Rally-Raid Portugal – Al-Attiyah and Boulanger attack, Chicherit and Baumel stopped

Rally-Raid Portugal 2024 ranking – Stage 2:

General classification :

• The second stage of the Rally-Raid Portugal, third round of the World Championship rally-raid (W2RC) caused many surprises on Thursday April 4. Left this morning as leaders, Guerlain Chicherit and Mathieu Baumel (Toyota) suffered mechanical problems which forced the French tandem to leave the special. Their teammates Guillaume de Mévius and Xavier Panseri were also reported to have stopped, probably following leaving the road.
• At Toyota, the leadership baton was taken over by Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk. The Saudi driver set the 3rd time, and moved to 2nd overall… behind Nasser Al-Attiyah and Édouard Boulanger, winners of this stage. The Qatari's Prodrive played on very wet terrain in the south of Portugal.
• “I'm very happy, but we were very careful throughout the special, because it's a new event for everyone, commented Nasser Al-Attiyah. We took few risks because the main objective is to score as many points as possible in the W2RC championship. »
• The 2nd time was signed by the legend Sébastien Loeb. Accompanied by Belgian Fabian Lurquin, the nine-time world champion WRC achieved a real feat. In fact, he is not driving a 4×4 T1+, but a Taurus in Challenger class, supposedly slower than the Prodrive, Toyota and other Minis! Overall, the Alsatian moved up to 5th and took the lead in his category.
• Due to the deterioration of the terrain following heavy rain last week, the race direction took the decision to interrupt the special around 14:30 p.m. (UTC +1) in order to guarantee sporting fairness. Fixed times will be allocated to the targeted competitors, as is customary.