Dramatic day for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing W2RC in Portugal

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing W2RC (TGR W2RC) remains in contention for victory on Rally Raid Portugal after an eventful day on round two of the 2026 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC).

Friday’s Stage 3 was the fastest of the event and took crews on a 296 km loop around the Spanish city of Badajoz on treacherous, muddy terrain.

The high-speed stage suited Seth Quintero and Andrew Short, who started the day third overall. They moved into the lead in the early stages, maintaining an intense pace to close the gap on the overall leaders.

By half distance, the #203 DKR GR Hilux led both the stage and the overall rankings. However, a dramatic conclusion to the stage saw Quintero and Short suffer two punctures and miss out on the podium by just two seconds. They finished fourth, two minutes 20 seconds behind stage winners Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz (Dacia Sandriders).

In the overall standings, Quintero and Short moved up to second place, with two stages and 418 km of timed action remaining in which to overhaul the one minute 27 second gap to leaders Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger (Dacia Sandriders).

Stage 3 featured drama of the wrong kind for Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings. After losing time on Wednesday due to contact with a tree, the pair suffered another blow when the #202 DKR GR Hilux rolled out of the stage after 62 km. They are unable to resume on Saturday and therefore retired from the event.

Akira Miura continued to build his experience of the #204 DKR GR Hilux in different conditions, on his TGR W2RC debut. Alongside navigator Armand Monleón, Miura again completed a clean and consistent day, finishing 16th on Stage 3 and moving into 15th overall.

The penultimate stage of the event takes place on Saturday with 317 km of competitive action on a route heading south to Loulé on Portugal’s Algarve coast.

Quotes:

Henk Lategan: “Today was the end of our race unfortunately. We came over a blind crest and into a sharp right-hander. We were at quite high speed and didn’t have enough time to slow down. I tried to go for a small gap between a tree and some rocks but unfortunately under the grass there was a dip and a small wall. That kicked the back of the car up and it went end-over-end. The car took a lot of damage, but me and Brett are fine. The car is too damaged to carry on tomorrow. I feel sorry for the team and, of course, disappointed, but we will come back stronger.”  

Seth Quintero: “It was a good day for us, but a bit frustrating. We had really good pace and quite a lead, but then unfortunately we got unlucky with two punctures. There was nothing I could do – these things happen in racing. But we’ll keep looking forward. We have two more days to go and we’re not far off the lead, so we’ll keep pushing until the finish line.”   

Akira Miura: “This third stage was on wider tracks than the previous two days, but it was still difficult, particularly because of the rain. There was very little grip at times, so I played it safe and prioritised getting to the end. The important thing is to gather more experience of the DKR GR Hilux in these conditions so I’m happy to have completed a lot more kilometres.”

BP Rally Raid Portugal – Provisional Stage 3 result*

BP Rally Raid Portugal – Provisional standings after Stage 3*

*Ultimate class, correct at time of publication