Torres Vedras rider once again the top amateur, outperforming many professionals
Bruno Santos was one of the standout performers at the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, the European round of the W2RC (World Rally-Raid Championship), which concluded today with another victory for the Torres Vedras rider among Rally2 competitors.
Facing more than a dozen of the world’s top off-road riders — all of them professionals — Bruno Santos delivered an outstanding performance to finish in an impressive fourth place overall, securing another Rally2 win and repeating his 2024 success. He also came within just two seconds of what would have been a historic stage victory in a W2RC event. As already seen at the Dakar Rally, Bruno Santos was once again the top amateur, outperforming nearly ten factory riders.
“It was a positive day. Yesterday the bike was repaired after the heavy damage from my crash. We started well, but after ten kilometres I lost the clutch — another issue we managed to overcome. I was very happy with the result I achieved in this Algarve mountain stage, which was quite difficult, with very wet conditions, but I managed to set the third-fastest time and the best Rally2 time. I’m very pleased with what I achieved, especially after overcoming what happened yesterday, which was the toughest day of this entire rally,” said Bruno Santos at the end of the selective sector.
Competing on a Husqvarna, with support from Frutas Patrícia Pilar and Momento TT, Santos added in his overall assessment:
“I’m very happy with the Rally2 win, although I didn’t quite achieve what at one point became my goal during the rally, which was to be a bit further up in the overall standings. But I can’t forget that these riders are exceptional, at the highest level, and it would be unrealistic to think that would be easy. I could see that possibility, but on the first day I made a mistake and got a two-minute penalty for speeding, and then this crash pushed me back a bit. Still, I’m happy with the final result.”
Official Press Release
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