Bernardo Oliveira crowned World Champion
The Old Friends Rally Team pairing of Alexandre Pinto and Bernardo Oliveira dominated the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, the fourth and penultimate round of the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC). They won every single stage and secured an all-important overall victory among the SSVs registered for the championship.
The result means that Bernardo Oliveira is already crowned World Champion, while Alexandre Pinto is expected to match this achievement at the final round in Morocco.
“Race over. Objectives fully achieved. Bernardo is already World Champion and I have a great feeling that in Morocco I’ll be joining him. A huge thanks to the team, all our sponsors and everyone supporting us. Now it’s time to prepare Morocco and continue this challenge,” said Alexandre Pinto at the finish.
Co-driver Bernardo Oliveira added: “We came into this rally with very specific goals — to fight for world championship points — and so we took a conservative approach to avoid risks and complete our mission. Everything went perfectly, and we scored maximum points with the overall win and victories on all stages. That allowed me to become World Champion here, which is an incredible feeling — but also bittersweet. We are a team, and I’ll be much happier when Alexandre is also crowned World Champion in Morocco. Until then, we’ll keep training, and in two weeks we’ll be racing in Morocco, the same rally that last year earned us a Dakar entry — in many ways the starting point of this journey that has now led to a world title.”
From October 10 to 17, Pinto and Oliveira — now driving a Polaris RZR for the Old Friends Rally Team — will contest the Rallye du Maroc, the final round of the W2RC, a championship they have led since their victory at the Dakar Rally earlier this season.
Source: Official press release
Translation and adaptation: Rally-Raid Network
Photo: ImagensDesportivas.com
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