Portugal – Stage 5: Moraes wins the race, Loeb finishes 3rd

Le rally-raid is a discipline apart where often the beaten of the day before are the winners of the next day. This adage was verified on the fifth and final stage in Portugal, won by João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro (Toyota). The Portuguese took advantage of their 24th starting position to achieve a strong stage, dominating Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin (Dacia, +1'13”), winners of SS4, and Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz (Ford, +1'16”), who also started quite far back (23rd crew at the start).

But the most anticipated battle wasn't the one for the stage victory, but the one for the overall standings. A fratricidal duel pitted the Toyotas of Lucas Moraes and Henk Lategan against each other, with the Brazilian holding a 34-second lead at the start of the final stage.

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Loeb and Al-Attiyah limit the damage

It was legitimate to wonder if team orders would be issued at Toyota asking Lucas Moraes to ease off the pace in order to give Henk Lategan the championship victory. In the end, Moraes, third in the 2023 Dakar Rally, didn't slow down: on the contrary, he extended his lead to win by 54 seconds over Henk Lategan and Brent Cummings.

Winner of the Safari Rally in South Africa, Lategan finished second, as he did at the last Dakar, where he revealed himself in the wake of the winner, Yazeed Al-Rajhi. On the Dacia side, Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger did what was necessary to maintain their place on the podium by finishing fourth in the final stage. They finished just over 10 minutes behind the Moraes-Monleon duo.

Nasser Al-Attiyah took advantage of his second place on SS5 to move up to fifth overall. In his first rally-raid with Fabian Lurquin at his side, the Qatari driver limited the damage after suffering costly mechanical problems earlier in the week. He remains in the fight with Henk Lategan for the world championship title ahead of the Rally of Morocco.

The downside for the Sandriders was the drop in the standings of Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno. Fifth overall at the start of the final stage, the Spaniards lost five minutes, costing them three positions in the standings. They ultimately finished eighth, which remains a very encouraging result, especially since they provided assistance to their leaders during their respective troubles.

Rally-Raid – Portugal 
The final general classification 

Stage 5 ranking