2024 BP Ultimate Rally-Raid: Nasser Al-Attiyah takes Ultimate points lead

Nasser Al-Attiyah‘s quest for a third consecutive World Rally-Raid Championship started on the wrong foot when he retired from the Dakar Rally, but he seems to have regained his footing since. After winning the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in February, he continued his newfound momentum with a victory in the inaugural BP Ultimate Rally-Raid.

Returning to Portugal, the site of his maiden race with Prodrive when he ran the Baja Portalegre 500 last October, Al-Attiyah won two stages and held off a late charge by João Ferreira to win by nearly three minutes. After winning the Prologue, Al-Attiyah had a relatively slow Stage #1 as he finished sixth before hitting his stride with back-to-back stage wins.

Yazeed Al-Rajhi trailed Al-Attiyah by just twenty seconds after Stage #2 but was eliminated by a rollover the following day, leaving Ferreira as the next closest rival. An SSV regular who switched to a Mini JCW Rally Plus for his home race, Ferreira sliced his deficit in half after Stage #4 to 2:41, but finished behind Al-Attiyah in the fifth and final stage. Ferreira also won the concurrent Portuguese Cross-Country Championship round that was run across the first two days.

With his win, Al-Attiyah moves past Ferreira’s Mini team-mate Carlos Sainz for the championship lead. His co-driver Édouard Boulanger, now two-for-two by his side, also assumes the top spot for his position.

“This was a very tricky rally and we had to be clever,” said Al-Attiyah. “Thank you to my co-driver Édouard and to Prodrive for the car. Now we have won two races and we’re leading the championship.”

Reunited with Mini for Portugal, Sainz narrowly missed the overall podium as he finished less than three minutes behind Lucas Moraes, who moved past him for third by winning Stage #5. Although he won at Dakar, his Team Audi Sport shuttered operations shortly after and left him out of a ride for the Abu Dhabi (for which they were fined). Despite being second in points and certainly still a championship contender, he has stressed that he is not racing the full calendar following Audi’s demise.

“I’m happy I came here and made this race. I now understand what this rally is all about and it was a good experience,” Sainz commented.

Toyota remains the manufacturer’s championship leader after a tumultuous race. Moraes and Guerlain Chicherit both scored stage wins for the Hilux, but the latter retired the day after his victory when he crashed into a tree. Their team-mates Seth Quintero and Guillaume de Mévius struggled with mechanical issues throughout, though Quintero was able to salvage a runner-up effort in Stage #4. Toyota Gazoo Racing‘s Saood Variawa received a two-hour time penalty after speeding too many times in a control zone, then opted to retire to preserve his vehicle for the South African Rally-Raid Championship.

Chicherit and Variawa were among twelve retirements, with other victims including W2RC contenders Marcos Baumgart and Aliyyah Koloc for mechanical reasons. Vaidotas Žala was forced out by a bizarre incident in which a crew member accidentally poured contaminated fuel into his Mini. Eduard Pons‘ Ultimate début in Past-Racing‘s Ford Ranger T1+ was cut short by an alternator failure. The alternator also claimed the Red-Lined Nissan of Dave Klaassen, while his team-mate Pim Klaassen overcame oil leaks and tpunctures to reach the finish.

Despite not reaching the finish, Quintero remarked that the race was “the most fun rally that I’ve ever done. The fans here have been unreal, it’s just a smile the whole time, there’s so many people lining the whole course.”

Ultimate overall results

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Class	Time	Margin
1	201	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Édouard Boulanger	Nasser Racing	T1+	10:02:57	Leader
2	214	João Ferreira	Filipe Palmeiro	X-raid Mini JCW Team	T1+	10:05:46	+ 2:49
3	205	Lucas Moraes	Armand Monleón	Toyota Gazoo Racing	T1+	10:06:33	+ 3:36
4	200	Carlos Sainz	Alex Haro	X-raid Mini JCW Team	T1+	10:09:09	+ 6:12
5	204	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Timo Gottschalk	Overdrive Racing	T1+	10:20:08	+ 17:11
6	209	Cristian Baumgart	Gustavo Gugelmin	X Rally Team	T1+	10:25:07	+ 22:10
7	223	Francisco Barreto*	Carlos Silva	Barata Racing Team	T1+	10:25:46	+ 22:49
8	211	Juan Cruz Yacopini	Daniel Oliveiras	Overdrive Racing	T1+	10:49:54	+ 46:57
9	220	Isidre Esteve*	José Maria Villalobos Valcarcel	Overdrive Racing	T1+	11:04:32	+ 1:01:35
10	232	Maria Luís Gameiro*	José Marques	Maria Luís Gameiro	T1+	12:04:48	+ 2:01:51
11	228	Ronald Schoolderman*	Mark Salomons	4×4 Centrum Ermelo	T1.1	12:54:15	+ 2:51:18
12	224	Benoit Fretin*	Cédric Duplé	Benoit Fretin	T1.2	13:01:21	+ 2:58:24
13	230	Stefan Carmans*	Arjan van Tiel	Stefan Carmans	T1+	13:26:58	+ 3:24:01
14	231	Rik van den Brink*	Gydo Heimans	Rik van den Brink	T1.1	13:28:04	+ 3:25:07
15	207	Denis Krotov	Konstantin Zhiltsov	Overdrive Racing	T1+	13:41:03	+ 3:38:06
16	206	Seth Quintero	Dennis Zenz	Toyota Gazoo Racing	T1+	16:44:54	+ 6:41:57
17	225	Magdalena Zajac*	Marcin Pasek	Proxcars TME Rally Team	T1.1	19:35:53	+ 9:32:56
18	226	Tomasz Baranowski*	Konrad Dudziński	Finarto Racing	T1.1	24:48:39	+ 14:45:42
19	215	Lionel Baud	Lucie Baud	Overdrive Racing	T1+	30:53:55	+ 20:50:58
20	203	Guillaume de Mévius	Xavier Panseri	Overdrive Racing	T1+	31:00:32	+ 20:57:35
21	213	Eugenio Amos	Paolo Ceci	Overdrive Racing	T1+	33:48:57	+ 23:46:00
22	233	Pim Klaassen*	Teun van Dal	DaklaPack Rallysport	T1.1	35:49:48	+ 25:46:51
23	227	José Rogeira*	Paulo Marques	José Rogeira	T1.1	47:24:22	+ 37:21:25
DNF	202	Guerlain Chicherit	Mathieu Baumel	Overdrive Racing	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	208	Saood Variawa	François Cazalet	Toyota Gazoo Racing	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	210	Marcos Baumgart	Kleber Cincea	X Rally Team	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	212	Aliyyah Koloc	Sébastien Delaunay	Buggyra ZM Racing	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	216	Vaidotas Žala*	Paulo Fiúza	Unique Racing Team	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	217	Tiago Reis*	Valter Cardoso	Tiago Reis	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	218	João Ramos*	Jorge Carvalho	João Ramos	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	219	Alejandro Martins*	David Monteiro	Alejandro Martins	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	221	Eduard Pons*	Candido Carrera	Past-Racing	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	222	Jose Luis Garcia*	Manuel Navarro	Escudería Villa de Llanes	T1.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	229	Rients Hofstra*	Wouter de Graaf	Rients Hofstra	T1.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	234	Dave Klaassen*	Tessa Rooth	DaklaPack Rallysport	T1.1	DNF	N/A

