Rallye du Maroc 2022: Top positions held by Prodrive Hunters on Rallye du Maroc

Reminiscent of Dakar Rallies past, the third stage of the Rallye du Maroc saw scorching temperatures, dunes, rocky tracks and a sand storm across all of the 320 kilometres around Laâyoune today. However, the only thing that changed for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme and GCK Motorsport teams were the order in which they are now in the top 3 of the overall standings with Guerlain Chicherit/Alex Winocq leading with two days to go.
For the GCK Motorsport Prodrive Hunter to take the 47 second advantage with Guerlain in his first rally raid with the car is a testament to the speed, consistency and confidence he has carried over the Moroccan stages for the last four days
Leaders of the rally overnight Sebastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin drove carefully over the rocks, indeed only suffering one puncture, but it was not an easy task to open the road with the strong winds covering the tracks of the last bikes and quads that started 30 minutes earlier. Nevertheless, they are now third overall, only 4 minutes and 50 seconds back from Chicherit’s leading Prodrive Hunter.
Orly Terranova and Alex Haro remain in second place overall less than a minute off the lead after over 10 hours of rallying that started last Saturday, proof that the competitive nature of the FIA World Rally Raid Championship is as hot as ever. The Argentine is driving well with a cool head in difficult situations as he continues to be more and more hand-in-glove with the car.
All three of the Prodrive Hunters are continuing to run on EcoPower sustainable fuel that reduces CO2 emissions by 80% over the toughest terrain seen in any international motorsport; Rally Raids. Only minor mapping tweaks were made to the 3.5 litre twin turbo engine for the fuel to be first used on this year’s Dakar Rally where the cars finished second and fourth overall including three stage victories.
Tomorrow the Rallye du Maroc heads back north to Tan-Tan but first the team of BRX mechanics will work in the difficult, hot and dusty conditions at the Laâyoune bivouac to once more prepare the Hunters for the rigours of what promises to be the toughest of stages seen for some time.

Sebastien Loeb. - “That was a complicated day. We only had one puncture which is less than many but we got lost a couple of times for a little bit even though I think many others had the same problem. 10 minutes were lost there but we will see as everything is close. The fight is going to be very tight over these remaining two stages.”

Orly Terranova. - “That was difficult in the there as after just 50 kilometres we’d already used up our spare tyres so psychologically that’s then difficult with a long way to go without spares. So I said to myself, ‘OK, drive easy, carefully until the end’ and we are here. In the big overall picture it’s good with second overall, two stages to go and a good start position for tomorrow.”

Guerlain Chicherit. - ‘’That was a tough day like every day but we never stop fighting. We really wanted to try to win the stage and lead the rally overall but we did 50% of the contract! We made a mistake on the maps early on but I think Seb and Orly did the same. Then a couple of punctures but for the rest of the stage we pushed as much as possible like we do. Alex alongside me did a brilliant job but again, the car everyday is just amazing; I love this car even more everyday. So, now we are leading overall with two days to go so we need to stay focussed and finish the rally.”

Gus Beteli. BRX Team Principal. - “It’s one day at a time on this rally. As we’ve seen, everything changes every day so we just need to keep all three cars going over these particularly difficult stages. We’re in a good position in the overall standings so we need to get these last two stages completed and watch the positions in the world championship.”

Source Bahrain Raid Xtreme