The Portuguese pairing of Francisco Barreto and Paulo Fiuza did their challenge for honours in the FIA World Baja Cup no harm at all by sealing a comfortable victory in the 2026 Pordenone-based Italian Baja.
Driving a Toyota Hilux Evo run by SVR Racing, Barreto led by 3min 38.6sec at the night halt and stayed clear of trouble through the final stage on Sunday to win the three-day event for the first time by 3min 15.8sec.
“We are very, very happy,” said Barreto. “It’s the first win that I have in my career. It was a difficult stage today, three times over the same tracks and in reverse. Paulo did a great job. I also need to dedicate this to my family because they support me all the races.”
Dutchman Paul Spierings and his navigator Mark Salomons earned the runner-up spot and first in the Challenger category in a Taurus Evo Max but were not registered for either the FIA World or European Baja Cups.
After a disappointing start to his FIA European Baja Cup campaign, Lithuanian driver Benediktas Vanagas bounced back strongly in northern Italy to claim third overall with navigator Aisvydas Paliukenas. That gave him outright victory in the European round with his Gurtam Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics Hilux.
Vanagas said: “Third overall and P1 in the European Cup. We came here to collect maximum points. We’ve done that. We had a puncture on Saturday and then we were stuck very much in the dust.”
The British crew of Sean Haran and Martin Hales finished fourth in a Polaris RZR Pro R and dominated the SSV category from start-to-finish but, like Spierings and Salomons, they were not registered for the FIA championships.
The Dutch duo of Mitchel van den Brink and Bart van Heun topped the Challenger standings in the FIA World Baja Cup by finishing fifth overall in a South Racing Can-Am Maverick R. A second successive win after the recent success in Greece has pushed them firmly into contention to challenge Oman’s Hamed Al-Wahaibi and Qatar’s Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari for the Challenger title.
Van den Brink said: “Mixed feelings. We struggled with brake problems on Saturday and we were on our way to the stage win today until we struggled with turbo failures. We took maximum points for the Baja World Cup with second overall and first in our category.”
Paulo Rodrigues and Fausto Mota were classified in sixth in a Rio Seco Racing Can-Am Maverick R and topped the SSV standings in the FIA European Baja Cup. The result also enabled the Portuguese to extend his advantage in the European SSV series and move into the overall FIA European Baja Cup lead.
Poland’s Maríusz Wiatr (Ford F-150 Evo) and Łukasz Łaskawiec finished seventh and third in the FIA European Baja Cup, while eighth-placed Karel Trněný and Václav Pritzl picked up valuable points for finishing fourth in the European series and third in the regional Ultimate category in their Ford F-150 Evo. Karel gained ground on the series-leading Magdalena Zając as a result.
Dutchman Erik van Loon returned to action with Wouter Rosegaar in a South Racing Can-Am and finished ninth and as the leading Master driver, despite a late time-consuming puncture. He was also the leading SSV finisher registered for the FIA World Baja Cup.
Brazil’s Rodrigo Luppi and Maykel Justo (Polaris) rounded off the top 10 after Poland’s Tomasz Białkowski (Polaris) and Dariusz Baśkiewicz picked up a 10-minute time penalty and slipped back to 15th.
Young Norwegian talent Hedda Hosås finished 17th with navigator Pol Tibau and that result earned the R-X Sport Can-Am driver third place amongst the SSVs in the FIA World Baja Cup and points for fifth overall towards her Drivers’ Championship challenge. The result enabled her to move ahead of the absent Fernando Alvarez, take the SSV lead in the FIA World Baja Cup and head towards the top of the overall drivers’ rankings.
Hosås said: “It was a tricky rally for us. We had problems with overheating, brake failure and navigational issues. It was so hot. I have never been drinking so much water.”
Top Junior driver Dinis Rogeira and his navigator Nelson Ramos were able to continue their unchallenged stroll towards the FIA European Baja Challenger title with 20th overall in their 767/PRK Sport Rally Team Can-Am.
Minor late route changes saw the Prologue reduced to 13.97km and the two days of action trimmed slightly. This resulted in the loss of 11.23 competitive kilometres in a revised total route of 652.39km.
The final start list saw 54 cars in the line-up of which 15 were registered for each of the FIA World and European Baja Cups. South African motorcycle racer Charan Moore was a late replacement for François Cazalet in the Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota alongside Saood Variawa.
Dust was a major factor through the opening 13.97km Prologue stage that ran between Cordenons and Zoppola and was named in honour of navigator Giulia Maroni. The conditions played into the hands of top seed and FIA World Baja Cup leader Dania Akeel. She carded the quickest time of 9min 53.6sec to beat top Challenger runner Van Den Brink to the win by 3.7 seconds. Variawa came home third, ahead of Barreto and Al-Wahaibi.
The latter had survived an accident on the morning’s shakedown when he rolled his Taurus and cracked the screen after a collision with a tree stump.
Akeel opted to start first on the road but suffered an accident after a mistake during the first section of the opening stage on Saturday morning and that opened the door for Variawa to claim the stage win. The South African finished the special 17 seconds quicker than Barreto.
