• Sam posts his best stage result so far at 2022 Rallye du Maroc
• Dakar champ narrowly misses out on a top-three stage finish
• Technical terrain and tricky navigation no match for Sunderland

Onwards and upwards! Stage three of the 2022 Rallye du Maroc saw Sam Sunderland back at the sharp end of the results as the Brit mastered the gnarly terrain to clock the fourth-fastest time. After what was by far his best performance this week, Sam’s now knocking on the door of the top five in the provisional standings with a spot on the overall podium well up for grabs. It’s go time!

Sam Sunderland: “Another long and tough day. The wind we had today was pretty epic which blew sand across a lot of the tracks to make navigation even more tricky, but it’s the same for everyone, I guess. For the most part I was riding by myself for pretty much the whole stage, and I felt good on the bike, the best I have since the race started, I would say. Today was a big improvement so I’m aiming to carry on like this and keep on moving up the leaderboard.”

Day after day, the Rallye du Maroc is providing tough test after tough test. Needing a strong result on stage three, which was made all the more treacherous thanks to some serious cross winds, Sam simply delivered, with his hard effort seeing him race across the finish line just 25 seconds behind the third-placed rider in fourth.

Now, with two stages to go and little to separate the riders ahead of him, the Brit remains in close contention for a place on the overall podium. But it won’t be easy as tomorrow, Sam will be the fourth competitor to enter the special and take on the longest stage of the event as one of the leading riders. But if anyone can lead out, navigate with precision, and deliver a strong result under pressure, it’s GASGAS Factory Racing’s very own, Sam Sunderland.

2022 Rallye du Maroc – Stage 3 Provisional Classification
1. Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna) 3:09:42
2. Skyler Howes (Husqvarna) 3:10:07
3. Ross Branch (Hero) 3:12:20
4. Sam Sunderland (GASGAS) 3:12:45

2022 Rallye du Maroc – Provisional Overall Classification [After Stage 3]
1. Skyler Howes (Husqvarna) 11:22:51
2. Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna) 11:26:08
3. Toby Price (KTM) 11:27:36
6. Sam Sunderland (GASGAS) 11:32:40

Source Gas-Gas

At the close of day three at the 2022 Rallye du Maroc, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Toby Price lies third overall after his sixth-place result on today’s challenging stage. As the second rider into the stage, Kevin Benavides opened much of the special but was able to maintain a strong pace to finish eighth, just over six minutes down on the leader.

Totaling 322 kilometers and including a 299-kilometer timed special, stage three of the Rallye du Maroc saw riders reach the halfway point of the event. Presenting competitors with a looped stage starting and finishing at the coastal city of Laayoune, day three demanded accurate navigation and road book skills as well as the ability to pick the best lines through the broken, extremely soft dunes that made up the beginning of the route.

Toby Price enjoyed a strong ride to sixth place on today’s stage, importantly only losing three and a half minutes to the stage winner. With times tight across the top 10 riders on day three, the result may prove key as the Australian will be the sixth rider to set off into Wednesday’s stage four – the longest of the event. Lying third overall, just under five minutes down, Price will be aiming to make up as much time as possible tomorrow as he chases down the riders ahead.

Toby Price: “Another good day for me today. It was quite a tough stage, and it has been so windy here today, that made things even harder as the tracks in front of you get covered up so quickly. Because of that I ended up pretty much alone for the whole day and navigating my way through. I made a couple of mistakes but nothing major and even though I’ve dropped to third in the overall, I didn’t finish too far behind on time today and have a good start position for the long stage four tomorrow. Things are looking good, I’ll just keep on taking each day as it comes.”

Setting off in second place and catching the one rider ahead of him by kilometer 88, Kevin Benavides found himself opening much of today’s stage. Riding skillfully through the soft dunes while focusing on his navigation and making the minimum of errors, Benavides lost a little time on his rivals behind when he hit a rock and hurt his foot. However, with the stage opening out into faster tracks later in the day, the experienced Argentinian was able to forget the pain and push harder over the tough terrain to make up time and ultimately improve his position for the day. Completing the stage in eighth, just over six minutes down, Kevin also lies eighth in the provisional standings with two days left to race.

Kevin Benavides: “I’m really happy with today actually. I started really strong and pushed a lot. Early on I unfortunately hit a rock with my foot and that slowed me down a little, but I was able to regroup and get my head down again. After catching Adrien (Van Beveren) I opened some kilometers up to the refueling. After that I ended up riding in a group of four, but we made good time on the last part of the special and managed to complete the stage safely. Hopefully my foot will be ok to ride tomorrow, and I’ll be able to try and catch the guys in front.”

The 2022 Rallye du Maroc continues with day four tomorrow. The penultimate stage of the event, and the longest, it covers a total distance of 665 kilometers and includes a timed special of 346 kilometers as riders leave Laayoune and head back north to Tan-Tan.

Source Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Organization considered the third stage probably the hardest one in the program of this year’s Rallye Du Maroc, with a 315 kilometres special section around Laayoune. The dunes were the main attraction for riders in their aim to prepare for the next Dakar. Monster Energy Honda Team remains consistent and determined to have a word to say in the podium standings.

David Castera is the face of Rallye Du Maroc and when it comes to Dakar he certainly knows what he is talking about. The ex-rider and race director considered the third stage as a great test for the South Arabia Dakar. Sand and dunes were the main course along the 323 kilometres special stage, with departure and arrival in Laayoune. That was the highlight but not the only ingredient, since there were plenty of rocky sections off piste – some with a tricky visibility. Like yesterday, navigation was a key factor for success.

