saudi to climb from ninth to fifth in the general classification.
Al-Rajhi said: “We caught the car in front of us and drove 40km behind it. With each stop, I told him we were behind and to let us pass. When we finally managed to do so, we increased the pace and managed to win the special stage.”
Quintero added: “It’s fantastic to see so many people throughout this race. Today’s stage was no exception.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Saood Variawa had been one of the early pace-setters in the Ultimate category but he was penalised for three speeding infractions on day three and the Stewards decided to impose a two-hour penalty on the South African and give him a disqualification from the event, suspended as long as there were no further speeding breaches. Variawa took the decision to retire before the day’s stage after additional mechanical issues.