 Raleigh Rave Championship and the world's very best off-road races on two wheels and four have rolled into Portugal for what promises to be five days of spectacular action across some of the toughest terrain planet Earth has to offer. The town of Grandola are playing host to the main bivouac with one night in Badajoz, Spain. Over a thousand kilometres of technical roads to tackle, no surprise then that the event has attracted the biggest names and stars of the sport. In the bikes, all eyes are on Ross Brange currently leading the championship by 12 points from Ricky Brabeck and with the American not in attendance, this is a good opportunity for Brange to extend his lead. Meanwhile, Nasa Alatea returns after a win last time out in Abu Dhabi and the Qatari is looking for a repeat to reeling championship leader Carlos Sainz. Yeah, the weather will be not easy for everyone but ok, we are a professional driver and we know what we do and we can race in each condition, you know, there's no problem but ok, we need to be clever and to win this race. In the challenger class, young Lithuanian star Rokas Batusko returns with a 14-point lead over Austin Jones. I always, you know, in attack in order to get some safety but yeah, we even try to push, we try to do our job because we want to take up points. And a familiar face to us all, nine times world rally champion Sebastian Loeb competing here in the challenger class. No, for sure, my expectation here is to learn the race because next year we will come with that chair and so it's important to have a little experience of here. It's a very different car from what I'm used to but ok, I think to learn the place is good. The rally got underway as is tradition with the start ceremony, the fans out in force to catch a rare glimpse of their heroes before it was time for the pre-event prologue stage, a short five kilometre dash for the riders and drivers to get their first taste of the Portuguese terrain. In the bikes, it was Spain's Tosha Sharina quickest through the stage on the Honda machine, a great effort in tricky conditions to go two seconds faster than Frenchman Adrian Van Beveren. Here in Portugal, the terrain was super mad and super sandy but we had a lot of fun here and waiting for the main race. Meanwhile Ross Branch was third fastest through, despite a small fall the Botswana was enjoying himself. I threw it away on a slippery corner but wow, Portugal is amazing. Thank you to everybody out there, it's really cool to see so many people out on the track and a little bit too excited for that one but I loved it, it was like a motocross track and nice and wet and beautiful way to start the rally. On to four wheels and in the quads it was a great start to the rally for Argentinas Manuel Andeyar, quickest in class by two seconds from Camilo Viznouski. Meanwhile in the ultimate class, Nasa Alatea was flying this morning, a full six seconds faster than Brazil's Lucas Moraes, the Katari means business this weekend in the pro-drive run Hunter, his goal to leave here leading the championship. It's a good prologue and we try to push and to have a good start for the 100km stage of today. We are quite happy and car working very well. In the challenger class it was local star Luis Portela alongside David Magra, normally found on two wheels who dominated the short 5km prologue, while in the SSVs it was Gonzalo Puerra who set the pace. So with the prologue complete, next in proceedings was the selection process for the starting position in the bikes and it was America's Skyler House tasked with opening stage one today. The prologue you know didn't go 100% perfectly but now the stage one is only 97km and it's going to be pretty straight forward I think more or less on some fire access roads and yeah in 97km it's not really like you know the end of the world to open. And so onto the first full stage, a loop from Grandola back to the Bivouac, just 103km to ease the competitors into the event. In the bikes, Ross Branch was in the wars straight away getting caught out early on and cunning off the bike, leaving the hero team with some work to do tonight. A 2 minute penalty means Branch lies 7th overnight. Yeah I just made a small mistake, came over a ridge and the track went left and there was no danger so I went into the bush, went over the bars a few times but yeah we're still in it, still in one piece and we'll see how it goes for the rest of the week. Branch's team mate Sebastian Pula returning to the hero factory outfit after missing the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge was instantly on the pace. The German posted the 4th fastest time today but also picked up a penalty dropping him to 6th. The Bivouac Bivouac house kicked off the action and with plenty of rain on the lead up to the rally conditions were tricky for the riders. The American as expected dropped some time but after his rivals picked up penalties he found himself finishing 3rd today. Lorenzo Santolino Sanchez was flying the flag for Scherco, a clean run through the test saw him storm to 2nd place, a great ride from the Spaniard just over 4 minutes off the overall lead. And that was held by this man, Tosha Sharina after setting the pace through the prologue he found himself leading the category at kilometre 33 but dropped back in the second half of the stage only to be awarded the win after Bradley Cox and