Ultimate stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	Nasser Al-Attiyah	3:41.9
Stage #1	Guerlain Chicherit	1:13:54
Stage #2	Nasser Al-Attiyah	1:47:21
Stage #3	Nasser Al-Attiyah	3:31:47
Stage #4	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	2:33:43
Stage #5	Lucas Moraes	49:56

W2RC Ultimate standings

Unlike Challenger and SSV, Ultimate does not have its own class-specific trophy and instead has a single championship where drivers from all three points-paying categories are eligible.

For readability, competitors registered for the championship who have not earned points are excluded.

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	112	Leader
2	Carlos Sainz	100	– 12
3	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	79	– 33
4	Lucas Moraes	76	– 36
5	Guerlain Chicherit	69	– 43
6	Guillaume de Mévius	65	– 47
7	Rokas Baciuška	43	– 69
8	Seth Quintero	39	– 73
9	Martin Prokop	36	– 76
10	João Ferreira	34	– 78
11	Austin Jones	33	– 79
12	Mathieu Serradori	32	– 80
13	Cristian Baumgart	27	– 85
14	Denis Krotov	26	– 86
15	Saood Variawa	22	– 90
16	Juan Cruz Yacopini	17	– 95
17	Yasir Seaidan	16	– 96
18	Mattias Ekström	15	– 97
19	Marcos Baumgart	14	– 98
20	Stéphane Peterhansel	13	– 99
T-21	Mitch Guthrie	11	– 101
T-21	Nicolás Cavigliasso	11	– 101
23	Pau Navarro	9	– 103
24	Ricardo Porém	8	– 104
T-25	Sebastián Guayasamín	7	– 105
T-25	Dania Akeel	7	– 105
27	Aliyyah Koloc	6	– 106
T-28	Rebecca Busi	5	– 107
T-28	Mário Franco	5	– 107
T-30	Sara Price	4	– 108
T-30	Eugenio Amos	4	– 108
T-30	Ricardo Ramilo	4	– 108
33	Krzysztof Hołowczyc	3	– 109
34	Marcelo Gastaldi	2	– 110
35	Lionel Baud	1	– 111

Co-drivers’ standings

Rank	Co-Driver	Points	Margin
1	Édouard Boulanger	107	Leader
2	Timo Gottschalk	79	– 28
T-3	Lucas Cruz	76	– 31
T-3	Armand Monleón	76	– 31
5	Xavier Panseri	65	– 42
6	Alex Winocq	64	– 43
7	Oriol Vidal	43	– 64
8	Dennis Zenz	39	– 68
9	Viktor Chytka	36	– 71
10	Filipe Palmeiro	34	– 73
11	Loïc Minaudier	32	– 75
T-12	Konstantin Zhiltsov	26	– 81
T-12	Oriol Mena	26	– 81
14	Alex Haro	24	– 83
15	Mathieu Baumel	23	– 84
16	François Cazalet	22	– 85
17	Gustavo Gugelmin	18	– 89
18	Daniel Oliveiras	17	– 90
19	Alberto Andreotti	16	– 91
20	Emil Bergkvist	15	– 92
21	Kleber Kincea	14	– 93
T-22	Kellon Walch	11	– 96
T-22	Michaël Metge	11	– 96
T-22	Valentina Pertegarini	11	– 96
25	Andreas Schulz	9	– 98
26	Luís Marques	8	– 99
T-27	Fernando Matias Acosta	7	– 100
T-27	Stéphane Duplé	7	– 100
29	Sébastien Delaunay	6	– 101
T-30	Adrien Metge	5	– 102
T-30	Sergio Lafuente	5	– 102
T-30	João Serôdio	5	– 102
T-33	Paolo Ceci	4	– 103
T-33	Jeremy Gray	4	– 103
T-33	Fausto Mota	4	– 103
36	Łukasz Kurzeja	3	– 104
37	Carlos Sachs	2	– 105
38	Lucie Baud	1	– 106

Manufacturers’ standings

Rank	Manufacturer	Points	Margin
1	Toyota	143	Leader
2	Prodrive	120	– 23
3	Mini	77	– 66
4	Audi	76	– 67