Ricky Brabec finished in fifth position, José Ignacio Cornejo was 7th, Pablo Quintanilla closed the Top 10 and Adrien Van Beveren was 11th in today’s stage. Temperatures remained high with 37ºC and – worse –many dust in the air affected visibility and comfort of riders and support teams.

With just two days to go, tomorrow’s stage of Rallye Du Maroc makes the way back to the bivouac in Tan Tan . There will be a total 565 kilometres to cover, 219 km in laiason followed by 346 kilometres of special stage.

Ricky Brabec 2 - “This was a positive day for us, I spend the all stage up front with my team mate Adrien and my old team mate Kevin – we opened the track all together. I tried to make up the time here and there but it was not easy, it’s been difficult. There are two days left, tomorrow being one of the longest days. Now we will make some rest and we’ll make a good push tomorrow. The navigation here in Morocco is always pretty difficult, it’s really fast, really rocky and this means a lot of notes.”

José Ignacio Cornejo 11 - “I had a lot of fun today, this was another tough day in Morocco. I felt really good on my Honda CRF 450 Rally, made only one mistake that cost me several minutes. I think I could have done a better stage, but we have two more days to go and we will fight for the best possible result . ”

Pablo Quintanilla 7 - “The third stage was a quick one with lot of stones and some dunes. I have tried to ride as fast as I could, but I still felt some pain in my shoulder. This made me feel limited. I was riding alone along the stage thinking about safety. It was hard but I am happy to be here and motivated to contribute to keep Honda’s leadership in the championship. ”

Adrien Van Beveren - “It was really difficult to open the stage and I have crashed two times. That happened when I did not have a reference line to follow so you never know if it’s going to be soft or hard. Then I was caught by Kevin and Ricky and we did the all stage together. I am happy about my navigation, I was focused on that. Overall I had a good performance. ”

Source Monster Energy Honda Team

After yesterday’s problems, T4 World Championship leader Austin Jones (USA) and his co-driver Gustavo Gugelmin (BRA) finally had a good day in Morocco, without any major problems with the car. They led the category for most of the stage, however, some navigation issues towards the end cost them the stage win.

“Yesterday we had a lot of mechanical problems and ended up with huge penalties. But today we ran pretty good, our pace was very good, but navigation got us today, it was really hard, for me it was almost impossible to see the road. But tomorrow is another day and we are going to try to do it again. Today is really hot and it gets really hot inside the car, you sweat the whole time. It’s really dry the sand is really soft, well it’s Morocco. I’ve never been in that part of the country, it’s typical Morocco but some things are different and it’s the toughest Morocco race I’ve ever been. About Championship, we are here for the points, because of the penalties we are not fighting for the win in Morocco, but hopefully we can minimize the damage and still be in the hunt to win the Championship,”
Austin Jones said after the finish.

Text: Rita Kónya
Interview: Sveta Amelichkina
Photo: MCH / South Racing

In the bikes victory on the stage went to Monster Energy Honda rider Adrien Van Beveren, his first in red. In the cars Sebastien Loeb did better than bounce back. Taking advantage of Nasser Al Attiyah's four punctures, the world championship leader won the stage to take back the lead in the overall rankings. The Qatari is now 7th overall, more than half an hour behind the Frenchman. The two other Hunters of Terranova and Chicherit complete the day’s podium to occupy the first three places overall - an unprecedented hat-trick for the Prodrive team.

ON TRACK

Up until the refuelling the motorcycle race was going pretty much as expected. Then some tricky navigation and some very soft sand momentarily tripped up the leaders and allowed Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda) to take his first special win for Honda on only his second ever stage with his new team. It could have been much more costly for the likes of Skyler Howes (Husqvarna Factory Racing) and teammate Luciano Benavides, who were leading for much of the stage, but in the end they came out of it surprisingly well, with Skyler taking the overall lead ahead of Toby Price (Red Bull kTM Factory Racing) and Luciano Benavides. Even piste opener Ross Branch (Hero Motosports) didn’t suffer too much. As expected, he lost 16 places on the stage but despite that he is still 6th overall this evening, only 4’33 behind the leader. As his team manager commented, on Ross’s arrival at the bivouac, “you can win this rally if even if you have 2 bad days, providing you have 3 very good days.” The man who didn’t have a good day on the run down to Laayoune was Mason Klein. At one time the Rally2 rider was even leading overall, until he lost concentration after stopping to bend his chain guard straight. That allowed Romain Dumontier to win the day ahead of Mathieu Doveze, but despite finishing 8’29 behind the leader, Klein is still a staggering 21’15 in the lead of Rally2 overall. Rally3 was once again won by the Moroccan Amine Echiguer who now leads the class by 26’50. In the quads yesterday’s leader Axel Giroud drops out of contention after breaking his engine.

