2022 Rallye du Maroc: Loeb leads BRX 1–2, Prodrive Hunter 1–2–3 in Stage 2

Stage #1B of the Rallye du Maroc did not go according to plan for Sébastien Loeb, but he made the most of Stage #2 on Monday as he and Bahrain Raid Xtreme team-mate Orlando Terranova set the two fastest T1 times in the run from Tan Tan to Laâyoune.

Loeb’s time of 2:56:54 topped Terranova’s 3:07:09, completing a strong rebound after the previous leg saw him finish ninth following various mechanical trouble. Guerlain Chicherit, racing for his own team with a BRX alliance, was third at 3:15:02 to secure a 1–2–3 class finish for Prodrive Hunters.

“After yesterday’s troubles, we had a really good stage without many mistakes at all; just one puncture in over 300 kilometres wasn’t bad at all to make it a clean run,” said Loeb. “They’d made the navigation very difficult in there, really making you work to find the way points, but that’s rally raid and that’s why it’s so satisfying to win a stage like this.”

Stage #1B T1 winner Yazeed Al-Rajhi finished seventh in class. Nasser Al-Attiyah, who had the upper hand on Loeb in the World Rally-Raid Championship T1 points battle when he won the prologue, was plagued by four tyre failures (exacerbating matters was the rule stipulating teams only have two spare tyres at a time) and finished a distant eleventh at 3:50:52.

Guillaume de Mevius topped the T3 category after having “no big issues issue. We’re focused on getting all the mileage we can ahead of the next Dakar.”

T4 overall leader Marek Goczał suffered an electrical failure that resulted in him retiring from the stage. Consequently, he falls to fifteenth in the general ranking while stage winner Pau Navarro moves up to fourth.

Martin Macík Jr. dominated the T5 category to win for the second time, as did Carlos Sainz in Oepn Car for his third.

Adrien van Beveren‘s 3:18:44 beat Kevin Benavides‘ 3:21:38 in RallyGP for his first stage win as a Monster Energy Honda Rally Team rider. Honda team-mate Ricky Brabec was just seven seconds off Benavides’ time. A poor outing for class leader Ross Branch saw a twelfth-place finish that dropped him to sixth overall, which in turn promoted Skyler Howes to the top spot after placing fourth in the leg.

Trouble also befell Stage #1A Quad winner Alexandre Giroud as an expired engine and time penalty leave him tenth in his class. Manuel Andujar won his second straight leg to maintain his lead.

Rally2 enjoyed its third different winner of the rally as Romain Dumontier claimed Stage #2 ahead of #1B winner Mason Klein and #1A victor Bradley Cox; Klein remains the general leader. Christophe Lajouanie claimed Rally3 with forty seconds on overall leader Amine Echiguer.

Stage #3 will exclusively take place in Laâyoune.

Stage #2 winners

Leaders after Stage #2