2024 Rallye du Maroc: Championships decided in Stage 5

The fifth leg of the 2024 Rallye du Maroc was the final shot for those contending for World Rally-Raid Championships. For some who trailed entering Friday like Yazeed Al-Rajhi, it was too little, too late. For others like Yasir Seaidan, it was enough to leave Morocco with as champion.

Al-Rajhi entered the final stage with perhaps an impossibly tall order as he needed to make up 21:21 on Nasser Al-Attiyah. Although Al-Attiyah had his worst outing of the rally in eighth, so did Al-Rajhi as he finished fifteenth.

Romain Dumontier‘s Rally2 title defence also came up short. After entering Morocco as the points leader, he had little answer for Bradley Cox and a disastrous Stage #4 doomed his chances. Even beating Cox for third on Friday and the class stage win among points-eligible riders was not enough to make up the gap.

In contrast, Seaidan stepped up his game to officially leapfrog Sebastián Guayasamín for the SSV title. As Fidel Castillo Ruiz won the stage in his return to racing after his broken collarbone in August, Seaidan trailed by thirty-eight seconds to top the W2RC drivers. Guayasamín was seventh outright (second for points drivers) and eleven minutes back of Seaidan.

Rokas Baciuška “celebrated” his Challenger championship, which he clinched after Stage #3, by having a mechanical failure just fifty-three kilometres into the stage. In the meantime, Tauruses concluded a dominant rally with their second 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8 finish led by Michał and Eryk Goczał. Baciuška’s retirement meant no Can-Am Mavericks finished in the top ten on the last day as João Dias and Lionel Baud rounded out the order in their G Rally OT3s.

Ross Branch finished fifth to secure the RallyGP title. Tosha Schareina won the leg while Daniel Sanders was sixth, but it was not enough to pass Sanders for the rally win.

The Quad championship was already wrapped up in Argentina, leaving the rally to be a duel between Kamil Wiśniewski and Antanas Kanopkinas for bragging rights. Wiśniewski suffered an early problem on his quad that allowed Kanopkinas to dominate the rest of the way and pass him for the overall.

Edgar Canet scored the Rally2 stage win ahead of Thursday’s winner Harith Noah. Carter Klein, a W2RC newcomer who’s the current SCORE International Pro Moto Unlimited points leader and younger brother of 2022 Rally2 champion Mason Klein, impressed with a sixth.

Coming off being the fastest car on Thursday, Carlos Sainz set the fifth fastest time among everyone in his Experimental-class Ford Raptor T1+. Team-mate Mattias Ekström retired after hitting a hole, prompting co-driver Emil Bergkvist to visit a hospital for evaluation.

“I still feel very sore, but thankfully, Mattias and I are okay,” commented Bergkvist.

Stage #5 winners

Overall winners