Van Beveren takes second place and we continue to lead in the general standings with Tosha.

Tosha Schareina held onto the overall lead after the second stage of Rally Raid Portugal as all the Monster Energy Honda Team riders continued to battle the mixed conditions over the 166 kms of the Grândola loop. This third round of the World Rally Raid Championship is completely different from everything competitors normally experience in the wild expanses of desert with mud, narrow tracks and fog making the stages extra difficult.

Yesterday’s stage winner, Tosha Schareina was the lead out man and put in a solid performance on a stage that combined hard terrain, sand and a lack of visibility. He set the sixth fastest time and still sits at the top in the overall standings with nearly three minutes in hand.

After a delayed start due to fog, another winner of the day was Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren following an unfortunate 12 minute penalty yesterday. He put in an amazing ride through the muddy conditions to finish in second place today, just over a minute behind stage winner Sebastian Bühler, which he knows very well as he lives and trains in this area.

Skyler Howes struggled with the morning fog and a couple of mistakes with the road book, but by the time the sun had appeared the American had put his earlier errors behind him to take advantage of the fast sandy tracks and make up some positions to finish the stage in fifth to keep himself in podium contention overall.

With very different conditions to the Dakar to tackle, Pablo Quintanilla was still looking to find his rhythm on the second day and completed the day in seventh.  He’ll be looking to move back up the rankings on his Honda CRF450 RALLY on tomorrow’s stage. Tomorrow, the team will face the marathon stage, which will end in Badajoz. In this stage, the mechanics will have a limited time during the service of just three hours to work on the bikes, adding a new layer of challenge to the competition. It is the longest stage of the Rally Raid Portugal. 

Despite these challenging conditions, the Monster Energy Honda Team’s new CRF 450RALLY bike proved its exceptional ability, adapting perfectly to a different environment than the hot temperatures and sandy desert terrain.