Stage 1
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Key points :
- Stage 1 between Fez and Erfoud, the date capital of Morocco, was the longest of this 26th edition of the Rallye du Maroc, covering 779 km, including 298 km of special stage over the Rekkam plateau.
- In the motorcycle category, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing placed Daniel Sanders and Edgar Canet in the top two spots, but teammate Luciano Benavides crashed out. “Chucky” takes the overall lead. Noa Sainct (Nomade Racing), winner in Rally3, gives KTM a triple victory for the day and overall.
- In cars, Sébastien Loeb (The Dacia Sandriders) bounced back from his teammate Nasser Al Attiyah’s prologue victory, ahead of Mattias Ekström (Ford M-Sport) and Lucas Moraes (Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC), to take the lead in the rally. Al Attiyah, in 20th place, was the day’s loser.
- In the Challenger, SSV and Truck categories, Yasir Seaidan (Race World – MMP), Joao Dias (Santag Racing) and Martin Macik (MM Technology) were the winners and are the leaders in their respective categories.
- Stage 2, the first of four loop stages around Erfoud, will take place tomorrow over 394 km, including 307 km of special stage with the first dunes.
ON TRACK
Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda HRC) failed to capitalize on his prologue victory. After a poor start to the special stage (see quotes), the American was never in contention today. Daniel Sanders was the fastest from start to finish, followed in the timesheets by Edgar Canet (+1’24“), his teammate competing in the Rally2 category. An triple orange was on the cards until km 219, when Luciano Benavides crashed, retiring with injuries to his shoulder and knee. At the finish of the special stage, “Chucky” claimed his fourth victory on the Rallye du Maroc (stage 4 in 2021, stages 3-4 in 2024), his 16th of the season, and his 24th in the world championship, all of which are current records. Ross Branch (Hero MotoSports) completed the day’s podium (+4’05“). The four factory Hondas followed in single file at the finish of the special stage.
In the overall standings, Sanders takes the lead with a 1’35“ advantage over his Spanish teammate and 4’38” over the Hero rider from Botswana. Benavides‚ retirement reduces the battle for the world championship podium behind Sanders to a head-to-head between Brabec and Tosha Schareina. This is the consolation prize for the Reds, who can also hope to get back into the fight for the manufacturers‘ title, which they have held for the last three seasons.
Like his team leader at KTM, Edgar Canet completely dominated his rivals in Rally2. The Spaniard leads ahead of Michael Docherty (BAS World KTM, +8’25“) and Martim Ventura (Honda HRC, +12’34”). In Rally3, Noa Sainct (Nomade Racing) claimed his first world championship victory. The son of Richard took the lead ahead of Thomas Zoldos (Aub’Moto, +12’31“) to give KTM a one-two-three finish!
In cars, Nasser Al Attiyah, like Ricky Brabec, failed to capitalize on yesterday’s victory. At km 210, the Qatari stopped for nearly 10 minutes to make repairs (see quotes). He finished the day in 20th place (+12’40“). This may already be the turning point of the race for the winner of the 2024 edition, but also for the defense of his world championship title (see W2RC). Ahead of him, teammate Sébastien Loeb had a flawless day and became the race leader. The Frenchman narrowly beat Mattias Ekström (+27”) and Lucas Moraes (+29”). Nani Roma (Ford M-Sport, +44 seconds), Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC, +1 minute 16 seconds) and Carlos Sainz (Ford M-Sport, +1 minute 55 seconds) are also close behind.
In the Challenger category, Khalifa Al Attiyah (QQMF Racing by Nasser Racing) suffered a similar fate to his brother. Less than a minute behind Yasir Seaidan with 70 km to go, the Qatari finished 14’19“ behind. The Saudi Arabian won today, securing his seventh victory of the season after winning three stages on the Dakar and the same number at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, his two appearances in W2RC this season. Seaidan finished ahead of BBR drivers Charles Munster (+3’34“) and Dania Akeel (+5’01”). The Portuguese continued to dominate in SSV, with Joao Dias winning ahead of his compatriots Alexandre Pinto (Old Friends Rally, +13“) and Luis Cidade (South Racing Can-Am, +1’14”). In the truck category, Martin Macik continues his Moroccan harvest, which began on the 2024 prologue. The Czech is the only winner from yesterday to conserve his lead and this evening is 32’51“ ahead of Kay Huzink (Kuipers Jongbloed Hybrid Dakar).
RADIO BIVOUAC
When Paul Krause competed in the Dakar back in 1998, he was literally the only American in the entire competition. Although he was on his own and had only the Nevada Rally under his belt, he managed to finish in a very respectable 14th place. “It was obviously very different back then, but it was a magical experience. I remember reaching the top of a dune. And there, in front of me, stretched the entire Sahara. Nothing but dunes as far as the eye could see, it was incredible. Then I came back in 2004 on a big KTM 950 twin.” Today, Paul is back in the Sahara for the third time, but not on a motorcycle. His son Brandon explains: „Dad never pushed me to ride a motorcycle or try rally raiding, but I’ve raced my whole life with guys like Ricky Brabec and Skyler Howes, so it was inevitable that I would catch the bug. I won the Road to Dakar at the Sonora Rally, and I have to finish here to confirm my place in the 2026 Dakar. I’d like to do well here, but the most important thing is to make it to the finish line.“ Brandon is being supported in his rally raid debut by the BAS World KTM team, widely considered one of the best privateer teams in the bivouac. And if all goes according to plan, he will be back with them in January. “For his mother and me, this is too good an opportunity for him to pass up. And the fact that he asked me to accompany him and share his great adventure is really special for me.”
