The 2026 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) resumes next week with the five-day BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal. The event starts from the town of Grândola on March 17th and finishes on the Algarve for the first time on March 22nd.
The earlier March date in the calendar sees a 66-car entry set to tackle the second round of the series, with 43 crews registered for championship points. Of those, 24 will compete in the Ultimate category, 10 in Challenger, six in SSV and three in the Stock class for series-production cross-country machines.
Fresh from winning his sixth Dakar Rally in January, Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and Belgian navigator Fabian Lurquin lead the overall Drivers’ and Navigators’ standings by 21 points in the first of three Dacia Sandriders in the field.
The team had threatened to pull out after the Dakar success but has agreed to continue until the end of the season, as it also defends a 33-point advantage over Ford Racing in the W2RC Manufacturers’ series.
Al-Attiyah’s team-mates Sébastien Loeb and Lucas Moraes are currently fourth and eighth in the Drivers’ Championship and crew the second and third Sandriders with navigators Edouard Boulanger and Dennis Zenz.
After the Dakar, there is no longer a Prologue on rounds of the W2RC and starting order will be determined by current W2RC championship positions and FIA driver status. The Swedish duo of Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist currently hold second places in the points’ standings in the first of the Ford Raptors with the absent Joan Roma and Alex Haro in third.
In Portugal, Carlos Sainz teams up with Dani Oliveras for the first time in the second of the Raptors, with Czech veteran Martin Prokop, Kees Koolen and Mark Mustermann driving customer versions of Ford Racing’s Raptor. Denis Krotov has also been entered by Ford Racing in a Raptor.
Toyota Gazoo Racing endured a Dakar Rally to forget and currently trails Dacia by 63 points in the Manufacturers’ title race. Hent Lategan and Brett Cummings led the Dakar for two stages and head an armada of Toyotas overseen by Overdrive Racing and SVR.
Along with 2025 Dakar winner Yazeed Al-Rajhi and American racer Seth Quintero, Lategan will represent the Japanese manufacturer in the quest for points. Al-Rajhi again teams up with Timo Gottschalk, but languishes down in 21st position in the rankings after a disappointing Dakar. Quintero and his navigator Andrew Short hold eighth positions.
Japan’s Akira Miura has also been entered by Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC but is not registered for Manufacturers’ points.
Toyota Gazoo Racing SA has entered Hilux GRs for recent Jordan Baja winner Saood Variawa, Guy Botterill and João Ferreira. The Energylandia Rally Team has a pair of Hilux Evos for young Eryk Goczal and his Master category-leading father Marek, while Overdrive Racing runs a Toyota for Chilean Hernán Garcés. Brazilian Marcos Baumgart and a returning Lucio Alvarez are also registered for the Ultimate category in a pair of SVR-run Toyotas.
Mathieu Serradori claimed a stage win on his way to sixth overall at the Dakar and the Frenchman currently holds equal fifth position in the championship standings with navigator Loic Minaudier. He is entered in a Century CR7. Spaniard Laia Sanz (Ebro S800 XRR) and Miroslav Zapletal (Ford F-150 Evo) are also chasing Ultimate points.
Surprisingly, there are no Mini entries from the X-Raid Team.
Spaniards Navarro and Rosa look to extend Challenger leads
In the absence of Saudi Arabia’s second-placed Yasir Seaidan and his navigator Xavier Flick, Spaniard Pau Navarro has the opportunity to extend his early lead in the Challenger category. Navarro and Jan Rosa switch to a Bairons SRT Viking on this occasion as they bid to increase their respective advantages.
The Argentine pairing of Nicolas Cavigliasso and Valentina Pertegarini are the defending Challenger champions and currently hold third in the points standings, albeit nine points behind Navarro and Rosa. They wheel out the first of seven Taurus machines registered for W2RC points in Portugal.
Alexandre Pinto and Bernardo Oliveira will be hoping to make amends for their 10th stage retirement from the SSV category at the Dakar and bounce back on home terrain in the Challenger class, while fellow Portuguese drivers, Pedro Gonçalves (Taurus) and Rui Carneiro (G Rally Team G-ECKO), are also registered for the W2RC.
Dutch racer Puck Klaassen and her Argentinian navigator Augusto Sanz are equal fifth in the points’ standings with Dania Akeel and Sébastien Delaunay and represent the KTM X-Bow powered by G Rally Team operation alongside team-mates Charles Munster and Xavier Panseri. Akeel was a late replacement for Sergei Remmenik and runs under the Odyssey Academy by BBR banner with Pinto.
The Taurus trio of Lucas Del Rio, Paul Spierings and Mitchen Van Den Brink round off the registered contenders.
Only six of the 16 SSV crews are registered for the W2RC. The championship-leading Kyle Chaney and Jacob Arburight are both absent from the entry in their Can-Am Factory Team Maverick R.
The Portuguese crew of João Monteiro and Nuno Morais trail the Americans by 16 points and top a Can-Am-dominated field in their Can-Am Factory Team machine. Argentina’s Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli and Gonzalo Rinaldi are third in the standings and crew a Maverick R entered by the Can-Am Factory Team–Latam.
The South Racing Can-Am Team has entered a pair of Maverick Rs for local driver Luís Cidade and Brazilian Pedro Macdowell and there are further registered Mavericks for Lithuania’s Mindaugas Sidabras and Spaniard Juan Piferrer.
Former Dakar-winning motorcyclist Matthias Walkner (Can-Am) is one of 10 non-registered drivers on a list that also includes local favourites Miguel Barbosa and Luís Portela Morais in a pair of Polaris RXR Pro Rs.
Internal Defender Rally Team battle set in Stock
Just three Defender Dakar D7x-Rs are registered in the Stock category after their domination on debut at the Dakar Rally. The Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body operation will not be in Portugal.
Lithuania’s Rokas Baciuška and his Spanish navigator Oriol Vidal dominated the category at the Dakar and arrive in Portugal with a 20-point cushion over team-mates Sara Price and Sean Berriman. Multiple Dakar champion Stéphane Peterhansel and his navigator Michael Metge trail the leaders by 38 points and crew the third of the all-conquering Defenders.
Organised by the Automóvel Club de Portugal, the event offers approximately 1,320 competitive kilometres in a total route of 2,175km (subject to final route checks). Start formalities are again based in the town of Grândola in the Setúbal province around 100km south of Lisbon.
The opening stage of 215km will then loop through rural terrain in Portugal on Wednesday, March 18th. Competitors then cross into Spain on March 19th on a day that includes a stage of 380km to the night halt in Badajoz.
The Spanish town then plays host to another night stop on March 20th after an all-Spanish stage of around 300km. Entrants then re-cross back into Portugal for the penultimate stage of 310km between Badajoz and Loulé in the Algarve region to the south on March 21st.
The final leg offers around 115 competitive kilometres and two stages in the Algarve region before the W2RC medal ceremony takes place in Vilamoura before the return to Loulé for the post-event press conference and prize giving.
Source: FIA
Photos: ImagensDesportivas.com / ImagensDesportivas.pt / Rally-Raid Network
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