Akeel said: “We had a good start and then I came to a really tight left-hand corner. Seb (Delaunay) told me to take the parallel track because it looked a bit faster, but it turned out there was a wall blocking us from rejoining the course. Trying to get back, I went too fast and damaged the car.
At the finish in Blessano di Basiliano, stage one winner Variawa said: “It was quite a tough stage to open up – a lot of grass was very slippery and the track was narrow, so we were cleaning the roads. Just one or two overshoots but everything was in control. We overtook the leader car (Akeel) 15km into the special.”
Vanagas and Ramos came home in third and fourth, ahead of Spierings, who topped the times in the Challenger section from seventh-placed Van Den Brink. Sean Haran was sixth and led the SSVs. Aliyyah Koloc retired her Buggyra ZM Racing Red-Lined Revo.
Barreto got the better of Al-Wahaibi on the afternoon re-run of the stage and the Portuguese was able to secure an overnight lead of 3min 38.6sec over Spierings. Vanagas led the European Baja Cup entrants in third, ahead of SSV leader Haran, Al-Wahaibi and van den Brink.
Hungarian Lőrinc Mészáros (Century CR7) and Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (Taurus) were two of several drivers unable to finish the stage, the latter surviving a roll after breaking a suspension arm. Mansour Al-Helai lost 24 minutes with a turbo failure and early leader Variawa broke the steering on his Toyota and lost valuable time making emergency repairs.
Sunday’s shorter stage of 94.42km was run in reverse, started from Dignano and was split into two sections before heading back to finish in Vacile di Spilimbergo. The stage included a final 10km stretch that had never been used before.
Variawa bounced back strongly from his steering issues to claim the stage win from Baud by 1min 49.8sec but both drivers had lost their chance of a top finish on Saturday with the latter suffering alternator and resultant battery issues. Both, however, picked up valuable stage points on the day and finished 32nd and 33rd overall.
French racing driver Stéphane Sarrazin teamed up with Laurent Magat to set the third quickest time in his new high-voltage hybrid Minotor M1. Barreto was content to finish 10th but that was sufficient to seal outright victory in Italy.
The sporting Portuguese driver Joan Ramos was forced to retire his Toyota Hilux after fire damage sustained after he had stopped to offer assistance to another competitor. Włodzimierz Grajek and Master driver front-runner Al-Wahaibi also failed to finish the last stage, the latter clipping a tree and breaking the front-right corner of his Taurus but he is the new outright leader of the FIA World Baja Cup.
The Saudi duo of Al-Mashna Al-Shammeri and Abdullah Al-Shammeri extended their lead in the FIA World Baja Cup’s Stock category for series-production cross-country vehicles with a dominant maiden victory in Italy. The Nissan Patrol driver tops the standings from fellow countryman and Italian debutant Majed Al-Thunayyan. Al-Shammeri won all three stages.
A high rate of attrition in the punishing heat saw 14 retirements from the 54 starters.
The FIA World and European Baja Cups resume with the Teruel-based Baja Spain Aragón on July 23rd-26th.
2026 Italian Baja – final result:
1. Francisco Barreto (POR)/Paulo Fiuza (POR) Toyota Hilux Evo 5hr 21min 38.8sec*
2. Paul Spierings (NED)/Mark Salomons (NED) Taurus Evo Max 5hr 24min 54.6sec
3. Benediktas Vanagas (LTU)/Aisvydas Paliukenas (LTU) Toyota Hilux 5hr 25min 33.3sec+
4. Sean Haran (GBR)/Martin Hales (GBR) Polaris RZR Pro R 5hr 27min 05.6sec
5. Mitchel van den Brink (NED)/Bart van Heun (NED) Can-Am Maverick R 5hr 29min 57.5sec*
6. Paulo Rodrigues (POR)/Fausto Mota (POR) Can-Am Maverick R 5hr 35min 09.6sec+
7. Maríusz Wiatr (POL)/Łukasz Łaskawiec (POL) Ford F-150 Evo 5hr 36min 20.4sec+
