2024 Rallye du Maroc: Flooding forces Stage 1, 2 route swap

Everyone feared weather would impact the Rallye du Maroc, and it certainly did not take long to do so.

Severe flooding following Sunday’s Prologue caused a deadlock on the liaison stage for competitors as they tried to travel from Ouarzazate to the next bivouac in Zagora. Local police stopped the caravan from proceeding until the river died down, but this left everyone stuck in the meantime.

With so many people arriving late, race organisers opted to swap the routes for Stages #1 and #2. The “new” Stage #1 on Monday, a loop starting and ending in Zagora, has also been shortened from the original 317 kilometres in Selective Sections to just 180 km for FIM riders and 178 km for FIA drivers.

Morocco was hit by torrential downpours and flooding at historic levels in September, killing over twenty people in the country and neighbouring Algeria. Rally organiser ODC Event anticipated inclement weather to potentially interfere with the race, sending crews to the route to analyse the damage to the environment. The Baja Morocco, an unrelated cross-country rally held the week before the Rallye du Maroc, also had to adjust its route accordingly.

Driver Isidre Esteve noted days before the race that “the chotts have flooded, and lakes have formed in front of the dunes of Merzouga, something I’ve never seen before. All the main tracks, which used to be visible, have disappeared.”

The Stage #1 start was also postponed to account for the delays. José Ignacio Cornejo will be the first bike to start the Selective Section at 10:05 AM, as opposed to the original time of 7:40, while Guoyu Zhang is the first car out at 12:39 PM rather than 10:18. The change, along with the pared-down distance, is intended to help everyone take part in the stage without running too late into the day.