 The third day dawns on what has already been a drama-filled 2024 BP Ultimate Rally Raid. But today things get even tougher. The longest stage of the rally is the riders and drivers travelling through Portugal and head for Spain. A monster day today is the crews leave the Bivouac in Grandola and after a tour of Portugal and 388km of flat-out racing arrive in Barajós in Spain. In the bike category, the riders arrive at the stage start bright and early along with the fans and for rally leader Tosha Sharina, today marks the biggest challenge yet. We can do a good job today and push with my guys. And keeping him honest today, Sebastian Bula on the hero machine, first into the stage after his win yesterday. Today I will open the longest stage of the rally so I will try to keep calm and try to push but also in the safe place. Straight in for Bula then. His passport might say German but Sebastian has spent most of his life here in Portugal so it comes as no surprise to anyone that he knows exactly how to tackle this tough terrain. A solid consistent ride today to go second fastest. It was a really hard stage, we had in the beginning very fast then we had, we go in the mountain very slow and really tricky with navigation to open was not easy. Hero teammate Ross Branch hasn't really been able to match the pace of Bula but he's been there or there about school rally. He's riding cleverly, deep in the knowledge that the championship is the bigger picture here in Portugal, fifth fastest. I'm really enjoying it, Portugal is awesome, it's really technical, you know the mud puddles and stuff are really exciting because you don't know where the deep side is, you don't know where the shadow side is but all in all it's awesome and the spectators, everybody is amazing so really happy to be here. A great day for local rider Antonio Maio on the Yamaha, he was on course to finish behind Bula rounding out the top three but the Portuguese man also picked up penalties and as a result he dropped down to sixth. Adrian van Bevereen would have been right in the fight for the overall lead had he not picked up a bunch of penalties on day one, nonetheless the Frenchman hasn't given up yet fourth fastest. At the middle we had more navigation more like a tricky piece with many corners and I enjoy a lot I think I rode quite good and towards the end after the cars it's really not nice to ride. But up at the front and continuing his domination of the two-wheel category, Tosha Sharina takes the stage win albeit by only 48 seconds from Bula but it means he also extends his overall rally lead to nearly four minutes. Yeah if I wasn't today of course tomorrow we have a difficult mission again to open the stage and yeah keep calm and thinking in the final result. Confirmation then that Tosha did win today's stage so kicks off the action tomorrow ahead of Bula, a great ride from Bruno Santosh to round out the top three. Meanwhile in the overall fight Sharina continues to lead, can Bula really win tomorrow? It's Honda versus Hero. In the quads Manuel and Iar remains on course to win every single stage of this year's rally dominating once again today. Despite picking up a 10 second penalty the Argentinian just dropped the rest of the field over four minutes quicker than runner-up man Camille Viznouski. He leads the championship by only four points but that looks set to grow significantly if he can carry on with this pace. Today was a nice day a little bit tough because a lot of kilometers and also a lot of mud and some some rivers that we cross a lot of water and my ERTF system the GPS is broken again so hard day for me. Another day of domination then for Andeyar Viznouski in second with Gaitan Martinez rounding out the top three and in the overall standings it's starting to look like a foregone conclusion in the quads and ER leads by over 20 minutes. To the ultimate class now and for America's second tarot it's been a rally of ups and downs. He hasn't been able to take the fight to the front runners this week not as comfortable on this terrain as he would be on sand and he's still finding his feet in the Toyota Hilux a creditable fifth place today. Next came championship leader Carlos Sainz in the Mini. The Spaniard was setting stage winning splits before these began to fall apart. An overshoot and later issues with the wiper system the car looked well used as he arrived into the stock control having pressed on to finish fourth today. He didn't have much to say at the stage end. No wiper. It wasn't easy because I couldn't see very well. Another good day for the man half of Portugal are cheering for. Joao Ferreira also in a Mini spent most of the stage trailing Sainz but he capitalized on the Spaniard's time penalties to nick third place at the final hour. It has been a relatively fraught free rally for Lucas Morais the Brazilian keeping himself out of trouble but today was when he turned up the wick bringing the neck of this Toyota Hilux and the reward despite a puncture was just second fastest today and up to third overall. I'll try to you know to make my way up to the on the stands on the stands but uh 50 k's to go around that we've got a puncture to be honest I don't know where with slow puncture and I have to stop and then we lost all the little bit there and that's just left Nasa Alatira a stage win yesterday and the Qatari was out to repeat that effort today. We know these conditions suit the pro driver unhunter and Alatira and co-driver Edouard UNOJER were out to exploit that over today's longer stage distance. Another W2RC stage win and another couple of minutes added to his overall lead. It's not easy very very difficult stage you know never I did like this you know but okay we are here in the finish I think I hope we have a good time. And there it is two in a row for Alatira and Boulanger today beating Morais by nearly two minutes with Ferreira, Sainz and Quintero completing your top five. All that means Alatira's overall lead now stands at four minutes and 39 seconds from Jaal Ferreira in the ultimate class. Without question it has been the challenger class that has given us the maddest action of the day these guys were flat out from start to finish and the drama was non-stop. Sebastian Loeb overnight leader and stage winner yesterday was first in a steady start but he began to build the pace after the 107 kilometer mark up to fourth as he passed through 234 kilometers before dropping nearly an hour after a mechanical issue in the stage. Joao Diaz was the early runner in this mammoth test today but he too would run into problems and drop over half an hour and out of the overall podium positions. A tough day out there just look at this caught on camera Ricardo Souza getting it all wrong and ending up on his side the faithful fans coming to his rescue and he was soon on his way again. Back in the stage and Rocas Batuska picked up the lead but not for long. Enter Luish Portela Morais in the OT3 machine a prime opportunity to take a stage win at international level on home soil he was leading Batuska but by just 13 seconds. This was now a sprint to the finish and Batuska got the hammer down for the final 60 kilometers it was going to be so close he crossed the line first but Morais was yet to complete. Pushing like hell actually two times almost crash but yeah if you don't risk you know you never win. Making his way across the finish line Morais waited for the time to appear and the clock swung in favor of Batuska after 388 kilometers the difference just 52 seconds. I think we managed very well the car we have and so finally a good stage we deserve for sure. Batuska adding another W2RC stage win to his tally Armindo Orojo again in the top five and quietly creeping into contention. With Batuska out front Orojo who has been quick and consistent now finds himself up into second place overall another hometown hero hoping for a result. And finally to the SSB class Gioa Montero once again outpacing everyone else in his south racing run Kanam over eight minutes clear of Rui Serpa his lead now a healthy 15 minutes no question the terrain was tough today but Montero rose to the challenge. Yeah another good day we did very well the car it's amazing so we have very good technical parts for that car but other than that it's so fast but we'll do good tomorrow. Meanwhile W2RC stage winner and third fastest over the 388 kilometers was Ricardo Romillo the Spanish driver enjoying himself and making use of the familiar conditions as the rally now crosses the border into his home country. I like so much it's difficult so much difficult many cars left in the track right and left crazy stays but I like because in my city in my home we have this climb and training so much with the motorbike motocross and enduro and triale in this style. What an event it has been for Montero leading from stage one and another convincing stage victory today. And that means it's all turning into a healthy overall lead 15 minutes and eight seconds clear of Romillo in second with Serpa three minutes further back. Before we go every stage has that one corner that catches everyone out and we just so happen to put our camera there so we'll leave you with a few off-road excursions and we'll be back tomorrow for more action from the BP Ultimate Rally Raid this time from Spain don't miss it.