2023 Rallye du Maroc: Price wins in RallyGP but Benavides takes championship

Unless you’re NASCAR, a championship contender winning the final race of the season but not the title itself is a painful but not uncommon phenomenon.

Toby Price experienced this firsthand as he won the Rallye du Maroc overall but lost the World Rally-Raid Championship in RallyGP by just four points to Luciano Benavides. It is the closest margin for a W2RC class since its inception in 2022, a mark last held by last year’s T4 title coming down to six points and edging out the five-point 2023 T3 battle.

Price took the points lead after the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge only for Benavides to claim it two rounds later at the Desafío Ruta 40 due to a broken shock that relegated him to last in class. He entered Morocco trailing by ten points.

A runner-up finish in Stage #2 propelled Price up to second overall behind Ross Branch before overtaking him the next day due to a slow start for the latter. Unfortunately for him, Benavides won Stage #4 to creep onto the outright podium, and Price quickly realised the disaster in Argentina was going to “come back to haunt me.”

Going into the last day, Benavides simply needed to finish on the overall podium to clinch the championship regardless of Price’s result. Although Pablo Quintanilla, who was fourth, won winning the final stage, Branch crashed in the dunes and fell off the podium entirely which Benavides capitalised upon to finish second behind Price and ice the title.

“The championship is a hard one to swallow,” said Price. He will try to finish the job in 2024, but his future afterwards is uncertain as he contemplates a switch to rally raid cars. “We put up a good fight and did everything we could but 2023 just hasn’t been the greatest season for us. I’m happy in the fact that I never gave up and put in 100 percent right to the finish.”

Benavides ended the season with 100 points. Had he finished third, he and Price would be tied at 96 points each with Benavides holding the second tiebreaker of runner-up finishes with two (Abu Dhabi and Morocco) to Price’s one (Dakar Rally). While he finished second overall at the Desafío Ruta 40, winner Tosha Schareina did not compete for points and thereby made Benavides the race’s W2RC victor.

The win completes a tumultuous yet wildly successful season for the Benavides family. His older brother Kevin Benavides beat Price for the Dakar Rally win but had his year cut short by multiple injuries, though he was able to join Luciano in celebrating in Argentina and Morocco.

“It’s a dream come true for me. It’s been a long journey to get to this point from finishing my first rally here in Morocco in 2017,” said Benavides after the final stage. “To finish like this against Toby on the last day of the rally while opening the stage is incredible, I can’t thank the team enough for all the hard work and their belief in me.

“Waiting for confirmation of the championship when I finished was tense. Forty minutes felt like four hours, but I knew I gave my best today as there was no other option. It was really special to start first because I could just look forward and get on with it, and no one caught me so I finished first too. I want to celebrate and enjoy this feeling for a while because although it is amazing, it’s been a tough season and I have trained hard so I want to rest for a week or two. After that, it’s full gas again because I want to keep the same rhythm and pace for Dakar as it’s another dream for me to win.”

Schareina won two stages and the Prologue, but was in a hole early after getting lost in Stage #1 and suffered a broken exhaust in Stage #4.

The first half was particularly unkind to the RallyGP field. Skyler Howes‘ début with Monster Energy Honda Rally Team was cut short when he hit a hole and crashed in the Prologue, resulting in broken bones; team-mate and fellow American Ricky Brabec retired the next day with fuel issues, as did reigning champion Sam Sunderland due to blurred vision. Price’s Red Bull KTM ally Matthias Walkner fell just seconds after starting Stage #3, while Branch’s Hero MotoSports colleague Joaquim Rodrigues never even started the rally due to an accident on the last day of shakedowns.

While Benavides won the rider’s title on a Husqvarna, Honda escaped with the manufacturer’s championship as they beat KTM by eight points; KTM was the lone multi-time W2RC winner via Kevin Benavides and Price. Honda scored a win in Abu Dhabi with Adrien Van Beveren, who finished third in points, while Quintanilla was fifth and José Ignacio Cornejo sixth. Howes was Benavides’ partner at Husqvarna Factory Racing before departing the team after the Sonora Rally.

RallyGP overall results

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Time	Margin
1	8	Toby Price	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	15:56:43	Leader
2	77	Luciano Benavides	Husqvarna Factory Racing	15:59:43	+ 3:00
3	7	Pablo Quintanilla	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	15:59:55	+ 3:12
4	16	Ross Branch	Hero MotoSports	16:01:27	+ 4:44
5	68	Tosha Schareina*	Honda Team	16:05:23	+ 8:40
6	11	José Ignacio Cornejo	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	16:09:42	+ 12:59
7	42	Adrien Van Beveren	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	16:32:35	+ 35:52
8	14	Sebastian Bühler	Hero MotoSports	17:08:59	+ 1:12:16
9	15	Lorenzo Santolino*	Sherco Factory Racing	17:23:11	+ 1:26:28
10	19	Rui Gonçalves*	Sherco Factory Racing	17:35:18	+ 1:38:35
11	20	Harith Noah*	Sherco Factory Racing	18:15:11	+ 2:18:28
DNF	1	Sam Sunderland	Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing	DNF	N/A
DNF	2	Ricky Brabec	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	10	Skyler Howes	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	52	Matthias Walkner	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	DNF	N/A

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

RallyGP stage winners

Stage	Rider	Time
Prologue	Tosha Schareina*	55:15.2 (11:03.2)
Stage #1	Ross Branch	3:13:17
Stage #2	Tosha Schareina*	3:02:15
Stage #3	Tosha Schareina*	3:03:35
Stage #4	Luciano Benavides	3:35:12
Stage #5	Pablo Quintanilla	1:49:17

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
T1	201	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Toyota Gazoo Racing	14:49:09
T2	251	Ronald Basso*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	22:14:17
T3	315	Marek Goczał	EnergyLandia Rally Team	16:22:12
T4	403	João Ferreira	South Racing Can-Am	18:26:24
T5	506	Michiel Becx*	Team de Rooy	21:32:34
RallyGP	8	Toby Price	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	15:56:43
Rally2	32	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	17:06:37
Rally3	164	Cheikh Yves Jacquemain	Africa Rallye Team	23:42:39
Quad	186	Alexandre Giroud*	Drag’on Rally Team	21:07:24
Open Auto	601	Jérôme Cambier*	MD Rallye Sport	21:21:46
Open SSV	653	Tomas Mickus*	BRO Racing	21:42:23
Road to Dakar Bike	71	Toby Hederics*	BAS World KTM Racing Team	19:11:16
Road to Dakar SSV	420	William Grarre*	Team Horizon Off-Road	21:50:39

W2RC RallyGP standings

Rank	Rider	Points	Margin
1	Luciano Benavides	100	– Leader
2	Toby Price	96	– 4
3	Adrien Van Beveren	76	– 24
4	Ross Branch	58	– 42
5	Pablo Quintanilla	55	– 45
6	José Ignacio Cornejo	52	– 48
7	Kevin Benavides	43	– 57
8	Daniel Sanders	39	– 61
9	Ricky Brabec	38	– 62
10	Skyler Howes	34	– 66
11	Sebastian Bühler	25	– 75
12	Matthias Walkner	13	– 87
13	Franco Caimi	11	– 89
14	Mason Klein	4	– 96

Manufacturer’s standings

Rank	Manufacturer	Points	Margin
1	Honda	155	Leader
2	KTM	147	– 8
3	Husqvarna	134	– 21
4	Hero	86	– 69
5	GasGas	39	– 116