Brazilian Lucas Moraes had another victory on the horizon during 120 of the 375 km of Wednesday's special stage. Driver fights for podium at the World Championship in Morocco

This Wednesday (9), which marked the third day of competition at the Rally of Morocco, the fifth and final stage of the World Rally Raid Championship, was a difficult day for Brazilian Lucas Moraes, who competes alongside Spanish navigator Armand Monleon for the official Toyota Gazoo Racing team.
After winning yesterday's second stage, Lucas started at the front of the pack, a position that is not advantageous for a rally in the Sahara desert. Throughout the first sections of the 375 km timed stage between Zagora and Mengoub, the Brazilian remained among the best, with a good pace.

A problem with the accelerator pedal ended up hindering the duo who, at km 128, had to stop the car to fix another pedal, the brake. “It was a bit of bad luck, but the good thing is that we opened the race for more than 120 km calmly until we had the brake problem, without making any mistakes. The mistake was that, in one of the attempts to fix the broken accelerator pedal, we ended up hitting a lever and that affected the front brake. It wasn't our day,” said the driver.
Despite the setback, Lucas and Monleón managed to finish the stage with just over an hour's gap to the winners, Sebastien Loeb (France)/Fabian Lurquin (Belgium). In the overall standings of the rally, led by Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar)/Edouard Boulanger (France), the Brazilian is 13th.

After winning the Rally dos Sertões three times in September, Lucas Moraes can finish the World Rally Raid Championship in third place, an unprecedented podium for Brazil. The driver from São Paulo has stabilized his position with 108 points and will continue competing in Morocco until Friday, with the support of Red Bull, Repsol, Strava, Oakley and Zapalla, as well as the Brazilian tire brand SpeedMax, which sponsors the Toyota team.

Automatic translation of the original Brazilian Portuguese version
Source: BestPR / Lucas Moraes
Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing