- The penultimate stage of the 26th edition of the Rallye du Maroc was held over a loop around the Erfoud bivouac, covering 378 km, including 283 km of special stage.
- In the motorcycle category, Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy Honda HRC) won his third consecutive stage and increased his overall lead over Daniel Sanders (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), who is 3'33" behind on the eve of the finish.
- In the cars, Nani Roma (Ford M-Sport) wins ahead of Sébastien Loeb (The Dacia Sandriders). The Frenchman extends his overall lead over Lucas Moraes (Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC, +3'38''). The Catalan moves up to 3rd ahead of championship leader Nasser Al Attiyah (The Dacia Sandriders).
- The final stage will take place tomorrow over 310 km, including 216 km of special stage. The FIA will then compete in their 31 km Power Selective Section after a 6 km liaison stage. Follow the action on the Race Center from 07:10 a.m. (UTC +1).
In the cars, Nani Roma won his first stage of the week after leading the race at the end of the second stage. Sébastien Loeb, who had been leading since yesterday, finished second, 44 seconds behind the Catalan. Lucas Moraes completed the day's podium (+57 seconds) ahead of Nasser Al Attiyah (+1 minute 10 seconds). In the overall standings, Loeb extended his lead to 3 minutes 38 seconds over Moraes. Roma is third (+6'51“) and Al Attiyah fourth (7'34”).
Tomorrow, Moraes will start in third position, three minutes behind Loeb. To win the 26th edition of the Rallye du Maroc, the Brazilian will have to overtake the Frenchman on the track and gain more than 38 seconds on him. The world championship title is likely to be decided between Moraes and Al Attiyah, who will also start one behind the other (see W2RC). Moraes will be sandwiched between two Dacias. He will have two challenges to overcome: ahead of him for the race victory, and behind him for the world championship. The final stage promises to be exciting, and couldn't be easier to follow live!
In the motorcycle category, Ignacio Cornejo (Hero MotoSports) entered the fray. In second place, the Chilean is the only rider, along with his teammate Ross Branch, who finished third in stage 1, to have challenged the dominance of Sanders, Schareina and Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda HRC) this week. The Spaniard won for the third time in a row this week ahead of “Nacho” (+24"). With the prologue won by Brabec, Honda now has four victories in the race. The American took third place today (+2'02''). Sanders is not in the top three for the first time this week and is disappointed, aware that he made the wrong decision by not staying alongside his rival, whom he had caught up with (see Quotes). Fourth (+4'11'‘), “Chucky” loses the overall lead to Schareina, who goes from 38’' behind to 3'33'' ahead. Fourth place at the start of tomorrow's final special stage is the consolation prize for Sanders, who could take advantage of it to close in on his rival and win at the wire.
W2RC: EVERYTHING TO PLAY FOR TOMORROW!
Third on the day ahead of Nasser Al Attiyah, Lucas Moraes scored one more point than his title rival. At the top of the FIA championship, the gap between the two men has narrowed to just 10 points. The final day of the season will be decisive between the Qatari and the Brazilian. Stage 5 will award up to 5 points to the winner (5, 4, 3, 2, 1), plus 3 on the Power Selective Section that will conclude the race (3, 2, 1). Not to mention the points for the final overall classification, with up to 30 points awarded to the winner of the Rallye du Maroc. The complete scoring system can be found by clicking here.