In the cars, after a bad day yesterday (broken triangle and two punctures), Sebastien Loeb had an almost perfect day today (only one puncture) while Nasser Al Attiyah suffered a grand total of four punctures! With two spares on board, that was two too many for the Qatari who lost 53'58 waiting for team-mates Yacopini and Van Loon to pass him their spares. "Orly" Terranova finished 10'15 behind Loeb while Chicherit (4 punctures like Al Attiyah) managed to finish third at 18'08. The podium was 100% Hunter and the provisional standings are identical, a double first on a W2RC event for the brand that only appeared on the Dakar last January! In the overall standings, Loeb is just 8 seconds ahead of his Argentinian teammate from Bahrain Raid Xtreme and 4'20 ahead of the GCK Motorsport driver. This morning's leader, Al Rajhi is 4th at 9'37. Al Attiyah is at 33'18 tonight. In the Open category, the three Audis are continuing their tests, though their times today would put them in the top five in the FIA car category.

In T3, Guillaume de Mevius and his new co-driver François Cazalet posted their first victory for the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team ahead of Lopez (Can-Am Factory South Racing) and Guttierez, who was less than a minute behind the Chilean. It should be noted that the Belgian leader of the day set the 7th fastest time in the FIA category. In the general standings, "Chaleco" retains the lead with a six-minute advantage over Quintero (Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA) and nearly a quarter of an hour over the Spanish driver. In T4, Pau Navarro (FN Speed) won at the tender age of 18 ahead of Jeremias Gonzales Ferioli (South Racing Can-Am) and Australian Molly Taylor (South Racing Can-Am). Ferioli is the overall leader, ahead of Baciuska (South Racing Can-Am) and the young Bruno Conti De Oliveira (South Racing Can-Am). In T5, Macik (MM Technology) is ahead of Zuurmond (Riwald Dakar) and the Italian Bellina (MM Technology). Overall, the Czech has more than an hour on Zuurmond (Rainbow Truck) and Bellina.

RADIO BIVOUAC
Exactly one year ago an unknown 19 year old American by the name of Mason Klein turned up at the Rallye du Maroc and grabbed everyone’s attention by winning the Rally2 category. That got him his entry ticket for the 2022 Dakar where not only did he win the Rally2 race but finished 9th overall! In the ultra-competitive bike category, featuring 16 or 17 professional riders on factory machinery, it was an almost unbelievable achievement… so nobody was particularly surprised when he won the Rally2 category of the second round of W2RC in Abu Dhabi at the end of March this year. Just as nobody was particularly surprised when he won yesterday’s first stage here in Morocco in Rally2 while mixing it with the front runners in RallyGP. What continues to surprise many in the bivouac is the lanky young man’s approach to the discipline. For a start he is clearly a perfectionist. He still only has a very few races under his belt but if ever he makes a mistake – which doesn’t happen very often – he is ruthlessly self-critical. He is also has an analytical approach to rally raid way beyond his years. Most 19 years just want to go out on their bikes and blast around. Not Mason Klein. What rocks his world are the nuances of navigation and the intricacies of the tactics employed by his rivals, stuff he absorbs like a sponge. But perhaps the most impressive facet of Mason’s personality is his ambition, totally in phase with his talent. He’s not big headed but neither does he have any false modesty, he’s just honest. He wants to open the stage, he wants to move up to a factory team, he wants to move up to RallyGP and of course he wants to win the Dakar. And you get the feeling that all of that is within his grasp in a relatively reduced time frame.

STAT OF THE DAY: 300
The venerable Toyota Land Cruiser 200, that has been competing in the Dakar in the T2 category for the past 14 years under the Toyota AutoBody banner was quietly retired last January in Jeddah after an impressive 12 victories in the category. It has been replaced by the new generation Land Cruiser, the 300 series, that makes its official racing debut here on the Rallye du Maroc. With an off-the-shelf engine, transmission and gearbox, the challenge is to overcome the problems inherent in racing a 3-ton T2 production vehicle off-road. Just like Nasser Al Attiyah’s Hilux T1+, the 300 has been prepared by Toyota Gazoo Racing. The two Franco-Japanese crews racing the cars will be at the start of the next Dakar with the aim of once again winning the category reserved for production based vehicles.

W2RC
The ‘charm’ of rally raid is that every day brings its share of surprises – as the top guns in W2RC have seen again today with Sebastien Loeb (Toyota Gazoo Racing) back in the fight with Nasser Al Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing). Other leaders who shone: 'Chaleco' Lopez (South Racing Can-Am) in T3, Amine Echiguer in Rally 3 and Martin Macik (MM Technology) in T5, all repeating yesterday’s victories and extending their leads in the Rallye du Maroc standings. Mason Klein (BAS World KTM Racing) in Rally2 and Sam Sunderland (GasGas Factory Racing) in RallyGP conceded time but are still in contention for victory. On the other hand Marek Goczal in T4, who had an electrical problem and Alexandre Giroud in the quads who broke his engine are now out of the running.

QUOTE
Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda) - “Obviously I’m delighted to win a world championship special especially on my second stage with the Honda. I’m starting to feel more relaxed on the bike but I won the stage above all thanks to some precise navigation, even if I got lost 4 or 5 minutes before the refuelling. After that we had a long CAP of 20 kilometres with a waypoint at the end and I really concentrated to catch that. I also pushed hard in the sand at the end. Obviously tomorrow I’m going to have to open but we’ll go step by step.”

TOMORROW’S PROGRAMME
Stage 3 : Laâyoune – Laâyoune
Liaison : 23 km / SS : 299 km (93%) / total : 322 km

The most difficult special of the rally
David Castera: "The third stage will be the most difficult, with a lot of dunes at the beginning. We had to give up crossing them in the planned direction because it was not possible to get over so many of them. So, we will take them with the break in the direction of the descent. Then it will be a mix of visible and less visible tracks on plateaus similar to those you find in Saudi Arabia, to finish on more technical tracks. There is everything in this special stage, which will take place in three acts. It will bring together the three ingredients that make this edition so special. It is the one that will require the pilots and navigators to be the most complete.”

