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Romain Dumontier will need more than a Hail Mary to defend his World Rally-Raid Championship.
A rash of navigation errors cost Dumontier roughly thirty minutes during Stage #4 on Thursday, dropping him as far as thirtieth in Rally2 early into the leg. He made up some lost ground, but it nowhere near enough as he finished a distant eighteenth and 33-and-a-half minutes behind stage winner Harith Noah.
The reigning Rally2 champion entered the Rallye du Maroc as the points leader, but has spent much of the rally chasing down rival Bradley Cox. Cox finished fifth and twenty-two minutes ahead of Dumontier to reinforce his lead. Going into the final day, Cox leads the overall and has 1:06:28 on the seventh-placed Dumontier (fifth among W2RC-eligible riders).
“Tomorrow I try to finish on a good notes,” wrote Dumontier.
While Cox is in position to secure the title, his three-stage win streak was snapped Thursday as he finished fifth. Stage #4 was dominated by a pair of 2024 Dakar Rally winners as Rally2 overall victor Noah led Original by Motul champion Tobias Ebster.
Noah, who is doing a part-time schedule, scored his third stage win of the 2024 season after notching two at Dakar. However, he does not impact the championship since he is not racing for points.
Ebster, on the other hand, reinforced his W2RC Rally2 podium placement behind Cox and Edgar Canet. He originally had Konrad Dąbrowski breathing down his neck for third as he led by just four minutes entering Thursday with Dumontier fifteen minutes back. His runner-up coupled with Dumontier’s poor day and Dąbrowski getting lost increased the margin to twenty-five minutes on the latter and forty-five on Dumontier.
Neels Theric also provided a Rally2 surprise on Thursday. He and his Kove 450 ran second behind Noah for much of the first half before falling back to sixteenth when he got lost.
Besides Dumontier, Yazeed Al-Rajhi is another title hopeful looking for a miracle on Friday. He won Stage #4 in Ultimate to earn himself five crucial bonus points, but rival Nasser Al-Attiyah placed third and holds a 31-point advantage entering the last leg. Al-Attiyah also continues to hold the overall lead with 21:21 on Al-Rajhi, who is fifth in the ranking.
As such, the only chance Al-Rajhi has to prevent a three-peat would be for Al-Attiyah, Guillaume de Mévius, Guerlain Chicherit, and Sébastien Loeb to all retire or have an uncharacteristically poor Stage #5. The overall win provides 30 points.
In Challenger, the Taurus T3 Max continued its reign with a top five lockout led by Eryk Goczał. He passed Mitch Guthrie in the final fifty kilometres for his second consecutive stage win, with fellow Tauruses of Marek Goczał, Dania Akeel, and Khalifa Al-Attiyah in tow.
While Tauruses continued to dominate, other drivers were not as fortunate. Michał Goczał, who had led the class overall early on, did not start the stage after the fire extinguisher malfunctioned. Marcelo Gastaldi also retired, knocking his co-driver Carlos Sachs out of contention for the W2RC class title for navigators. With Sachs’ exit and Oriol Vidal not entered due to injury, Valentina Pertegarini became the first woman to win a W2RC title as she called the shots for her husband Nicolás Cavigliasso to a seventh in the category.
Yasir Seaidan had an off day as he finished sixteenth in SSV and 33:51 behind winner Helder Rodrigues, but third for W2RC drivers salvages some points. Sebastián Guayasamín‘s third meant he was the highest points-earning competitor in the category and basically nullified Seaidan’s progress made on Wednesday, though he continues to trail Seaidan in the overall by 14:38. As such, so long as Seaidan maintains the overall lead, he can pass Guayasamín for the crown.
Daniel Sanders won in RallyGP for the second day in a row, with new KTM team-mate Luciano Benavides joining him on the stage podium in third. José Ignacio Cornejo was second, though his Honda colleague Pablo Quintanilla bowed out due to a crash.
“Around 55 kilometres, I had a crash and I damaged my elbow and the navigation system,” said Quintanilla. “It was not a good day but it’s part of racing. I was riding against the sun and I hit a rock that I didn’t see and it caused me to crash. The good thing is that nothing is broken so I can continue with my training programme for Dakar. The goal now is to be ready, fit and to arrive at Dakar stronger than before.”
RallyGP points leader Ross Branch is one day away from securing the title. Following Ricky Brabec‘s retirement in Stage #1, Branch has been riding conservatively to protect his bike as he only needs to complete the race to clinch.
Carlos Sainz set the fastest time among all competitors regardless of class, though it will not count for him since his Ford Raptor T1+ is entered as an Experimental vehicle.
Stage #4 winners
| Class | Number | Competitor | Team | Time |
| Ultimate | 201 | Yazeed Al-Rajhi | Overdrive Racing | 3:06:51 |
| Challenger | 307 | Eryk Goczał | EnergyLandia Taurus Factory Team | 3:18:14 |
| SSV | 408 | Hélder Rodrigues | Old Friends Rally Team | 3:33:51 |
| Stock | 500 | Ronald Basso* | Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body | 4:02:59 |
| Truck | 600 | Martin Macík Jr.* | MM Technology | 3:30:37 |
| Experimental Car | 203 | Carlos Sainz* | Ford M-Sport | 3:04:05 |
| Experimental UTV | 406 | Francisco López Contardo* | Can-Am Factory Team | 3:30:06 |
| RallyGP | 5 | Daniel Sanders* | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 3:34:17 |
| Rally2 | 54 | Harith Noah* | Sherco TVS Rally Factory Team | 3:43:17 |
| Rally3 | 163 | Souleymane Addahri | Africa Rallye Team | 4:31:35 |
| Quad | 180 | Kamil Wiśniewski | ORLEN Team | 4:51:01 |
| Open Car | 707 | Mathieu Serradori | Serradori Racing Team | 3:06:45 |
| Open SSV | 722 | Bartłomiej Kotwica* | Grupa PBI | 4:22:23 |
| Open Truck | 752 | Kay Huzink* | Jongbloed Dakar Team | 5:07:15 |
Leaders after Stage #4
| Class | Number | Competitor | Team | Time |
| Ultimate | 200 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Dacia Sandriders | 11:47:01 |
| Challenger | 307 | Eryk Goczał | EnergyLandia Taurus Factory Team | 12:35:08 |
| SSV | 401 | Yasir Seaidan | Race World Team | 14:23:12 |
| Stock | 500 | Ronald Basso* | Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body | 18:12:47 |
| Truck | 600 | Martin Macík Jr.* | MM Technology | 13:38:04 |
| Experimental Ultimate | 220 | Mattias Ekström* | Ford M-Sport | 12:45:54 |
| Experimental SSV | 406 | Francisco López Contardo* | Can-Am Factory Team | 13:12:08 |
| RallyGP | 5 | Daniel Sanders* | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 13:01:25 |
| Rally2 | 18 | Bradley Cox | BAS World KTM Racing Team | 13:50:14 |
| Rally3 | 163 | Souleymane Addahri | Africa Rallye Team | 18:01:32 |
| Quad | 180 | Kamil Wiśniewski | ORLEN Team | 19:18:44 |
| Open Car | 701 | Akira Miura* | Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body | 17:44:07 |
| Open SSV | 723 | Ali Oubassidi* | Africa Rally Team | 19:04:14 |
| Open Truck | 752 | Kay Huzink* | Jongbloed Dakar Team | 18:37:22 |