Tosha dominates marathon stage to Badajoz

The Monster Energy Honda Team is proving its dominance at the Rally Raid de Portugal, reaching the halfway point of the competition and leading the overall for every day so far.

Tosha, who leads the overall standings, showed his mastery of the track by cutting almost a minute and a half off Sebastian Buhler after the refueling to take first place on the special and extend his overall lead. Adrien, coming off the back of a good last two stages, struggled to find his rhythm and finished in 4th place. Skyler Howes came in 7th but still holds third place in the general standings, only 3 minutes and 16 seconds behind Frenchman Van Beveren who is in 4th place. However, Pablo Quintanilla has not been able to find the right spot on Portuguese territory but the Chilean never gives up, today he finished in 10th position.

On the third stage where they crossed the border into Spain, the drivers faced an epic day of rallying. With a special stage of 374 km and over 600 km in total, the marathon stage started from the picturesque Portuguese town of Grândola to Badajoz, where the mechanics worked to the limit on the bikes in the 3-hour service, today it was very important that the riders damaged the bike as little as possible so that after the service it is in the best possible condition to face stage 4, which returns tomorrow to the town of Grândola.

Today’s route covered varied terrain, from firm ground to technical sections with plenty of puddles. In contrast to the previous stages, this time the drivers had to deal with less sand but they did have to deal with more broken terrain during the last 100 km as the cars went over the track earlier, something that is always the other way around.

Tosha, who leads the overall standings, showed his mastery of the track by cutting almost a minute and a half off Sebastian Buhler after the refueling to take first place on the special and extend his lead in the overall standings.

The towns of Salvaterra de Magos, Almeirim, Chamusca, Abrantes and Maçao served as a stage for the Portuguese fans to show their great love for the world of motor racing on this exciting day, which not only tested the physical and mental endurance of the drivers, but also their technical and strategic skills.