"You haven't seen my real face here yet"

FIM: BENAVIDES EAGER TO POACH FROM SCHAREINA AND SANDERS

Despite claiming the Dakar trophy and the championship lead with it, Luciano Benavides lined up for scrutineering today without the aura of a clear favourite for the second round of the calendar. The Argentinian's record in the two previous editions of the race amounts to just one stage win out of twelve prologues and stages. That is four times fewer than the 2024 bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal winner, Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy Honda HRC), and Daniel Sanders (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), who emerged victorious in 2025. It is also worth noting that the Spaniard and the Australian are the only two riders to have led the race (seven days for the Honda rider, five for his KTM rival).  The advantage goes to Schareina… who is also the only rider who has stood on the podium in Portugal every single time: first on the top step and then second in Lisbon last year. Schareina and "Chucky" are the names that leap from the statistics sheet.

FIM QUOTES:

Luciano Benavides (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing): "You haven't seen my real face here yet"

"I'm feeling good on all surfaces. I might be struggling a bit on sand at the moment because my left knee still hurts, but there are plenty of tracks back home and that's exactly the kind of terrain I love. Last year, I wasn't even in the game against Daniel [Sanders] and Tosha [Schareina]. My rear tyre was absolutely shredded after 100 km and I was just in survival mode from then on. But with the right tyre this year, I expect to put in a strong pace, as I already showed in Andalusia. You haven't seen my real face here yet. If the tracks are slippery but dry, that'll be just the ticket. If they're muddy, I'll think twice before sticking my leg out. As I said, I'm not quite at 100% fitness-wise. I had a piece of meniscus removed a month ago and I'll take care of the ligament down the line. At any rate, my Dakar victory was a real shot in the arm."

Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy Honda HRC): "I'm ready"

"I think those who don't appreciate the terrain here just don't get it. They were born in the desert, while Europeans like me thrive on it. Mixing up the surfaces is great for the series. That's what makes it a world championship. Rain is also on the cards. My background is in enduro and motocross, so I know a thing or two about slick conditions. I've been racing a lot in motocross since the Dakar, so I'm ready."

Daniel Sanders (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing): "My dream is to come to the rally and have a full wet mud race"

"The shoulder is good. That was the easy thing. It was a clean break, and my surgeon is really good in Australia, and he fixed it when I got home, which was important to help the recovery faster for this event. So, I had four weeks off the motorbike and training because also I ripped my leg muscle really bad. I had a 7 cm tear in my leg, which was really hard the last two days of racing [at the Dakar] because it got worse every day, and I had to grip with the bike, not my arms. So, we tried to do some riding and the last two weeks before we came overseas for the race and some training, so it was actually really good. The physical is not 100% but it wasn't 100% in the Dakar either. It's good enough to be here and you don't have to be super strong here. The corner speed is really important. This year will be a little bit different with it being more wet, and maybe the weather with some rain coming as well. It's going to be more suiting, I guess, the enduro guys who like that slippery conditions. My dream is to come to the rally and have a full wet mud race. That has always been my dream. I don't think we'll get a full mud race here. It's like my best race is in enduro, where in the wet and the terrain I do really well. Where I live is the slipperiest terrain I have, and I do really well. I grew up I had to learn riding motorbikes on this and that's where I have really good traction control, so that helps. I think it's still going to be tight, there's three guys. Before Adrian crashed out last year, he was close to the front, there's three of us on the first day but then there's some bigger gaps back, and it's really hard to make time here."

Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda HRC): "Where I live, it rains like once a year"

"I'll be thinking on [those 2 seconds at the Dakar] for probably the rest of my life. I have to live with it forever. After the Dakar, I didn't even want to ride motorcycles. The only thing we can do now is try our best and try to get in a good spirit. Yeah, I mean, this race isn't bad. It's just, you know, it's not my cup of tea, right? So it's something I'm not used to. It's something that I have to definitely get better at and figure out on the fly. And, you know, a lot of people that live around here, you know, they're fast on these roads and they're super strong, which is really cool. But yeah, at home, we don't have this. You know, at home, we have the open desert. So this is where we shine. This is where we're more comfortable. But here in Portugal, you have slick roads. The forecast is showing rain the next couple of days. Where I live, it rains like once a year. So it's going to be a whole different ballgame for us. The championship is not so much something I'm so strong at. You know, I've been second in the world championship, I think three or four times now, so we've been super close. You know, the world rally championship has a different terrain in every single event, and that's what makes it a world championship series. I'll just ride to my best of my ability here in Portugal and try to keep the bike moving forward and not make any dumb mistakes that result in an injury. With the rain coming, the roads are already slippery, so it could make things a little bit more scary."

Ross Branch (Hero MotoSports): "It's the same for everybody"

"Feeling good, you know, just being back on the bike for a couple of days. Obviously, the crash at Dakar put us out for a little while. We had to have an operation on the wrist and get all healed up. But I'm feeling really good. It's definitely not my terrain. You know where I'm from. I'm a proper desert boy. But you know, it's the same for everybody. There's going to be a couple of slippery places, I believe. But [I'm] looking forward to it, it's going to make exciting racing for the crowd and all the spectators and everybody that's out there watching. Being back in Europe, you know, we get so many spectators we have one of our bases here in Portugal, so it'll mean a lot to them if we can get a good result here."

Neels Theric (Kove Factory Racing): "I was the one who insisted on coming here"

"I've never entered the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal before. I won three Rally2 stages at the Dakar and cracked the top 10 overall four times. Kove intends to step up its involvement in the championship soon, but I was the one who insisted on coming here to develop the bike. It's still a prototype, it should hit the market in a year. I expect us to be closer to the competition on this kind of terrain than in the open desert."