Source Rallye du Maroc
Photo Charly Lopez

Over the gruelling second stage of the Rallye du Maroc, Bahrain Raid Xtreme’s Prodrive Hunters of Sebastien Loeb/Fabian Lurquin and Orly Terranova/Alex Haro took dominant first and second places over the 316 kilometres from Tan-Tan to Laâyoune. The speed of the Hunter was further confirmed by the GCK Motorsport car of Guerlain Chicherit/Alex Winocq that backed up the pace of the leading duo to finish third and thus make a clean sweep for the Hunters on the stage and in the overall rally standings.
As the rally approaches the half way point tomorrow, Loeb/Lurquin have taken the overall lead of the Rallye du Maroc with Terranova/Haro in second just eight seconds back and Chicherit/Winocq in third place just 4 minutes and 20 seconds back of the flying Frenchman, Loeb.
Over a much faster stage than yesterday’s run into Tan-Tan, today’s test saw a section over the top of a high plateau and then the first of the dunes of this year’s rally before arriving into a new bivouac at Laâyoune, some 640 kilometres from the start of the rally in Agadir. As with all stages in the 2022 FIA World Rally Raid Championship, it was no easy route that the organisers laid out through the dry riverbeds and the first erg (large series of dunes) of the event.
For the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team and all at Prodrive International, today’s result is the confirmation of long hours of design, testing and hard work on the ground across different continents since the Prodrive Hunter T1+ made it’s competition debut on the Dakar Rally in January this year.

Sebastien Loeb. Winner stage 2. “That feels really good! We did a very good job today to make this 1-2-3 on the stage after so much hard work everyone in the BRX team has put into the Prodrive Hunter. After yesterday’s troubles we had a really good stage without many mistakes at all; just one puncture in over 300 kilometres wasn’t bad at all to make it a clean run. They’d made the navigation very difficult in there, really making you work to find the way points, but that’s rally raid and that’s why it’s so satisfying to win a stage like this.”

Orly Terranova. 2nd. “That felt like a really long stage. It was difficult in the early kilometres as we had a puncture, so I said to myself to just check my pace a little but after the neutralisation I really started to up my speed. There were some more stones and then dunes that were technical to drive but if you don’t drive with your head you’ll be in trouble but the car feels so good. Last night we made some changes to the suspension and I felt better today and great to be part of this 1-2-3 finish.”

Guerlain Chicherit. 3rd. ‘’Again, this car is just insane. It’s just incredible! That aside, I had some punctures like so many others today but as I fought back through the main part of the stage it felt so great to really feel the speed… and I know I have the speed. Sure, it’s a frustrating thing to have these punctures, but it’s a great day for the Prodrive Hunter and the GCK Motorsport team to be part of the clean sweep of the podium. Our day with our car will come to get higher up the order and I can’t wait for that to come.”

Gus Beteli. BRX Team Principal “Today was a dream day for Bahrain Raid Xtreme with a 1, 2, 3 on the stage and a 1, 2, 3 on the rally which is such a fantastic result. Everyone has made such a huge effort to get to this point back at base and on the rally. The drivers and co-drivers navigated some very difficult kilometres today trying to avoid punctures in this searing heat. There are still three days to go but we will keep pushing to keep these positions to the end with the focus to extend our lead in the world championship.”

1. Loeb/Lurquin Prodrive Hunter 2h 56m 54 secs
2. Terranova/Haro. Prodrive Hunter +10m 15 secs
3. Chicherit/Winocq Prodrive Hunter. +18m 08 secs
4. Van Loon/Delaunay Toyota +24m 23 secs
5. Yacopini/Oliveras Toyota +24m 41 secs
6. Esteve/Villalobos Toyota +31m 16 secs
7. De Mevius/Cazalet T3 +32m 46 secs
8. Al Rajhi/Von Zitzewitz Toyota. 33m 22 secs
9. Prokop/Chytka Ford +35m 16 secs
10. Lopez/Mena Can-Am +36m 44 secs

Source BRX / Prodrive

Heading to the south desert close to Laayoune, the third day of Rallye Du Maroc brought great news for Monster Energy Honda Team with the first stage win for Adrien Van Beveren. Ricky Brabec was third, José Ignacio Cornejo 5th and Pablo Quintanilla – struggling with some pain – finished in 10th place.

The wide desert landscapes from the south of Morocco has finally arrived! In the third day of Rallye Du Maroc the convoy left Tan Tan in the direction of Laayoune. Riders had to face a total of 437 kilometres 122 km in laiason followed by 315 kilometres of special stage in this second stage. It was time to embrace the great plateaus, with rocky tracks and much longer dune sections – the famous ergs. Bivouac has been set up in middle of the oued and the temperatures raised to 37ºC!

Adrien Van Beveren was the winner of today’s stage, signing the first success of his career with Monster Energy Honda Team. 2020 Dakar winner Ricky Brabec was third, José Ignacio Cornejo 7th and Pablo Quintanilla – who struggled with pain due to yesterdays crash – was 10th.

Tomorrow’s stage of Rallye Du Maroc consists on a circuit with departure and arrival in Laayoune. There will be a total 323 kilometres to cover, 23 km in laiason followed by 299 kilometres of special stage. More sand and dunes are already in the riders minds!

