João Silva is participating in Rali da Madeira with a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, which he debuted in the previous round. He hopes to "have a good race and fight for the top spots. I'd like to be able to fight for victory again. We're not at our peak because we're still adapting to our new car. We'll see if I can reach the level I was aiming for. This year we'll also be thinking about our championship and we can't go all-in. The rally has a very strong entry list, with many top drivers, and many have the potential to win. We'll have two days of testing, getting to grips with the car and fine-tuning it. Despite that, I'll be the one who knows the car the least from the start." João Silva is 37 years old and took his first steps in rallying in 2007 with a Toyota Yaris. The driver, navigated by Luis Rodrigues, spent many years racing front-wheel drive cars and even participated in the WRC Academy in 2012 with a Ford Fiesta R2. He was the Madeira Junior Champion in 2009 and 2010 and the two-wheel drive champion in 2023 with a Peugeot 208 Rally4. His first overall victory came in 2017 in a Citroën DS3 R5. In 2025, he drove a Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo, won the Marítimo Rally, and finished second in the regional championship.

The third day of "Rally Talks" takes place today at 12 p.m. at Plaza Madeira, with the theme "Growing Up in Rallies... Stories from the Past and Present." Joining Duarte Lagos will be Roberto Fernandes, whose life is tied to competition, and Luís Boiça, who has been involved in motorsports since a young age, having begun his career in karting and currently competes as a co-driver. Join us for these live conversations or through social media, with the live broadcast on Streamadeira. In yesterday's conversation, Paulo Almada, a journalist for RTP Madeira, shared his perspective on rallying from a different perspective: life behind the camera.  

Rali da Madeira Organisation is conducting training for the doctors and nurses who will support this year's event. This initiative brings together a team of 25 healthcare professionals, focused on reviewing and optimizing first aid procedures. The main goal of the training is to deepen knowledge about assisting victims in the event of an accident, with a special emphasis on the specific characteristics of rally vehicles. These vehicles have specific characteristics that require very specific approaches and rescue techniques, ensuring the safety and effective treatment of drivers and co-drivers. The training will take place at the Funchal Fire Department's facilities, located on Avenida Calouste Gulbenkian, strengthening collaboration between the various entities involved in the Rali da Madeira’s safety.

Miguel Caires heads to Rali da Madeira, "a rally with many Rally2 competitors, many competitive competitors, many strong teams, with three to five drivers for the overall victory. This should guarantee plenty of excitement. For us, this will be another opportunity to demonstrate all the development work we've been doing. In the last two races, we've managed to establish a growing pace; in Calheta, we were fighting for victory until the final stage. This pleases us and the many fans of the sport. Our goal is to maintain this consistent record, to show that, with each step, we're a little stronger, and if that happens, it will be an interesting result for us. Our opponents are very strong and eager to win. We won't get involved in that fight; this is a very different race from the Regional, and we have to know how to manage every kilometre we cover, as any mistake could be fatal. We have to keep our feet on the ground." Miguel Caires is 43 years old and made his rally debut in 2019 in a Peugeot 208 R2. For the following two years, he drove a Ford Fiesta Rally4. In 2022, he switched to a Renault Clio Rally4 and won the RC4 class in the Madeiran championship. Since then, he has competed in versions of the Skoda Fabia from the Rally2 group. In 2025, he drove a Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, finished third in the regional championship, and led the Calheta Rally for the longest time.

Belgian Joachim Wagemans returns to Rali da Madeira with an Alpine A110 RGT. The driver believes that "this year should be better. I have better competitive pace because I raced in Italy. It was with a Rally4, but it's always about driving. The biggest difference will also be that I now have more experience with a car I wasn't familiar with in 2024, and I hadn't been in action for five years. We also have pace notes, which gave us a lot of work last year. The Rally2s are faster and our cars are the same, so I think it will be very difficult to achieve a result like we did in 2024. Let's hope we don't have any problems and can use our experience to go faster." Wagemans is 30 years old and made his rally debut in 2012 with a Ford Fiesta R2. He used this vehicle until 2014 and the following year switched to a Peugeot 208 R2, the model he drove in his debut at Rali da Madeira in 2017. In the following edition, he returned with a Peugeot 208 T16 R5. It was also in 2018 that he won the TER two-wheel drive cup. He returned to Madeira in 2024 with an Alpine A110 RGT and finished seventh. In 2025, he competed in three rallies in Italy with a Peugeot 208 Rally4 and a Lancia Ypsilon Rally4 HF.

