Another good day for the two Husqvarna riders who are this evening leading the overall standings. Luciano Benavides wins the stage in front of his teammate Skyler Howes who keeps his position as overall leader. In the cars, Nasser Al Attiyah, who conceded more than fifty minutes to Loeb yesterday, wins the stage. The Qatari took back ten minutes on the Frenchman and is now fourth overall, 27'37" behind the new race leader. Ahead the three Prodrive drivers remain at the top of the overall standings, but in a different order, with Chicherit taking the lead ahead of Terranova and Loeb.
ON TRACK
In the bikes Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna Factory Racing) took the stage win with teammate Skyler Howes second and Ross Branch (Hero Motosports) third. Overall Howes maintains his lead with L Benavides now second and Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) third. The top 6 are within ten minutes of each other with Sam Sunderland (GasGas Factory Racing), W2RC leader going into this race, 6th at 9’45”. In Rally2 Mason Klein (BAS World KTM Racing) beat Bradley Cox (BAS World KTM Racing) into second place despite receiving an 8 minute speeding penalty. Without that he would have finished 3rd if he’d been racing in RallyGP! In Rally3 Anime Echiguer once again won the stage to increase his overall lead to over 20 minutes.
In the cars, it's one day for you, one day for me between Al Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) and Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme)! Today was a good one for the Qatari, who won the stage despite a puncture and some navigation errors. Loeb also had a puncture and lost several minutes playing hide and seek with a waypoint to finish 9'31'' behind Al Attiyah. Despite one puncture more than the two world championship contenders, Guerlain Chicherit finished only 1'21'' behind Nasser. Jakub Przygonski finished third, 2'01'' behind the winner, his first good day. In the general standings, the three Hunters remain in the lead, but it is now Chicherit who holds first place ahead of Terranova, only 47 seconds behind the Frenchman with Loeb dropping to third place, 3'50" behind his compatriot. Al Attiyah is in fourth place, 27'37" behind the leader. He took 10 minutes off Loeb today and is now 23'27'' behind his championship rival. The day after De Mevius' victory, his Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team teammate Seth Quintero took the win. The American set the eighth fastest time overall among the FIA cars, more than six minutes ahead of his teammate Cristina Gutierrez. "Chaleco" Lopez (Can-Am Factory South Racing) completed the podium at nearly eight minutes. The Chilean retains the overall lead in the Rallye du Maroc but by just 47 seconds over the day's winner, Seth Quintero. Cristina is now 12'32'' behind the leader.
In the T4 class, the win went to Lithuanian Rokas Baciuska (South-Racing Can-Am) just under a minute ahead of Austin Jones (Can-Am Factory South Racing). Pau Navarro, winner of the previous day's stage, completed the podium. The winner of the day retains the lead in the overall Rallye du Maroc standings. He has a lead of almost ten minutes over Gonzales Ferioli (South Racing Can-Am), who finished fourth on today's stage. The young Pau Navarro (see Stat of the Day) is third, just 30 seconds behind the Argentinean. In T5, the Dutchman Kees Koolen (Project 2030) won the day's special stage by a comfortable margin, half an hour ahead of the previous day's winner, Martin Macik (MM Technology). The Czech Tomas Vratny (Fesh Fesh) completed the stage podium. Overall Macik still holds the lead, ahead of the winner of the day and Gerrit Zuurmond (Raimbow Truck).
RADIO BIVOUAC
Yamaha may have put an end to their motorcycle programme after the 2022 Dakar, but the brand continues its presence in rally-raid in T3. On the Rallye du Maroc, two Yamaha T3 Powered by X-Raid are entered in the Maroc Telecom Open SSV class by Portuguese driver Paulo Rui Ferreira and his son Joao, the reigning T1 European Baja champion. The former is leading the category. Sven Quandt has been working on this project for over two years and should be ready to enter between four and six vehicles on the next the Dakar, which will be entrusted to both well-known drivers and rally-raid newcomers. The two test vehicles present this week are very different from the previous prototype entrusted to Camelia Liparoti. "We started from the existing base we developed two years ago, but we introduced a new engine and modified the chassis and suspension accordingly. I think that now we are on the right track to have a high performance vehicle for the Dakar." Added the X-raid boss discreetly, "It is indeed a snowmobile engine, quite similar to the original Yamaha YXZ that is racing here. It has slightly different internal architecture that makes it easier to maintain and it has a turbo that seems to offer more power," concluded the German, who is behind the Mini victories and who has also been in charge of the Audi program since last year.
STAT OF THE DAY: 18
Not so long ago if you strolled down the start line of the car class on a rally raid you couldn’t help but be struck by the high average age of the competitors. With the explosion of the relatively affordable T3 and T4 classes all that is starting to change and a quick look at the top of yesterday’s T4 results sheet was ample proof. Initially the T4 win for the stage between Tan Tan and Laayoune was given to the Brazilian Bruno Conti de Oliveira (South Racing Can-Am). He was then however given a 2 minute speeding penalty which meant that victory was accredited to his Spanish rival Pau Navarro (FN Speed). Both are just 18 years old – Pau only past his driving licence 4 months ago! There are other similarities as well. Both have fathers heavily implicated in the sport. Bruno’s dad is none other than Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira, who won a stage on this year’s Dakar to finish 6th overall. He even ‘lent’ his co-driver Maykel Justo for the Rallye du Maroc after he was unable to come to the race. Pau’s father just happens to be the boss of FN Speed, the team Pau is driving for. Both Pau and Bruno are hoping to race next year’s Dakar and both their faces light up when they start talking about their hopes for next January in this ultra competitive category. Just to give you an idea of how competitive: Bruno wasn’t reclassified second when he got his 2 minute penalty, but fourth! You get the feeling though that both have plenty more victories ahead of them.
W2RC
The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver has now closed the gap on the Bahrain Raid Xtreme driver by a third with two days to go. The Qatari is still in with a chance! Mason Klein (BAS World KTM Racing Team) has also extended his lead in Rally2 while Martin Macik (MM Technology) entrenches his position (2nd on the stage). Sam Sunderland (GasGas Factory Racing) is still managing his race in RallyGP (4th in the stage, 6th overall) but Austin Jones (Can-Am Factory South Racing) is struggling in T4 (4th overall). In T3, the battle continues to rage: the championship leader, "Chaleco" Lopez (Can-Am Factory South Racing) is only 47 seconds ahead of the day's winner, Seth Quintero (Red Bull Off-Road Junior USA, 3rd in the championship).
QUOTES
Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna Factory Racing) “Another win for me is really good for my confidence and as a way of thanking the team for all the work they are doing for me during the year. Today was a really nice stage and I think I navigated quite well. Good to finish together with my teammate Skyler (Howes) – Husky boys on top. On the first stage we worked well together and I think tomorrow could be the same. Skyler is really fast navigating across the open desert and I can take over when it is a bit more technical.”
Sebastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) "We made several small navigation errors, but I think it was the same for everyone, it was a bit complicated. There was one point where we got too far into our mistake and then got on another wrong track. That one really cost us."
Mathieu Baumel (Toyota Gazoo Racing): "A similar day to the first two. We thought this one would have more dunes and sand but in fact it was more or less the same, with about twenty kilometres of sandy at the start. After that, everything else was rocky, very abrasive for the tyres and hard on the cars. There were two or three places where the navigation wasn’t easy. We didn’t have a perfect day, but we still won the stage while Seb (Loeb) finished sixth, which means he won't take any world championship points..."