Adrien Van Beveren - “It’s a great feeling to win a stage and this comes when I am just starting my collaboration with Honda – this is my first race with the team. I had a great day and I was able to navigate the best possible way. That was where I made the difference. This is very good news not only for me – sure it counts to my motivation - but also for the all team. ”

Ricky Brabec 2 - “Today I felt pretty strong, but at the begging I lost some time. I was off piste and I couldn’t find a way point control, so I guess I lost here around six minutes. Then my team mate Adrien Van Beveren arrived and we continue together. In the end it was not a bad stage. I have a delay of around 4 minutes and tomorrow everything can change. I believe we are still on contention for a podium position. ”

José Ignacio Cornejo 11 - “Today I felt much better than yesterday. I was quite comfortable in the bike and that made the difference. I have made a little mistake in the navigation when I was off piste in the bush, so I lost some minutes. In one word I can say I had a solid day. ”

Pablo Quintanilla 7 - “This was a tough stage for me, because I was struggling with a lot of pain in my shoulder due to yesterday’s crash. I did my best to keep the focus on the riding but it was not an easy job, specially in the off piste sections. Now priority is keep doing a good race for the team trying to avoid mistakes. I am happy to be here in Morocco! ”

Source Monster Energy Honda Team

The second stage of the Rallye du Maroc is not an easy stage. There are many punctures, the navigation is difficult and there is a lot of dust. Erik van Loon and Sébastien Delaunay seize the opportunity to get back to the head of the field and record the fourth time, behind the three Prodrive Hunters. The Toyota Hilux's engine has been repaired and Van Loon is happy with the result.

"It wasn't easy today," Van Loon says. "The engine is fixed, but it does give a little less power now. Nevertheless, the car is still very fast. We punctured after only 2 kilometers, had to search a few times and were in the dust of an Audi for a while. At the end of the test we stopped with Nasser Al-Attiyah, who had broken his fourth tire so we left a wheel there. With all that, we still ended up fourth, which really gives a great feeling!"

During the third stage, a 324-kilometer run around Laâyoune, Erik van Loon wants to take the momentum with him. "The speed is there and we are making few mistakes today, we need to see that maintained over the remaining three days." The first will start tomorrow at 11:03 a.m. (12:03 a.m. Dutch time) and is expected at the finish line around 2:42 p.m. (3:42 p.m. Dutch time). 

Anja van Loon and Lisette Bakker are still on the road. This message will be completed.

Automatic translation from the original Dutch version
Source Van Loon Racing

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Kevin Benavides has delivered an outstanding ride on day two of the 2022 Rallye du Maroc, posting the second-quickest time and finishing less than three minutes down on the day’s stage winner. Toby Price also enjoyed a solid day in the Moroccan dunes, finishing sixth and moving up to second in the provisional overall rally standings.

Starting in 10th position paid off for Kevin Benavides today as the experienced Argentinian was able to make the very best use of his skill and speed to secure a runner-up finish on the 435-kilometer stage two. Benavides started off strongly, immediately posting the fifth-fastest time to the first checkpoint. And while other riders ahead struggled with the tricky navigation on the stage, Kevin was able to complete the special with the minimum of mistakes to ensure his excellent result.

Benavides will now face the unenviable task of setting off second tomorrow into stage three, but is pleased with his riding from today and looks forward to the challenge.

Kevin Benavides: “Today was a really good day for me, I tried to push all day. I felt really good on the bike and that is thanks to the team and all the hard work we have put in testing and developing. Unfortunately, I got stuck behind one rider and was forced to eat his dust for around 100 kilometers. I lost a little time there, which is frustrating. Then later on there was one waypoint that I think everyone struggled with. I lost a little more time there. After that I pushed on towards the finish and was able to finish second. Tomorrow will be tricky, but I’ll focus on my navigation and give it full gas as always.”

Continuing to maintain a fast, consistent pace at this year’s Rallye du Maroc, Toby Price put in an excellent performance on the mixed terrain and dunes of stage two to complete the 315-kilometer special in sixth position. Bringing his KTM 450 RALLY home just three minutes behind his teammate, Price moves up to second place in the provisional overall rally standings, less than two minutes from the lead. And with a good start position for tomorrow’s stage three, the Aussie looks set to continue making time on his rivals.

Toby Price: “Stage two went well for me and I’m in a solid position in the overall. It was a good stage result finishing sixth, but not too far behind the guys in front on time, so that should work out well for tomorrow. Yeah, it was definitely a difficult day today – they certainly tried to make things tough and test us with the waypoints. There was one in particular that was really tough, it was like finding a needle in a haystack! When you’re trying to race at the same time it proves really difficult, but I think everyone struggled a little with that one. All-in-all I’m happy, I stayed on two-wheels all day and now I’m ready for day three.”

The 2022 Rallye du Maroc continues with day three tomorrow, a 322-kilometer looped stage, starting and finishing in Laayoune. Riders will face a 299-kilometer timed special, raced against the clock.

