Gonçalo Henriques returns to Rali da Madeira – this time in a Hyundai i20N Rally2 – describing it as “a very beautiful rally, but one we didn’t take part in back in 2025. We’ll try to see where we can position ourselves and how the upgrades we’ve made to the car will perform. It will be very difficult to fight for the lead, but we hope to be closer to the drivers who are likely to be battling for overall victory. We promise to do our best in that regard. This year we haven’t had a single ‘clean’ event yet, with minor issues in every race, and we’d like to turn that situation around and improve our position in the championship.”

The driver is 27 years old and made his rally debut in 2018 in a Renault Clio Williams. He drove that car until 2021 and in 2022 switched to a Kia Picanto GT, in which he won the FPAK junior championship. The following year, he split his time between the Renault Clio Rally5 and Rally4 and won the national two-wheel-drive championship, a feat he repeated in 2024. Last year, he began representing Hyundai Portugal, a team he remains with in 2026 and with which he is currently fourth in the Portuguese Rally Championship.