2024 BP Ultimate Rally-Raid: Dumontier prevents Santos sweep in Stage 5

Bruno Santos entered the fifth and final stage of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid with the Rally2 overall win in the bag, having won every leg in his class up to Sunday. While a clean sweep would certainly be nice, he opted to ride the 105-kilometre stretch at a safer pace, giving up going five-for-five to ice the overall.

Santos ultimately finished Stage #5 in third behind Romain Dumontier and Bradley Cox. Since he is not registered for the World Rally-Raid Championship like Dumontier and Cox, his conservative approach allowed them to scramble for points in the meantime. Dumontier, the reigning Rally2 champion, came out on top Sunday as he beat Cox by just thirty-one seconds and moved into third overall, though Cox still beat him by five minutes outright.

Like Dumontier, Nicolás Cavigliasso ended the rally with a stage win in Challenger, beating Luís Portela Morais and Sébastien Loeb by less than fifty seconds. Rokas Baciuška placed eleventh in just his second time finishing outside the Challenger top ten after recording an eleventh in Stage #1 of the Dakar Rally in January. In spite of this, his main rival Armindo Araújo finished further back in fifteenth to ice the overall class win for Baciuška.

João Ferreira needed to make up 2:41 to catch Nasser Al-Attiyah for the FIA win, but instead finished eight seconds behind him. Both placed behind Lucas Moraes for Stage #5, while Lionel Baud just missed out on a podium in fourth.

“Great to be able to finish this rally with a win, especially after what happened with us in Abu Dhabi,” said Moraes, whose Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge ended with his Toyota Hilux on fire. “Thanks to the whole Toyota team to deliver another great car. It was amazing to win today and finish third overall very close from the from the lead. Climbing the standings again.”

After finishing second in Stage #4, Adrien Van Beveren closed out the race by claiming the stage win ahead of Honda team-mate and overall victor Tosha Schareina by fifteen seconds and Hero’s Sebastian Bühler by twenty. Stage #4 bike winner António Maio finished fifth.

“I’m happy with the day, I’m happy with the feeling riding the bike,” commented Van Beveren. “The first day was spicy, but you have to think about the good things and I felt very good, the bike was amazing and I’m very motivated for Ruta 40 in Argentina.”

Lorenzo Santolino retired after losing control of his bike and crashing just thirty-nine kilometres into the leg, but avoided serious injury. Honda’s Skyler Howes also crashed but salvaged a seventh-place finish for the day.

Stage #5 winners

Overall winners