A fine performance by Anja van Loon, Floor Maten and Marije van Ettekoven. In the Iveco Powerstar, Ladies Team De Rooy FPT recorded the sixth time on the prologue, just 1:49 behind Martin Macik. For Erik van Loon and Hein Verschuuren the problems on the Can-Am are not solved and they immediately lose a lot of time. With that, a good classification seems ruled out before the rally has actually started.

"I can be very short about it," Erik says. "It's very frustrating, since Italy there have been technical problems and every time they say they have found cause. It turns out not to be so, the car suddenly stops and after a few minutes it starts again. We stopped for eight minutes on a 19 kilometer test. Tomorrow we have 311 kilometers on the program, if they can't find anything tonight it will be a long day for us. I'm extremely bummed about this, you hope that things will just go well for once and they don't. Fortunately Anja started well, I'm happy with that."

On a prologue there is usually more to lose than to win, but Anja did not let herself be tempted to make mistakes. "We just rode well. We got sixth by a small margin, which is just good. There's still a long way to go to the finish, so I didn't want to make any mistakes and I didn't. The truck is good and it also feels familiar in the cabin. On to the first real test tomorrow."

That first test goes from Agadir to Zagora and is also the longest day for the competitors. In addition to 311 kilometers at speed, 397 kilometers will be covered on the road. The first participant will leave at 12:09 a.m. (1:09 p.m. Dutch time) and is expected at the finish line around 3:37 p.m. (4:37 p.m. Dutch time). The rally can be followed live at https://www.maroc.live.worldrallyraidchampionship.com/en/car/.

Automatic translation from the original Dutch version

Source: Van Loon Racing