2024 Rallye du Maroc: Branch on verge of championship after Stage 1

After Ricky Brabec‘s crash in Stage #1, Ross Branch simply needs to reach the finish on Friday to secure the World Rally-Raid Championship in RallyGP.

Brabec entered the Rallye du Maroc trailing Branch by nine points, but exited after the first day when he hurt his right knee on a landing at KM 77. He was able to ride to the finish, but the pain was too much for him to continue.

“I caught Pablo (Quintanilla) early on and we were riding really well together but then soon as we got to the dunes, I jumped a dune but when I landed I bottomed the frame out on the moguls that was on the other side,” Brabec explained. “That meant the first thing that hit the ground was my right leg which absorbed all the energy in the landing. For the remainder of stage I then had to take it easy. It’s a bummer I’m out as I’ve let the team down as I felt that this was the rally for me to shine, but Dakar is more important.”

Honda team-mate Adrien Van Beveren is the only other rider with a mathematical chance at the title as he trails Branch by sixteen points. Even then, his chances are slim as he would have needed Branch to finish last among the seven points-eligible riders while he won. With Brabec dubiously taking that spot instead, Van Beveren’s only hope now is to finish top two while Branch retires.

Of course, Van Beveren can only control his own performance. He described the first stage as a “tough day” after starting fifth and struggling to navigate with the new roadbook tablet. Van Beveren settled for seventh.

To make matters more challenging for him, Branch secured the stage win. He and Daniel Sanders duelled for the lead before the former pulled ahead in the closing twenty kilometres.

“It was a really tough one, definitely one of the most challenging stages I’ve ever ridden at Rallye du Maroc,” commented Branch. “The tracks were really beaten up and washed away from yesterday’s rains, but I managed to pull through.

“Nacho (Cornejo) did an amazing job opening the track, I can only imagine how much more difficult it would have been for him. Opening the stage tomorrow will be a mammoth task, but we’re pushing forward with confidence.”

While the curtains inch closer for the FIM’s top championship, its FIA counterpart is still up for grabs.

FIA championship leader Nasser Al-Attiyah quickly chased down Prologue winner Guerlain Chicherit and easily held off Yazeed Al-Rajhi to score the maiden stage victory for the Dacia Sandrider. It is his leading fortieth W2RC stage win.

Al-Rajhi finished second to somewhat soften the blow in the standings. Unlike the FIM, the FIA awards bonus points to the top five in a stage, with Al-Attiyah earning five as the winner while Al-Rajhi’s runner-up fetched him fourth. Since Al-Attiyah went into Morocco with a 25-point advantage, that margin has only increased to 26 following Stage #1.

Al-Attiyah’s team-mate Sébastien Loeb finished eighth, a bit of a letdown for him after running top five for much of the day and on the heels of crashing into a ditch in Sunday’s Prologue.

The series’ tightest points battle, in SSV, got even closer when Yasir Seaidan finished second overall but best among W2RC drivers and a spot ahead of his rival Sebastián Guayasamín, who was fourth. Guayasamín led Seaidan by just six points entering the rally, and their second and first on Monday slims it down to five points.

In Challenger, Michał Goczał and his brother Marek Goczał finished 1–2 and eight seconds apart. Marek’s son and Prologue class victor Eryk Goczał was sixth after missing a waypoint and having to work his way back.

The stage was the 100th for the World Rally-Raid Championship since its inception in 2022. Due to severe flooding that affected travel to the Zagora bivouac on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday’s stages swapped their routes while the “new” Stage #1 was shortened to 180 kilometres in Selective Sections.

“I’m quite glad they shortened the first stage to 180 kilometres,” quipped Truck stage winner Martin Macík Jr. “Really tough from the start. We covered all sorts of terrain. Early in the stage, there was a blow that I had where we weren’t sure if we’d damaged something on Benny, but it seems we didn’t. Just dented the front a bit on a rock. There were so many stones out there.”

Stage #1 winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
Ultimate	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia Sandriders	2:10:09
Challenger	322	Michał Goczał	EnergyLandia Taurus Factory Team	2:20:16
SSV	411	Alexandre Pinto*	Old Friends Rally Team	2:32:37
Stock	500	Ronald Basso*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	3:16:14
Truck	600	Martin Macík Jr.*	MM Technology	2:34:56
Experimental Car	203	Carlos Sainz*	Ford M-Sport	2:12:42
Experimental UTV	406	Francisco López Contardo*	Can-Am Factory Team	2:27:32
RallyGP	46	Ross Branch	Hero MotoSports	2:16:57
Rally2	18	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	2:24:23
Rally3	163	Souleymane Addahri	Africa Rallye Team	3:03:31
Quad	180	Kamil Wiśniewski	ORLEN Team	3:23:41
Open Car	702	Martin Koloc*	Buggyra ZM Racing	2:35:44
Open SSV	723	Ali Oubassidi*	Africa Rally Team	3:24:28
Open Truck	751	Gert Huzink*	MKR Team	2:42:03

* – Not competing for World Rally-Raid Championship points

Leaders after Stage #1

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
Ultimate	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia Sandriders	2:10:09
Challenger	322	Michał Goczał	EnergyLandia Taurus Factory Team	2:20:16
SSV	411	Alexandre Pinto*	Old Friends Rally Team	2:32:37
Stock	500	Ronald Basso*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	3:16:14
Truck	600	Martin Macík Jr.*	MM Technology	2:34:56
Experimental Ultimate	203	Carlos Sainz*	Ford M-Sport	2:12:42
Experimental SSV	406	Francisco López Contardo*	Can-Am Factory Team	2:27:32
RallyGP	46	Ross Branch	Hero MotoSports	2:34:09
Rally2	18	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	2:42:31
Rally3	163	Souleymane Addahri	Africa Rallye Team	3:27:04
Quad	180	Kamil Wiśniewski	ORLEN Team	3:48:53
Open Car	702	Martin Koloc*	Buggyra ZM Racing	2:35:44
Open SSV	723	Ali Oubassidi*	Africa Rally Team	3:24:28
Open Truck	751	Gert Huzink*	MKR Team	2:42:03