Moraes and Monleon remain in contention after Stage 2 in Portugal

The third round of the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) continued in Portugal on April 4th, with Stage 2 of the event. The special stage, which was run over a distance of 166 km saw the crews take on muddy tracks for the second consecutive day, with mixed results for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing.

The pick of the TGR Toyota Hilux crews were Lucas Moraes and co-driver Armand Monleon, who posted the 7th-fastest time on the day. The Brazilian driver noted that the terrain offered varied grip levels, but also that the muddy terrain made it difficult to read the road accurately. Despite this, the TGR crew lost only 3min 41sec to the stage winners, and find themselves in 6th place overall, some 3min 10sec behind the leaders.

The stage brought an exciting start for Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet, who exhibited stunning pace over the opening kilometres, with a possible stage win clearly on the cards. They unfortunately missed the start of a speed controlled zone, and incurred a 30min penalty for speeding as a result. This sent them tumbling down the order, marring which could have otherwise been a stunning result for the young driver, competing in his first W2RC season. They managed to claw back a few seconds of the time lost due to their speeding error over the course of the stage, but still lost nearly 30min on the day. They were classified in 47th place on the stage, and are now in 43rd place in the overall standings.

There was more trouble for Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz, following the ceased alternator from Stage 1. This time, they lost the main engine drive belt, and were forced to stop to replace it with a spare carried on board. They lost significant time in the process, but were able to continue at full race pace once the belt was replaced, relinquishing only 7min 37sec to the stage winners despite the setback. Unfortunately, they incurred a massive penalty of 5hr 10min for aborting Stage 1, and remain out of overall contention in the rally.

Next up is Stage 3 of the 5-stage event, which will again start from the bivouac at Grandola in Portugal. From here, the crews will complete a liaison of 113 km, before taking on the longest stage of the event, covering a total of 374 km of gravel tracks. A liaison of 129 km will then take them from the finish to a new bivouac at Badajoz in Spain. After Stage 3, the crews will complete two more stages, bringing them back to Grandola for the finish on April 7th.

QUOTES:

Alain Dujardyn, W2RC Team Principal: 

"Today, our team showed exceptional tenacity despite tricky circumstances. Lucas and Armand are still in a solid position overall, and will have a great starting position for Stage 3. Saood and Francois showed amazing pace early on, and were it not for the penalty they incurred, they may well have moved up the leader board considerably. We are disappointed that Seth and Dennis had another frustrating day, but the team is working diligently to sort out the issue with the engine drive belt for the coming stages, which will still allow them to score points towards the W2RC."

Lucas Moraes: 

"It was another very difficult stage, because sometimes you have grip, sometimes you don't. It was hard for me to read the road and keep the pace going. But the most important thing is that we are here, we are still in a good position overall, so we are right there fighting. Today was not my best day let's say, but yeah, still happy to be in this position. We will be in a very good road position for tomorrow's stage, which is the longest of the rally, so I'm looking forward to it!"

Seth Quintero: 

"Yeah today went better than yesterday for sure, after not finishing the previous stage due to some alternator issues. Today, we wanted to go for it and go have a good time and unfortunately ended up losing the main engine belt again, costing quite a bit of time there. But yeah, kind of bummed on today to be honest, it was a really fun course and without changing that belt I think we would have had a really, really good result. But we got three more days to go. I am really enjoying the time here, and Portugal is awesome, the fans are awesome. We just need to figure out the little belt issue, keep the water out of the car. But yeah, I'm hoping for a drier day tomorrow, so we can go out and have some fun."

BP Ultimate Rally Raid 2024 – STAGE 2 RESULTS

BP Ultimate Rally Raid 2024 – STANDINGS AFTER STAGE 2

Partners

Red Bull has established itself as the premiere supporter of extreme sports and athletes, and as such fits perfectly with TOYOTA GAZOO Racing's Dakar and W2RC efforts. The Austrian energy drink manufacturer has partnered with TGR over numerous years, and the involvement bore fruit when the team won a second Dakar title in January 2022, and a third in 2023.

SpeedMax is a CantuStore's private label, which is the largest omnichannel platform and leader in tire replacement market in Brazil. SpeedMax promotes maximum performance through high-performance tires that suit all types of vehicles, from passenger cars to trucks and tractors, as well as inner tubes and truck wheels.