Adrian Van Bevan were hit with penalties. Yeah in the beginning it was really really hard with the sandage rain, with sandy sections and after that we went to the more hardback sections, yeah I tried to push again hard but I had a little mistake with my riding in the sand but yeah waiting for tomorrow. In the rally 2 category it was a good day for local star Bruno Santos on the Husqvarna, 8th fastest in the stage and quickest of the rally 2 riders, he leads the class by 13 seconds. Confirmation then, Sharina takes the stage victory ahead of Sanchez and Skyler Howes, all that means he holds a lead of 4 minutes and 15 seconds clear of Sanchez with Howes, Mayo and Quintanilla rounding out the top 5. In the quads, Manuel and Iar did the double today to take the win in both the prologue and the stage, despite the difficult conditions for the competitors and Iar over 2 minutes clear of Antonas Canovkinas. A great start to the event then for Iar, drawing on all of his Dakar experience to go fastest today, confirmation of both his win in the stage and his overall lead, but there's still a long way to go. It was a spectacular fight in the ultimate class today, after dominating the prologue stage, Nasa Alatir took a steady approach to the first full stage here in Portugal. The Katari in his Hunter found the conditions difficult today and only managed 6th fastest. It's very difficult, not easy, but we take it easy and we don't need any drama, but okay, to finish day one and now we know what we need to do. Championship leader Carlos Sainz in the Mini who won the Dakar rally earlier this year with Audi was doing whatever he could to keep his campaign alive, crucially quicker than Alatir, solid drive today, 5th fastest. At the business end Yazid Al-Raji was also on top form, these are not the conditions that the Saudi Arabian is most used to, but he drew on all of his WRC experience and came through the stage in spectacular fashion, knocking on the door of the class win all day, but eventually having to settle for second, just 28 seconds off the pace. Not easy stage, easy to make mistake, two place we go overshoot but everything is going well with us. Instead it was Gerlain Shishiri in the Toyota Hilux who was on a push today, the Frenchman third in the championship, just three points behind Alatir and he knows he's right in the fight for overall victory, despite a few minor errors Shishiri set the pace. It was really technical, super slippery, super tight, it was really easy to make mistake, actually we like everybody, we miss some corners because the road is not easy to see, yeah pretty good but really dangerous stage. A good start to the rally for Shishiri then, he tops the time sheets through stage 1, 28 seconds clear of Al-Raji in second, with Lukas Marash confirmed in third, Nasser Alatir with some work to do tomorrow. In the challenger class it was all about the local drivers, these guys know the terrain like the back of their hand and were putting that experience to good use from the word go, Joao Diaz fastest through today despite the difficult conditions in his Kanam machine. Next came Alexandra Pinto also in the Kanam and another man who was able to take advantage of his local knowledge, it makes all the difference and he made it a one-two finish for Portugal in the challenger class. The fastest of the W2RC runners today was Chavichitlida Rokkas-Pachuska, the Lithuanian most importantly outpacing his title counterparts and for him that's what matters most. First day is done but there's four days more and you know tomorrow more kilometer yeah it's landscape is nice you know just muddy like off-road but yeah for everyone the same but yeah we did today a good job and need to keep like that for all the rest days. Meanwhile Sebastian Loeb whose present he has definitely been welcomed by the fans was the fastest of the tourist machines after his teammate Cristina Gutierrez went off the road. Loeb pressed on to finish fourth in class today. It's really bad, a lot of mud and a lot of problem with the visibility we had to clean the windscreen from inside all the time so it was not easy to concentrate on the on the track we were more fighting with the mud and the things coming inside so it was a difficult one. So after the first full stage it's Diaz who leads the challenger class here in Portugal the local man topping the timesheets ahead of Pinto with Betuska, Loeb and Armando Araujo rounding out the top five and finally to the SSV category and again the local boys were showing the rest of the field how it should be done. Quickest through today was Joao Montero by over half a minute a flawless drive in difficult conditions saw him take the early need in his T4 spec canam next came Ricardo Ramillo not quite on home soil yet he has to wait until Saturday before the rally heads into Spain championship leader Yassir Sairdan fourth fastest today after settling himself into the tricky conditions but with a 59-point advantage over anyone else he can afford not to take any risk it was really muddy as you can see it's a short state but it's very hard confirmation then of the result from stage one and the standings after a difficult day in the mud for the SSV crews so the first full day of competition is complete here in Portugal tomorrow another 160 kilometers lion weight and with conditions deteriorating it's anyone's guess don't miss it.