Spaniard Tosha Schareina (Honda) and Portuguese-German Sebastien Bühler (Hero) once again staged a spectacular fight for victory in the motorcycle stage, as confirmed by the 44 seconds difference between them after 282 timed kilometers.
The official Honda rider has led the motorcycle classification since the first stage and today accumulated five more points for the W2RC, as a result of his victory in Stage 3, the longest of the race. “As I was sixth to start, I had a good position on the ‘track’. The first part was very fast and the Portuguese went hard. In the second part of the special I tried to attack and managed to win the stage. Tomorrow, we will have more difficulties open the road, but we will remain calm” , underlined Schareina, who increased the advantage over Sebastian Bühler to 3m40s.
The Portuguese-German Hero driver, who won yesterday’s stage, was also satisfied with his performance today: “It was a really tough stage. At the beginning it was very fast, but then with the navigation in the mountainous area, it wasn’t easy at all open the road. I think I lost some time there, but then I attacked until the end, so it ended up being a good stage.”
Portuguese Bruno Santos (Husqvarna) set the third fastest time of the day and occupies the last place on the provisional podium. “A crazy stage! An incredible mix of terrain, very fast roads and then a mountain area, narrow and with a lot of navigation. I had a lot of fun” , said the former national champion.
Adrien Van Beveren placed another official Honda in the top 4 of the stage, just ahead of António Maio (Yamaha), who suffered a six-minute penalty. The GNR national and military champion is in fourth place overall among motorcycles.
Gonçalo Amaral (Honda), on the other hand, reinforced his lead in the Rally3 category, ahead of his brother, Salvador Amaral (Honda). Argentine Manuel Andújar (Yamaha), winner of the Dakar in Quads, continues to dominate the quad competition.
Fully contested in Spain, in the Estremadura region, tomorrow’s stage (Saturday) is covered on surfaces, theoretically, harder than those covered in the first three days of the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal. The town of Villa Franca de Los Barros, south of Badajoz, hosts the end of the 253-kilometer timed sector, with competitors heading, in connection, to the Bivouac located in Grândola.
- From Rally Raid Portugal
