Nasser Al-Attiyah delivered a World Rally-Raid Championship stage win for Dacia in its first ever competitive rally-raid stage, winning the opening test of a flood-affected Morocco Rally – but team-mate Sébastien Loeb has had a less than straightforward start.
Widespread flooding in September has had lasting effects; for the W2RC contingent, it meant delays in some competitors transiting to the bivouac in Zagora, which led to stages one and two being swapped around and Monday’s action being shortened to allow for a later start time.
Dacia is debuting its new Sandrider rally-raid machine in Morocco as preparation for next year’s Dakar, where it will face stiff competition from Ford’s new Raptor machine, the recently refreshed X-Raid Mini and the factory Toyota Hiluxes.
Sunday’s Prologue stage, which doesn’t count towards the overall classification, was won by Guerlain Chicherit, giving the X-Raid Mini driver free choice of where to start on the road – he selected ninth. Al-Attiyah deployed strategy before the rally had even properly begun, slowing on purpose to start 28th.
Carlos Sainz leads the Ford challenge and lies third overall after the opening stage
That seemed to have the desired effect, giving him more tracks to follow, and he duly surged ahead of Chicherit at the second checkpoint on his way to the fastest time.
Al-Attiyah can also wrap up a third consecutive world title if he concedes fewer than 25 points to Overdrive’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi. The Hilux driver was second-fastest on the opening stage but trails the leader by 1m39s.
Morocco’s opening stage was also the 100th-ever world championship stage; this was Al-Attiyah’s 40th scratch time in the category.
Carlos Sainz finished as the lead M-Sport Ford Raptor in third place, 2m33s behind Al-Attiyah’s benchmark. Unlike for Dacia this isn’t the Raptor’s competition debut, as Nani Roma won the Hungarian Baja aboard a sister car back in August.
Fourth-placed Chicherit found himself sandwiched by Fords, as Mattias Ekström clocked the fifth-fastest time, 6m09s off the pace. He, like Sainz, has arrived at Ford after the conclusion of Audi’s rally-raid program earlier this year.
Cristina Gutíerrez ran strongly on Dacia debut, setting the 10th fastest time
Sébastien Loeb found himself in an unusual position, starting 121st on the road after ending up in a ditch and breaking his front-right suspension on the Prologue.
His first competitive stage started well, despite starting well down the order, running in the top five at the early waypoints. But he ran into trouble in the final section of the shortened stage, dropping eight minutes and ending up 12th overnight, almost 13 minutes off Al-Attiyah.
Reigning Dakar T3 champion Cristina Gutíerrez, who completes the Dacia lineup both in Morocco and next year’s Dakar, was 10th fastest. Toyota propped up the rear of the factory outfits: Lucas Moraes was 11th, 11m31s behind Al-Attiyah, while his team-mate Seth Quintero is outside the top 20 and almost 18 minutes off the top spot after starting third on the road.
