FIM : Sanders stages a tour de force
Never bet against Daniel Sanders, not even when he is leading from the front. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing ace soon hit the front after reeling in yesterday's winner, Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda HRC), near the start of the special. The two men did a great job of navigating together and Sanders claimed the stage with 3′04″ in hand over the American and 3′34″ over his teammate Canet. In fact, "Chucky" would have prevailed even without the time bonuses. His 35th RallyGP stage win also put him back in the FIM overall lead by 2′54″ over Brabec and 4′07″ over Canet. The rest of the RallyGP field is far behind.
Michael Docherty is still chasing his maiden win on a Hero. Martim Ventura (Monster Energy Honda HRC) thwarted his designs for the second time in as many days. The Portuguese rider outsped him on the home straight and clinched his tenth W2RC victory by 2′38″ over the South African and 10′17″ over his Honda stablemate Preston Campbell. Ventura also extended his overall lead to 3′36″ over Docherty and 22′18″ over Campbell.
Are Albert Martín (Triumph Spain) and Antanas Kanopkinas (CFMoto Thunder) on track for a clean sweep? The Spaniard and the Lithuanian scooped up their third victories on the bounce today, respectively, in Rally3 and quads. The two competitors, unbeaten since the prologue, are halfway there.
FIA: Lategan has the wind in his sails
Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC) followed up his two victories inside the last three stages of the Desafío Ruta 40 YPF last May with another triumph in Morocco, capping a Hilux hat-trick (see Figure of the day). The South African outgunned the Ford Raptor entries of Eryk Goczał (+41″) and Carlos Sainz (+1′12″), who have yet to taste victory this week. Fourth at 4′46″, Lucas Moraes (The Dacia Sandriders) delivered another consistent performance to seize the overall reins (see Performance of the day).
Nasser Al Attiyah (The Dacia Sandriders), meanwhile, slipped to 45 minutes behind his Brazilian teammate after an ill-timed mechanical in sight of victory. It would take a miracle for him to win his eighth Moroccan title this year (see A crushing blow). Misery loves company, as they say: João Ferreira (Toyota Gazoo Racing SA), who was opening the course after winning yesterday, lost 11 minutes and the overall lead. Meanwhile, Guy Botterill (Toyota Gazoo Racing SA) did a barrel roll after taking the early lead and Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing) was knocked out by a mechanical inside the dune sector.
Defender made it back-to-back victories in Stock, with Stéphane Peterhansel following in the footsteps of Sara Price. The American, however, remains ensconced in the lead. The Taurus stampede continued in Challenger, this time with Paul Spierings (Rebellion-Spierings) ahead of Alexandre Pinto (Old Friends Rally). The Portuguese driver retained a 15-minute buffer over the Dutchman in the standings. The SSV nail-biter went to Jeremías González Ferioli (Can-Am Factory) by 40 seconds over Matthias Walkner (South Racing Can-Am). The Austrian defended his overall lead, but the Argentinian cut his deficit to 6′33″.