Provisional Results – 2022 Rallye du Maroc, Stage 2

1. Adrien Van Beveren (FRA), Honda, 3:18:44
2. Kevin Benavides (ARG), KTM, 3:21:38 +2:54
3. Ricky Brabec (USA), Honda, 3:21:45 +3:01
4. Skyler Howes (USA), Husqvarna, 3:21:56 +3:12
5. Ignacio Cornejo (CHI), Honda, 3:23:57 +5:13
Other KTM
6. Toby Price (AUS), KTM, 3:24:49 +6:05

Provisional Standings – 2022 Rallye du Maroc (after 2 of 5 stages)

1. Skyler Howes (USA), Husqvarna, 8:12:44
2. Toby Price (AUS), KTM, 8:14:24 +1:40
3. Luciano Benavides (ARG), Husqvarna, 8:16:26 +3:42
4. Adrien Van Beveren (FRA), Honda, 8:16:43 +3:59
5. Ricky Brabec (USA), Honda, 8:17:06 +4:22
Other KTM
8. Kevin Benavides (ARG), KTM, 8:23:26 +10:42

Source KTM Factory Racing

No big upsets in the bike class today but a difficult start for Sebastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) with the world championship leader losing 20 minutes 40 seconds to his rival Nasser Al Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing), second on the day and overall behind Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive). In T3 ‘Chaleco’ Lopez (Can-Am Factory South Racing) took the win, as did Marek Goczal (Cobant-Energylandia Rally) in T4.

ON TRACK

Ross Branch’s (Hero Motosports) decision to start 15th this morning paid off, with the Botswanan winning the first stage from Agadir to Tan Tan ahead of Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna Factory Racing) and Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), with those three also holding those positions overall. In the W2RC battle Pablo Quintanilla (Monster Energy Honda) lost time with a crash before the refuelling to finish 13th on the stage, to his championship rival Sam Sunderland’s fifth. The young American sensation Mason Klein (BAS World KTM Racing Team) dominated the Rally2 class riding up at the front with the leading RallyGP riders! In Rally3 victory went the Moroccan rider Amine Echiguer.

In the cars, Sebastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) started the rally by changing a suspension triangle at around kilometre 20 before suffering two flat tires at the end of the stage... and a two-minute penalty for speeding once he reached the bivouac. In the end he finished 9th on the day in T1, more than 23 minutes behind the leader. Victory went to Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) ahead of Nasser Al Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) who finished 3'13 behind the Saudi. Przygonsky (X-Raid Mini JCW) completed the podium. Like Al Attiyah, Guerlain Chicherit (GCK Motorsport) had two punctured tyres but scored Prodrive's best result with a fourth place 9'50 behind the winner. In the provisional standings, the Saudi is 3'05 ahead of the Qatari and Chicherit is almost ten minutes behind. Loeb was seventh. In T3, Lopez (Can-Am Factory South Racing) won ahead of teammate Helder Rodrigues (see Radio Bivouac) and Seth Quintero (Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team), with the trio almost in the same minute. Cristina Guttierez (Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team) finished 4th almost a quarter of an hour behind. In the general standings, "Chaleco" is ahead of the American and Rodrigues. In T4, Marek Goczal (Cobant-Energylandia Rally) finished thirteen minutes ahead of South Racing Can-Am drivers Rokas Baciuska and Lucas Del Rio. In T5, Zuurmond (Rainbow Truck) wins in front of three Iveco Powerstar of MM Technology, with boss Martin Macik just one minute behind. Overall the Czech leads the general standings thirty seconds ahead of the Dutch team.

RADIO BIVOUAC

This isn’t the first time South Racing has nurtured an ex-factory motorcycle rider making the transition to four wheels via the T3 or T4 categories. In 2019, Francisco Lopez, a star in Chile during his motorcycle career, returned to the Dakar after a five-year absence. Winner on his first SSV outing, "Chaleco" opened the ball of Dakar victories for former motorcycle champions. That same year, the Spaniard Gerard Farres, another ex-motorcycle rider, took second place, handing South Racing a ‘one-two’. After a second Dakar crown in 2021, the Chilean moved to T3, still with a South Racing Can-Am. A try out that proved a master stroke, just as in 2019. He won his 3rd crown in Jeddah last January. On this Rallye du Maroc, two other ex-professional motorcyclists are making their debut with South Racing. Helder Rodrigues has an impressive track record: seven Top 5 finishes on a motorcycle on the Dakar, including two podiums, before acting as test rider for Yamaha and Honda and then manager at HRC. The Portuguese competitor, who lives close to South Racing’s workshops has, over the last year, participated in the development of their prototypes. In Agadir he is making his T3 competition debut at the wheel of a Can-Am as preparation for next year’s Dakar. Among the 16 Can-Am crews here in Morocco another ex-biker is also making his debut with Scott Abraham's team, the largest in the world championship. Andrew Short has an equally impressive CV. Rallye du Maroc winner in 2019, 8th on the last Dakar with the Yamaha factory team, the American ex-motocross and supercross star is here co-driving for the Australian Molly Taylor. Helder and Andrew aren’t the only ones dreaming of following in the Chilean’s footsteps. On the next Dakar, another ex-factory rider should be making his T3 debut. For once, it won't be with South Racing, or with the Red Bull Off-Road Junior team for that matter! All will be revealed shortly...

