Paulo Mendes will start the next Rali da Madeira, "as always, trying to reach the finish line with the best possible result. Although we have been racing with this car for some time, we still have a lot to learn about it, and a race of this nature is great for drawing conclusions, discovering new things, and looking for new settings in terms of electronics, which is quite extensive in this model. Even in this context, I intend to do better than I did last year, when we had many problems and it was difficult to get the car to the finish line. We will try to enjoy the rally from start to finish, hoping that the weather conditions will be good. In Porsches, we cannot take tyres to change..."

Paulo Mendes is 61 years old and competed in his first rally in 2014 with a Porsche 997 GT3. Over the years, he has combined hill climbs with rallies and is known for his fast performances, which are always determined by great consistency. He won the RGT class in the Madeira championship in 2021 and 2023. A year ago, he debuted his current car, a Porsche 992 GT3, the first model to be used in this category in Europe. Adapting a model designed for the track to rallies took some time, and the driver is still making several adjustments to his car.