Dani Sordo will have the number 1 on his Hyundai i20N Rally2 in the 66th edition of the Rali da Madeira, which takes place in a week's time. The Spanish Hyundai driver tops the list of 97 entrants revealed this afternoon by Club Sports da Madeira, the entity responsible for the event since its first edition in 1959. The list revealed today is marked not only by a large number of competitors but also by their high quality, promising a memorable rally. The list made public today includes 24 competitors with Rally2 cars, 7 with RGT and 26 with Rally4, which, under normal conditions, will allow many spectators to watch for about an hour the evolution of teams with the best cars available at this time at the international competitive level. Rali da Madeira will feature international stars as well as drivers competing for the top positions in national and regional championships and those from single-brand competitions that include the event in their calendar. In addition to Sordo, Simone Campedelli and Diego Ruiloba, the two fastest drivers in last year's edition, will be at the start of the event, and, among others, names such as Kris Meeke, Armindo Araújo, Ricardo Teodósio, Miguel Nunes, José Pedro Fontes, João Silva, Rúben Rodrigues, Alexandre Camacho, the record holder for victories in the rally, Miguel Caires, and Rui Jorge Fernandes. These and other competitors will be behind the wheel of all the brands present in this group, Skoda, with several versions of the Fabia Rally2, Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, Citroën C3 Rally2, Hyundai i20N Rally2 and even a Ford Fiesta R5. Filipe Freitas, Gil Freitas, Joachim Wagemans and Paulo Mendes are references in the low and efficient RGTs made by Porsche and Alpine. Competition within competition, the fight for supremacy among front-wheel drive vehicle users will be fierce. In addition to the drivers who set the pace in this category at both national and regional level, Rali da Madeira will once again feature the main contenders in the Peugeot Rally Cup Iberica and Portugal. The balance between RC4 cars even leads names such as Vasco Silva, Sandro Teixeira, Carlos Ferreira, Henrique Moniz, Ricardo Sousa, Giovanni Fariña and the previous winner of the rally, Adruzilo Lopes, to predict how the various stages of the race will unfold. The event, directed by Filipe Sousa, will also feature drivers in the not-so-current R3T, Nuno Ferreira and João Alix, as well as stars of the show such as Cláudio Nóbrega in a Datsun 1200, Miguel Gouveia in a BMW E36 and Mário Oliveira in a Ford Escort RS Mk II. There are plenty of reasons for the rally-loving locals and the many visitors who come to Madeira at this time of year to be impatient for Rali da Madeira to get underway.

Gil Freitas is back to compete in Rali da Madeira with an Alpine A110 RGT and aims to "fight for a place in the top ten. That would be great. I was out of action for almost a year and last week we were in Ponte de Lima to get back into the swing of things, but unfortunately we didn't finish due to a breakdown in the car. I am keen to take part in the Rally because it is such a great event. We will have many opponents in our group because this is a very popular race and one that drivers like to be part of. We are prepared and I just hope it doesn't rain because with the RGTs we can't carry spare tyres in the car like the other competitors. That limits us." The driver started rallying in 2013 with an Opel Kadett GT/E and in the same year quickly switched to an Opel Ascona 400. The following season, he started driving a Porsche 997 GT3, which he kept until 2016 and with which he was national champion of the group in 2015 and won the AMAK trophy between 2014 and 2016. In 2017, he drove a Citroën DS3 R5, but the following year he returned to Porsche, this time with a 991 GT3. In 2024, he finished tenth in Rali da Madeira with an Alpine A110 RGT, which he is driving again this year.