STAT OF THE DAY: No 1

It is a story that is as improbable as it is fantastic. Anthony Fabre is a good enduro rider but not exactly famous. In the intimate world of rally raid nobody had ever heard of him until yesterday afternoon when he was classified 8th on the qualifying stage of the 22nd Rallye du Maroc. The timekeepers and the federation were instantly alerted and diligently started looking for a technical error, a hic in the system that could explain this unlikely performance but none was discovered and his result stood. Then yesterday evening the first 15 riders, the elite of rally raid, came together to select their start position for today’s stage. All that is except Anthony, who completely unaware of this procedure, discovered it while watching the rally’s TV coverage as he was having dinner with his wife. With the elite choosing to start as far back as possible, Anthony was ‘given’ the honour of opening the stage on his first ever rally, ahead of the world’s fastest riders. “I didn’t sleep a wink last night and I was pretty nervous this morning when I set off,” admitted the Frenchman. “The first rider caught me after just 7 kilometres... I was worried he’d coming flying past me and scare the life out of me but he gave me plenty of room and a thumbs up as he came past. All the others were the same and I discovered at first hand that rally family friendliness that I’d heard so much about. Tomorrow is my 31st birthday and this is a great way to celebrate it.”

W2RC

Leading the FIA world championship offers no guarantees once out on the special. Sebastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) amply demonstrated this by losing nearly 20 minutes changing his front suspension triangle. Other leaders used the day to increase their leads. Mason Klein (BAS World KTM Racing) for example in Rally2 (24 minutes ahead of second-placed Bradley Cox) and 'Chaleco' Lopez (South Racing Can-Am) in T3, who is more than 14 minutes ahead of second-placed Cristina Gutierrez. For their part, Sam Sunderland (GasGas Factory Racing) 5th on the day in RallyGP and Alexandre Giroud (2nd, Yamaha Racing - SMX - Drag'on) in the quads stay close to the day’s winners and keep all their chances of championship success very much alive... To be continued!

QUOTES

Ross Branch (Hero Motosports) - “I started off a bit slow this morning – didn’t want to take too many chances on a bike full of fuel in the rocks. I was just trying to keep it safe and on two wheels – that’s my goal here. Obviously winning today means I will have to open tomorrow but that’s OK too because my navigation is not on point and there’s nothing like training when you’re racing. I’ll ride as fast as I can navigate. I know I’m going to lose time but I just need to keep my head.”

Mason Klein (BAS World KTM Racing Team) - “I started 5th. Around kilometre 100 / 110 I caught Franco (Caimi) but I didn’t try and pass him ‘cos he knows what he’s doing and the next thing you know we see Kevin (Benavides) and Ricky (Brabec) coming back at us. Franco just gasses it, knows exactly where to go, does a good job. Then Ricky and Kevin got around us. Their pace is really nice. I really really wanted to open some of the stage today but then I remembered Skyler (Howes) saying to me one time: “just chill out and let them do the work…”

Guerlain Chicherit (GCK Motorsport) - "This is the first time in my career that I have had a car as competitive of my ‘little friends’. I was always in the development stages and ended up frustrated. I had already done some rallycross with Prodrive and I called David Richard who offered to build a fourth car and a real test programme. The Rallye du Maroc is a very difficult rally, if you go the distance and you have a good pace, overall you can say you are ready for the Dakar. The objective is the W2RC 2023 and the Dakar 2024. I have to get stronger because my rivals didn’t wait for me during the years when I was struggling. Now I am lucky to have a teammate like Séb Loeb with whom I have a good rapport. Today we opened for two hundred kilometers in front of Nasser and we didn’t do too badly. On the second part I had two punctures and the air gun didn't work, so we had to do it by hand and twice lost five minutes. Tonight we're not where we hoped to be but the speed was there and the car is taking it all in."

TOMORROW’S PROGRAMME

Stage 2 : Tan-Tan – Laâyoune
Liaison : 120 km / SS : 315 km (72%) / total : 435 km

The first dunes

David Castera: "The second stage will be quite different because it will be more rolling. As we head south, the landscapes will be nice at the beginning before arriving on big plateaus in the middle of the stage where it will be more difficult to maintain the pace. The first section of dunes will arrive with a small erg. It will not be as dense as those you had on previous years, but it will be the first big section of dunes. At the finish, the new bivouac will be up above Laâyoune, overlooking the wadi. We will be separated from the city by sand, water and vegetation. It will be a majestic site where we will stay for two nights.”

Source Rallye du Maroc
Photo DPPI Production

The Rallye du Maroc has seen the first big test over rugged off road tracks with 316 kilometres that even the organisers predicted would be difficult and tricky. With desert conditions and even a short part of the stage along the beach of the Atlantic Ocean, the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team had speed through the stage but were unlucky to be caught out by punctures over the very toughest sections that were part of the original Paris-Dakar Rally rout
First off from the start line, Orlando Terranova and Alex Haro with their Prodrive Hunter were on exceptional form to show their searing speed in the early part of the stage but relinquished the lead to fellow Prodrive Hunter drivers Guerlain Chicherit/Alex Winocq after a puncture
Were it not for the time taken changing wheels, Chicherit would have been a very solid candidate for the stage victory today but had to slot in to fourth at the line. Terranova is equally upbeat about the pace of the Hunter crossing the line in fifth today
Sebastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin clipped a rock at the wrong angle early on that damaged the front suspension necessitating an instant wishbone change in the stage by the World Rally Raid Championship leaders. After a swift change in difficult conditions they continued with their customary fast pace only to take, like many of the top runners, punctures towards the end of the gruelling test.
The BRX team are refreshing the cars tonight as tomorrow sees a series of testing tracks and sandy roads as the Rallye du Maroc heads further south to Laayoune where searing near 40 degree celcius temperatures await.

