Ricky Brabec is in a hurry this week! The American, who left California over a month ago to compete in the last two rounds of the world championship, scheduled one after the other, makes no secret of his desire to return home. Yesterday, the Mojave Desert native also spoke of his eagerness to return to the great outdoors this week. This motivation translated into victory in the 19 km prologue not far from Fez, three years after his last success in the race on stage 4 in 2022. The factory Honda rider (12'48”) finished ahead of the prologue specialist, his teammate Tosha Schareina (+1”), who was the fastest in the 2023-24 Moroccan prologues. The two factory KTM riders, Daniel Sanders (+5”) and Luciano Benavides (+10”), finished behind the two Hondas. Brabec has never won the Rallye du Maroc, but the Californian has already secured two podium finishes (2018, 2022), finishing in the top five a total of four times, including in 2019 and 2021.
In Rally2, Michael Docherty also returned to winning ways, having not won in Morocco since 2023 (stages 2 and 4). The South African set the fifth fastest time (13'03”), also one second ahead of his closest rival, KTM rider Edgar Canet. Tobias Ebster (Hero MotoSports) completed the day's podium (+21'‘). In Rally3, Thomas Zoldos (Aub'Moto), the category winner in Portugal, took the win (14'33”) ahead of Noa Sainct (Nomade Racing, +8”) and Carlo Cabini (RS Moto, +1'48”). All three are new to the Rallye du Maroc.
In cars, Nasser Al Attiyah would like to shake off the Toyotas of Henk Lategan and Lucas Moraes, his two threats in the world championship, this week. And the Qatari seems eager to do so! The factory Dacia driver set a blistering time in the prologue (11'56'‘), relegating Joao Ferreira to 11” and Sébastien Loeb to 17”. One second behind his compatriot, Mathieu Serradori (Century Racing) is ahead of a trio of official Fords with Mattias Ekström (+18”), Nani Roma (+20”) and Carlos Sainz (+20”). Moraes and Lategan couldn’t do better than 8th and 14th.
