Performance of the week: Adrien Van Beveren from crash hell to podium heaven in just six months
Adrien Van Beveren was eager to make amends in the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal. The Monster Energy Honda HRC factory rider sustained a nasty crash here in September 2025 while fighting for the trophy. The incident, his first DNF in a W2RC round, hampered him in the run-up to the 2026 Dakar. Fast-forward six months, and the man from northern France has drawn a line under that setback.
Van Beveren has spent the whole week near the front (never finishing outside the top 5), securing third place overall and his first championship podium finish since the 2025 Dakar. He has also been the only RallyGP rider to stay in touch with the prodigious Daniel Sanders and Tosha Schareina, who have divvied up 14 out of 18 specials held since the launch of the race in 2024. This result puts the wind back in his sails in the championship, propelling him from sixth to fifth place in the ranking. The next stop is the Desafío Ruta 40, in Argentina, which he calls his home away from home.
Alexandre the Great
Alexandre Pinto won the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship in SSV in 2025, a mere four years after first trying his hand at this sport, but his last Dakar campaign was a disappointment. As Aristotle once said, "The ignorant man affirms, the scientist doubts, the wise man reflects". Undaunted, the Portuguese driver and his Old Friends Rally team looked for a new world to conquer, moving up to the next-higher division (the Challenger class) this week in a Taurus from Odyssey Academy by BBR.
A flat tyre in the opening stage pushed him more than 14 minutes down the standings. However, as his namesake once declared, "There is nothing impossible to him who will try". Pinto got up again and conquered three stages in a row, a feat matched only by his countryman Bruno Santos this week (Rally2 stages 1 through 3). Today, Pinto found himself 1′57″ from victory at km 166. Yet the 26-year-old did not stop until he had ridden his Taurus, his Bucephalus, all the way to the summit, proving that he is wise beyond his years. Alexandre will become the Great for sure.
Loeb repels the assault while charging at the front
Winning from the front is the proverbial cherry on the cake in rally raid. Sébastien Loeb (The Dacia Sandriders) did not quite get to taste that today, but it was as close as it gets. Had it not been for a blistering late charge from his teammate Lucas Moraes, the Frenchman would have taken the win after repelling and later countering the assault of Seth Quintero (Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC) and João Ferreira (Toyota Gazoo Racing SA), who had dominated the opening two thirds of the special.
The key takeaway lies in the overall standings: Loeb was 32 seconds faster than Quintero, his closest pursuer, stretching his lead in the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal to 1′27″. But wait, there is more! A glance in the rear-view mirror shows his teammate Moraes charging up to 1′34″ of the lead, just 7 seconds shy of the rear bumper of Quintero's Hilux. A proper one-two punch for Dacia!
Bruno channels the spirit of malles-moto
Rally2 riders who have managed to beat the RallyGP elite for the stage win are few and far between. Only Danilo Petrucci, Michael Docherty and Bradley Cox have pulled it off in almost five years of the W2RC. Bruno Santos (BS — Frutas Patrícia Pilar) came up 2 seconds short today. The Portuguese rider held on to the lead for most of the stage, only to be denied by a last-minute surge by Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy Honda HRC). It is still an exceptional performance, especially if you keep in mind that he is riding malles-moto style! Santos takes care of his own motorbike, a task which earlier fell to his partner. He could try the same recipe in the Dakar, where he recently finished seventeenth overall and seventh in Rally2.
In the meantime, the Lusitanian is targeting the Rally2 trophy this week. He is perched at the summit of the class with more than 9 minutes in hand over the Frenchman Neels Theric (Kove Factory Racing). Santos already clinched the class win in 2024, finishing third overall in the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal and going toe to toe with the RallyGP pros. He now sits fourth overall, 4′32″ from Daniel Sanders (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and just over 2 minutes shy of the podium. Stay tuned…
"Chucky" on a rampage
It was not so far-fetched to believe that his shoulder injury and a 7 cm muscle tear in his leg were going to dampen the ambitions of Daniel Sanders (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing). It was not so crazy to assume that the reigning world champion, still on the mend after going under the knife in Australia shortly after the Dakar, would take it a bit easier here. But, boy, we were wrong. After scooping up the 3 km sprint prologue yesterday, "Chucky" went on a rampage on today's 180 km loop around Grândola. Some of his rivals are already far behind, including three overall contenders who are already more than 5 minutes adrift: Ricky Brabec at 5′33″, Luciano Benavides at 7′06″ and Edgar Canet at 8′10″.
Sure, there are almost 2,000 km to go, but the man astride KTM no. 1 has already stamped his authority on the race. His latest rally trophy came right here back in 2025. The KTM factory rider is thirsting for revenge after coming up short in the Rallye du Maroc last October and the Dakar in January. Winning here would allow him to take a big bite out of his deficit to the championship leader, his teammate Luciano Benavides, currently 21 points ahead. For now, "Chucky" raised the bar even further with a record-breaking 27th W2RC victory.