STAT OF THE DAY: 11
Al Attiyah is currently 12’40“ behind Loeb. In his seven victories on the Rallye du Maroc, the Qatari was the race leader at the end of the first stage on four occasions (2016, 2018, 2021, and 2024). On the other three occasions, Nasser finished third on stage 1 before going on to win (+1’05“ in 2014, +1’38” in 2015 and +12’51“ in 2017). A similar gap to today’s already existed in 2017, and it was between Loeb, the leader at that stage, and Al Attiyah. At the finish of the 2017 race, Al Attiyah won ahead of the Frenchman! The current deficit of the seven-time winner of the Rallye du Maroc is therefore not a first; the situation has already been 11 seconds more dramatic, with a happy ending. But Nasser has never won when he was off the podium at the end of stage 1. He is 20th this Monday evening.
THE RALLYE DU MAROC AND ME
Martin Macik (MM Technology)
Two-time winner in trucks (2024-22)
My first Rallye du Maroc…
„My first Rallye du Maroc in 2015 was my first rally raid. I love nature and motorsports, it was the perfect mix, but I felt like I was in a washing machine, with a flood of information coming at me! We had problems and couldn’t finish.”
Your last Rallye du Maroc…
”Last year, we won the race for the second time. Now, it’s not the same at all. We came, we had a new truck to test, we won the all special stages from the prologue to the last stage, and we went home. We’re totally focused on our performance. It’s true that we don’t enjoy the bivouac side of the race as much anymore, but that’s what it means to be a professional.”
TOMORROW’S STAGE AS SEEN BY MARC COMA
The Moroccan recipe: “This is the first stage with dunes. It starts with small dunes and vegetation in the first few kilometers, as a warm-up, before the Erg Chebbi dunes, which will be crossed twice, the second time just before the finish. It’s a complete stage. There is sand, rocks, a section with hazards marked on the road book that will be demanding on the vehicles, and navigation will start to become more important. It has all the ingredients of the Rallye du Maroc.“
W2RC: THE NOOSE IS TIGHTENING!
Nasser Al Attiyah arrived at the Rallye du Maroc with a 9-point lead over Henk Lategan and 10 points ahead of Lucas Moraes in the world championship. The Qatari did not score any stage points on Monday, unlike the Brazilian (3rd, +3 pts) and the South African (5th, +1 pt). The virtual standings now show Moraes as Al Attiyah’s new runner-up, 7 points behind, with Lategan 8 points behind. Every kilometer will count in Erfoud, where the fourth FIA title in the history of the W2RC will be decided. There are still 53 points up for grabs, including 3 in the Power Selective Section, a new feature introduced this year that will conclude the 2025 season. What if the title is decided over this final sprint?
QUOTES
Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda HRC): “I started out way too calm. No nervousness, kinda took it way easy the first 9 kilometres and that definitely hurt me. I tried to make up for it later on. It was a difficult morning but this is the first time in two years I’ve made it back to the bivouac on stage one so I’ll take the small win and have another go tomorrow.”
Daniel Sanders (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing): “Good and bad. Good to get the stage win and riding well at the end but a rough start this morning. Waking up at 3 is not good and the road section was really long, so we’re going to be pretty tired tomorrow. The start of the special was really technical and at high altitude so the engine was bogging. Then when we got into some more open desert, it was a little faster and easier to navigate. I past Luciano at about km 30 / 40 and then I set the pace. I kept looking back and he was there and out of the dust, so it was safe. 15 kays before the refuel he was still there and then at the refuel he wasn’t. Then Tosha arrived and we knew it wasn’t good. Best wishes to him. He was bouncing back and this is a very important race. Hopefully it is nothing too serious.”
Edgar Canet (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing): “Super happy with the day and the feeling on the bike. But sad for Luciano. I hope he makes a fast recovery. Apart from that Sanders P1 and me P2 is good for the team and I have a good gap in Rally2 which means I can take a little more time. We need to take it a little easy ‘cos Dakar is only 2 months away, so we need to think about that.”
Sébastien Loeb (The Dacia Sandriders): “It was a nice stage and we had a good rhythm from the start to the end. No problems with the car, no punctures, just losing a bit of time in the dust but I think that was the same for everyone. Tomorrow it will be the first time with Edouard that we will be first on the road, so it will be a new challenge. We know it can be tricky to be first, you can lose quite a lot of time if the tracks are difficult to see. But that’s the game. We’ll do our best and see how it goes.”
Nasser Al Attiyah (The Dacia Sandriders): “After I think 200 kilometres, maybe 190, we had a small ditch but it was in first gear so we take it easy and go and then suddenly we have a problem with one of the front wheels. We stopped and saw that the steering arm was damaged. We decided to change it and that cost us 10 minutes. So not an easy day and then tomorrow we start 20th and try and push.”
Quelle / Source / Pictures / Bilder: Rally du Maroc
