Less than two weeks after the finish of the Rallye du Maroc, the Andalucía Rally is already preparing to host the final round of the first world rally-raid championship W2RC season, on the other side of the Straits of Gibraltar.
A new base camp in Dos Hermanas, near Seville, awaits the competitors who will set out for 5 days of competition, discovering 4 Andalusian provinces, 3 of which have so far been unexplored by the race.
The final round of the first world rally-raid championship will decide the outcome in the car category between Al Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) and Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme), "Chaleco" Lopez (Can-Am Factory South Racing) and Cristina Gutierrez (Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team) in the T3 class, the South Racing Can-Am trio of Goczal-Baciuska-Jones in the T4 class and finally Sam Sunderland (GasGas Factory Racing) and his Monster Energy Honda challengers in the motorcycle class.
New Andalusia
The Andalucía Rally has been given a makeover after only two editions. A new base, the Grand Hippodrome of Andalusia, with the qualifying stage (10 km) intentionally laid out nearby, will allow fans to finally watch the show after two editions held behind closed doors due to the pandemic. The four-leaf clover route will then take the W2RC caravan to discover half of the region's provinces: Seville (stage 1B, 465 km) before taking on the trails winding through the hills of the province of Malaga (stage 2, 712 km), then the sandier ones of the province of Huelva (stage 3, 463 km), before heading for the tip of Spain for a finish along the beach in the province of Cadiz (stage 4, 439 km).
Cars: advantage Al Attiyah
The battle between Sebastien Loeb and Nasser Al Attiyah, separated by a single point since the Dakar and the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, turned in favour of the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver at the end of the Rallye du Maroc. A power steering failure on the Frenchman's Hunter widened the gap between the two contenders for the first FIA rally-raid world championship title. The Qatari, who already has five World Cup victories (the former FIA competition before the creation of the W2RC in 2022) and two-time title holder on the Andalucía Rally, is 22 points ahead of the Bahrain Raid Xtreme driver. Loeb (122 points) will have to go all out if he wants to beat his opponent (144 points) and take a 10th world championship title. Pressure that could play into the hands of Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing). With 100 points, the Saudi has been lurking in the shadow of the duo since the Dakar, ready to seize his chance.
T3: "Chaleco" on Cristina's home turf
The Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team showed its claws at the third round of the W2RC in Morocco. Guillaume de Mevius, Cristina Gutierrez and Seth Quintero each won a stage. The young American driver, just 20 years old, even took his first W2RC victory, interrupting the momentum of Can-Am Factory South Racing driver Francisco Lopez after his successes on the Dakar and the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. Overall, the Chilean (182 points) still has a comfortable 28-point lead over the 2021 world number one (154 points). Quintero (144 points) has closed the gap and is now only 10 points behind his teammate. “Chaleco” knows that the OT3s will be there should he make the slightest mistake!
T4: a chair for 3
The SSV class is by far the most uncertain W2RC category. The first three in the overall rankings are within just 3 points of each other! Marek Goczal (Cobant-Energylandia Rally - 152 points) has taken the overall lead from Austin Jones (Can-Am Factory South Racing - 150 points) who had held it since his victory in Jeddah. Rokas Baciuska (South Racing Can-Am - 151 points), who won the Rallye du Maroc, is now in between them. Goczal and Jones are in direct competition with the young Lithuanian. Their final positions on the Andalucía Rally are highly likely to resemble the final W2RC podium!
Motorcycles: Sunderland in control
Winner of the first two rounds, Sunderland (GasGas Factory Racing) left the victory in Morocco to the young Skyler Howes (Husqvarna Factory Racing) and settled for a fifth place. But that didn’t diminish his lead over Quintanilla (Monster Energy Honda) after the Chilean crashed on stage 1 to finish 10th in Agadir. 22 points separate the two men, 74 points for Sam and 52 points for Pablo. Brabec on his Honda has come dangerously close to his teammate. By finishing on the podium in Morocco, he now has 50 points on the score board, just two less than Quintanilla. If "Sundersam" controls the finale, he could be wearing his 2nd world championship crown after the one to took in 2019. In Rally2, Mason Klein (BAS World KTM Racing) already won his class in Agadir, as well as the Rally 2 Junior Trophy. In Dos Hermanas he should also receive his 3rd distinction, the Rookie of the Year title, awarded by the promoter. A perfect hattrick! In the quad category, Alexandre Giroud (Yamaha SMX Drag'on), winner of the Dakar, has a 23-point lead over Jurav Varga (Varga Motorsport Team). The title should logically be played out between these two men.
The program
On Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th October, the administrative and technical verifications will be held at the Gran Hipódromo de Andalucía. The qualifying stage (stage 1A) will take place between 14:00 and 17:00 on October 19. The W2RC caravan will set off on Thursday, October 20 for four loops around Dos Hermanas. In total, 2078 kilometres, of which 1176 kilometres are timed special stage, await the W2RC caravan, with the race ending on Sunday, October 23.