8. Karel Trněný (CZE)/Václav Pritzl (CZE) Ford F-150 Evo 5hr 38min 32.3sec+
9. Erik van Loon (NED)/Wouter Rosegaar (NED) Can-Am Maverick R 5hr 40min 49.6sec*
10. Rodrigo Luppi (BRA)/Maykel Justo (BRA) Polaris RZR Pro R Rally 5hr 46min 28.2sec
11. Filipe Lopes (POR)/Gonçalo Reis (POR) Can-Am Maverick R 5hr 46min 50.6sec+
12. Andre Schiumarini (ITA)/Daniele Saccheti (ITA) Century CR6 5hr 47min 20.3sec
13. Adam Lacko (CZE)/Mirko Brun (ITA) Red-Lined Revo T1 5hr 48min 18.0sec
14. Riccardo Benettolo (ITA)/Irene Saderini (ITA) Taurus T3 Max 5hr 48min 19.8sec
15. Tomasz Białkowski (POL)/Dariusz Baśkiewicz (POL) Polaris RXR Pro R 5hr 50min 32.2sec*
16. Murat Kapanoğlu (BUL)/Aleksandr Trendafilov (BUL) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR 5hr 50min 32.7sec+
17. Hedda Hosås (NOR)/Pol Tibau (ESP) Can-Am Maverick R 5hr 50min 45.5sec*
18. Costel Căşuneanu (ROU)/Sergiu Itu (ROU) Mini Countryman R60 CC 5hr 52min 40.6sec+
19. Martin Cisella (ITA)/Erika Mingozzi (ITA) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR 5hr 53min 45.1sec
20. Dinis Rogeira (POR)/Nelson Ramos (POR) Can-Am Maverick X3 5hr 55min 47.7sec+
21. Mansour Al-Helai (UAE)/Khalid Al-Kendi (UAE) Can-Am Maverick R 5hr 58min 37.5sec*
22. Khalid Al-Jafla (UAE)/Andrei Rudnitskiy (LTU) Toyota Hilux Evo 6hr 01min 09.6sec*
23. Marek Kubiczek (POL)/Dominik Ragiel (POL) Taurus Evo Max 6hr 01min 17.9sec
24. Rebecca Busi (ITA)/José Cornejo (CHI) Taurus Evo Max 6hr 01min 59.1sec
25. Marcin Nasiłowski (POL)/Michał Goleniewski (POL) Taurus T3 Max 6hr 02min 51.0sec
26. Magdalena Zając (POL)/Błażej Czekan (POL) Toyota Hilux 6hr 03min 39.4sec+
27. Bruno Conti (BRA)/Jhonatan Ardigo (BRA) Polaris RZR Pro R 6hr 05min 47.5sec
28. Alexandre Pesci (SUI)/Stephan Kuhni (SUI) Taurus Evo Max 6hr 39min 42.6sec
29. Al-Mashna Al-Shammeri (KSA)/Abdullah Al-Shammeri (KSA) Nissan Patrol 7hr 06min 24.0sec*
30. Hamed Al-Wahaibi (OMA)/Maciej Giemza (POL) Taurus Evo Max 7hr 15min 04.5sec*
31. Majed Al-Thunayyan (KSA)/Omar Al-Lahim (KSA) Nissan Patrol 7hr 20min 19.4sec*
32. Saood Variawa (RSA)/Charan Moore (RSA) Toyota Hilux Evo 8hr 01min 28.7sec*
33. Lionel Baud (FRA)/Lucie Baud (FRA) X-Raid Mini JCW 3.0d 8hr 06min 21.2sec*
34. Stéphane Sarrazin (FRA)/Laurent Magat (FRA) Minotor M1 8hr 06min 43.2sec
35. Kevin Haran (GBR)/Jorge Jordão (POR) Polaris RZR Pro R 8hr 14min 33.8sec
36. Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (QAT)/Max Delfino (FRA) Taurus Evo Max 8hr 17min 10.7sec*
37. Rúben Rodrigues (POL)/Paulo Rui (POR) Can-Am Maverick R 8hr 20min 39.6sec+
38. Martin Benko (SVK)/Marek Sýkora (SVK) Taurus T3 Max 8hr 28min 31.2sec
39. José Rogeira (POR)/Paulo Marques (POR) Ford Ranger 8hr 35min 55.4sec+
40. Fernando Barreiros (POR)/José Sá Pires (POR) Isuzu D-Max 9hr 12min 18.9sec*
Dania Akeel (KSA)/Sébastian Delaunay (FRA) Toyota Hilux Evo RETIRED*
Ernest Kús (POL)/Grzegorz Szymanski (POL) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR RETIRED+
Lőrinc Mészáros (HUN)/Albert Horn (HUN) Century CR7 RETIRED+
João Ramos (POR)/Jorge Carvalho (POR) Toyota Hilux RETIRED+
Aliyyah Koloc (UAE)/Marcin Pasek (POL) Red-Lined Revo GTR RETIRED*
Pal Lónyai (HUN)/Alexandra Miklos (HUN) LPR Porsche Macan RETIRED
Włodzimierz Grajek (POL)/Szymon Marciniak (POL) Toyota Hilux RETIRED
Massimo Salvatore (ITA)/Roberto Briani (ITA) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR RETIRED
Gianpaolo Bedin (ITA)/Sara Torrielli (ITA) Buggy Raitec RT3B Maverick X3 RETIRED
Bartosz Kaziród (POL)/Rafal Jedrys (POL) Taurus T3 Max RETIRED
Tómas Kubiena (CZE)/Miroslav Losos (CZE) Can-Am Maverick R RETIRED
Alexsandr Celiadin (LTU)/Nuno Morais (POR) Can-Am Maverick R RETIRED
Fabio Samsa (ITA)/Roberto Marzocco (ITA) Toyota Hilux RETIRED
Paul Schmidt (GER)/Jeanette Kvick (DEN) X-raid Yamaha YXZ 1000R Turbo RETIRED
*denotes registered for FIA World Baja Cup
+denotes registered for FIA European Baja Cup
