Story: Amaury Sport Organisation Press Release
April 04, 2024

BÜHLER TASTES GLORY

Sebastian Bühler, the most Portuguese of the German riders, was born on German soil but moved to Portugal when he was three months old. Boasting dual nationality, he now lives in Relíquias, in Grândola, the epicentre of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal. Where better to toast his first W2RC victory? Dominating stage 2 from flag to flag, the Hero MotoSports factory rider cashed in on his home advantage to become the twentieth rider to clinch an FIM stage win since the 2022 season. This makes him the fourth stage winner for the Indian maker, following in the slipstream of Joaquim Rodrigues, Ross Branch and Aaron Mare.

Key Points

Stage 2 of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal took the field on a loop around Grândola today. Sebastian Bühler clinched his maiden W2RC stage win in the Rally GP motorbike race. The Hero MotoSports rider rocketed to second overall, still trailing Tosha Schareina (Honda Monster Energy). Skyler Howes (HRC) stayed on the podium.

Bradley Cox (BAS World KTM Racing) beat Romain Dumontier (Dumontier Racing) and Mathieu Dovèze (BAS World KTM Racing) to the line among the W2RC entrants in the Rally 2 motorbike race.

The French trio Dovèze-Dumontier-Lepan remains at the top of the ranking. Over in Rally 3, the Amaral Bros, Gonçalo and Salvador, again prevailed in the stage and retained their positions at the summit of the leader board.

Bullseye for bühler

In Rally GP, Bühler claimed victory ahead of Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda), who was out for redemption after receiving a 12-minute penalty yesterday. The Frenchman came in 1′09″ down and showed that he has the Portuguese tracks down to an art. He led the charge for the four Rally GP riders fielded by Monster Energy Honda, with Skyler Howes finishing third at 2′38″, Tosha Schareina fourth at 2′48″ and Pablo Quintanilla fifth at 4′58″. Schareina defended his lead, now reduced to 2′56″ over Bühler. Howes chipped 10 seconds off his deficit and is now 4′17″ back. VBA slipped under the ten-minute mark (+ 9′59″) with three more days to mount a comeback. He is eyeing up a pass on the championship leader, Ross Branch (Hero MotoSports), who struggled and dropped 8′30″ today. The Botswanan seems out of his element on the terrain in Portugal and missing the open desert landscapes that were more his forte in the Dakar and Abu Dhabi.

Bradley Cox (BAS World KTM) had some catching up to do in Rally 2 after copping a 20-minute penalty yesterday. The South African put the pedal to the metal and clocked the fastest time of the day in his class, even taking the fight to some W2RC-registered riders. He outpaced the French duo of Romain Dumontier (Dumontier Racing) by 4′03″ and Mathieu Dovèze (BAS World KTM) by 4′34″. Dovèze is still perched at the summit of the ranking with 1′02″ in hand over "Dudu" and 4′48″ over Duust Rally's Jean-Loup Lepan. Cox, lagging by 6′52″, clawed back some of his lost time.

It was a Portuguese hat-trick in Rally 3, with Gonçalo Amaral sealing the deal on Thursday after his win yesterday. This time round, he was faster than his brother Salvador and the veteran Pedro Bianchi Prata. Gonçalo padded his overall lead, now with 22 minutes to spare over Salvador. Manuel Andújar also claimed back-to-back wins in the quad race and remains undefeated since the prologue. The Argentinian put 5′03″ into Kamil Wiśniewski and 5′06″ into Gaëtan Martinez. The Frenchman is the Argentinian's closest pursuer, but the gap has widened to 8′57″.

STAGE Classification

OVERALL Classification