Sebastien Loeb. 9th - “After such a successful test with the Prodrive Hunter recently, it was a complicated day for us as after 20 kilometres we had a broken wishbone on the front. We lost time changing that but then we were really unlucky to have a couple of punctures, one of which was close to the finish so we ran to the line with it rather than stop. We have the speed with the car so we will be back tomorrow to push again.”

Orly Terranova. 5th - “What I learned today is that I can follow our main rivals through the hardest terrain in a head to head and that’s a positive for this rally with the Prodrive Hunter. I think that the decision to start first on the road was good because further back it would have been very dusty. We had a slight navigational mistake 16 kilometres in that let Guerlain past meaning we had a bit of his dust to get through only to then have a couple of punctures, one flat out at nearly 170kph. We then had to be careful over the last 200 kms as we had no spare tyres.”

Guerlain Chicherit. 4th - “That was a long tough stage for not just me, but the car too but I’m still amazed by what I can do with the car because I understood during the stage where I can push more, particularly through the camel grass, but now I know what the Hunter can do. We were going so well in there today only to catch two punctures in the last 80 kilometres. Very frustrating, but we’re here and I now know the car can make it and more importantly that I can make it to the top of these tough rally raids.”

Gus Beteli. BRX Team Principal - “That was a difficult stage for the cars and for the crews but to see the pace of Guerlain at the start was just stunning, especially as he was first on the road for such a long time. To then be matching Nasser Al-Attiyah on pace in his first event with the Prodrive Hunter was very impressive. Very unfortunate for Seb to lose some time too at the beginning but it’s a long rally and we’ve got four days to go with the daily Championship points and when we finish in Agadir on Thursday.”

Source BRX

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’ s Toby Price has finished third-fastest on the opening stage of the 2022 Rallye du Maroc. The Australian made the best use of his start position, earned through his runner-up result in the short prologue stage, to make up time on the rest of the field. Kevin Benavides, who had the difficult task of opening the stage, finished 10th fastest.

The start positions for stage one of the 2022 Rallye du Maroc were decided from the results of Saturday’s short prologue. Riders then faced a day of riding that totaled an exhausting 557 kilometers, with stage results decided by a 316-kilometer timed special. The route took the competitors from the host city of Agadir south to Tan-Tan, close to the coast, and consisted of a mixture of terrain including rocky tracks and deeper sandy sections, before a run across the beach towards the finish line.

Runner-up on the event’s prologue, Toby Price was the 11th RallyGP-class rider to enter today’s stage. Immediately making ground on the riders ahead, Price reached the first checkpoint inside the top five on time. Maintaining a solid pace over the demanding terrain and staying focused on his navigation, the two-time Dakar Rally winner was able to make up even more time in the closing kilometers to ultimately complete the timed special as third fastest.

Toby Price: “It’s good to get day one out of the way. The special was quite a challenge with a lot of tough navigation and a lot of dangers on the road book. It was difficult to take your eyes off the track ahead of you to check the road book, so you were always juggling out-and-out speed with focusing on your navigation. I’m happy with the day, I have a couple of riders to chase down tomorrow, so all-in-all a good start to the event.”

A 12th place finish on the prologue resulted in Kevin Benavides being the second rider across all classes to enter today’s special. Pushing right from the start, the Argentinian star soon found himself out front and navigating his way through the mixed terrain. Putting in an excellent ride on his KTM 450 RALLY, without making too many costly errors, Benavides was able to stay out front for much of the stage. In crossing the line in 10th place overall, just over 11 minutes down on the stage winner, Kevin will enjoy an advantageous start position for tomorrow’s stage two, where he will aim to make up the maximum time on his rivals.

Kevin Benavides: “Not the best result on paper for me today, but I’m happy with how I rode and navigated the stage. After about five kilometers into the special I had already made my way to the front, but was able to push all day. Ricky (Brabec) took the lead for around 15 kilometers, but other than that I led the whole way through the special. The navigation was really tricky, but I think I did a good job and lost the minimum of time to the guys behind. I have a good start position for tomorrow’s long stage two, so hopefully I can make up some good time.”

The 2022 Rallye du Maroc continues with stage two tomorrow, a 435-kilometer test of endurance that includes a 315-kilometer timed special. Riders leave the bivouac at Tan-Tan and head further south to Laayoune.

Provisional Results – 2022 Rallye du Maroc, Stage 1

1. Ross Branch (BWA), Hero, 3:44:56
2. Luciano Benavides (ARG), Husqvarna, 3:46:05 +1:09
3. Toby Price (AUS), KTM, 3:47:27 +2:31
4. Skyler Howes (USA), Husqvarna, 3:48:16 +3:20
5. Sam Sunderland (GBR), GASGAS, 3:49:29 +4:33
Other KTM
10. Kevin Benavides (ARG), KTM, 3:56:28 +11:32

Provisional Standings – 2022 Rallye du Maroc (after 1 of 5 stages)

1. Ross Branch (BWA), Hero, 4:46:24
2. Luciano Benavides (ARG), Husqvarna, 4:48:29 +2:05
3. Toby Price (AUS), KTM, 4:49:35 +3:11
4. Skyler Howes (USA), Husqvarna, 4:50:48 +4:24
5. Sam Sunderland (GBR), GASGAS, 4:55:05 +8:41
Other KTM
10. Kevin Benavides (ARG), KTM, 5:01:48 +15:24

Source: Red Bull KTM Factory Racing