2024 Rallye du Maroc
Stage Four
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Daniel Sanders has secured his second consecutive stage win of the 2024 Rallye du Maroc with victory on day four.
Opening the entire 315-kilometre timed special, the Australian now heads into the final day of racing in Morocco with an advantage of more than 21 minutes over the rest of the field.
Following the issuing of penalties after Wednesday’s stage three, Sanders’ overall lead in the rally increased to over 11 minutes.
Due to his stage win on Wednesday, the Australian set off first into today’s special, eager to maintain that advantage, and by navigating his way cleanly through the stage, the KTM 450 RALLY racer did exactly that.
Despite a hard charge by rival Tosha Schareina throughout the stage, Sanders kept his cool under pressure to not only open the entire stage but to ultimately top the timesheets by an impressive five minutes and 31 seconds once the bonus time for leading out was awarded.
In extending his overall rally lead, ‘Chucky’ heads into Friday’s stage five with an advantage of 21 minutes and 44 seconds.
Daniel Sanders
“Stage four done, and it’s been a pretty good day for me. It was very, very long with a lot of navigation. It was a new area here that we’ve never been to before in the race, so it was really cool to ride with some good tracks and good riding.
“I just focused on my navigation today and put that first over out-and-out speed. I pretty much nailed most things – I made a couple of little mistakes, but I was able to fix those pretty quick and keep up a good rhythm all day.
“With a lot of the other guys getting lost today, I was able to open up the lead a bit more, so with one more day to go, I’m feeling good and looking forward to the finish.”
Tosha Schareina was a man on a mission following his post-stage penalty yesterday to put in a supersonic ride on his Honda CRF450 RALLY throughout the day to keep ahead and cut into the time gap to overall rally leader Daniel Sanders.
Romping to a four-minute gap, Schareina looked to have the stage win in his pocket only to suffer a small crash 70 kms before the finish. Getting back on the bike the Spaniard then discovered an error in the road book for the last section, causing him endless problems finding the right route.
His healthy lead vanished as he tried to get back on track, eventually losing ten-minutes from the lead he’d charged to over the previous 250kms.
His end result of fourth masqueraded what an incredible ride he’d had for most of the stage but the time lost leaves him nearly 22 minutes back of the overall lead so the Spaniard will look to end his 2024 season tomorrow with a stage victory.
Ruben Faria – Honda Rally General Manager
“It is definitely not an easy race for us, early on in today’s stage Pablo had a crash, luckily he didn’t sustain a big injury but due to the fall he broke parts of the navigation system and wasn’t able to continue so he’s out of this year’s Rallye Du Maroc. Tosha started fifth and put in a huge effort to recover time, he was riding really well until 70km before the end. Then one note in the road book was not clear which caused him to lose time.
“In our opinion it was a note that wasn’t 100 per cent correct as Tosha, Adrien and Luciano Benavides all tried to find the way losing precious minutes. It was really too much time to lose as Tosha finished fourth and Adrien in sixth. The good thing is the Honda CRF450 RALLY is working really well and we have one more day to try to recover as much time as we can in the standings and do a good stage.
“It’s not been an easy rally, we’ve have had some crashes and problems but this is racing. Tomorrow is the last stage and we will do our best to get to the finish and get our riders on the podium.”
Continuing to improve as the event goes on, Benavides delivered another strong ride on today’s special to secure third place for the stage, and in turn, moved himself up to third in the provisional overall standings.
Aiming to complete the rally on a high, Luciano will be looking to chase down the two riders ahead of him on tomorrow’s stage five and finish the event on the podium.
Luciano Benavides
“It was a good stage today for me. The navigation was really tough; Daniel did an amazing job, so he got the win. For me, I’m pleased with how I rode – a few mistakes with the navigation, but they didn’t cost me too much time. We’re still working on making some set-up changes to the bike, and that it definitely going well. Right now, Daniel and I are both in the top three, and tomorrow is my last day wearing the number one this year, so I’ll try and enjoy it tomorrow and hopefully, we can finish the rally with both riders on the podium.”
Friday’s fifth and final stage of the 2024 Rallye du Maroc will once again send riders on a looped route from Mengoub. Featuring a slightly shorter timed special of 273 kilometres, the stage will still offer a huge challenge to all competitors as they strive to complete the event.
2024 Rallye du Maroc
Stage Four
- Sanders Daniel AUS KTM Factory Racing Team KTM 03:34:17
- Cornejo Florimo José Ignacio 11 CHI Hero Motorsports Team Rally Hero + 05:31
- Benavides Luciano ARG KTM Factory Racing Team KTM + 08:11
- Schareina Tosha SPA Monster Energy Honda Team Honda + 10:18
- Evan Branch Ross BWA Hero Motorsports Team Rally Hero + 17:37
- Van Beveren Adrien FRA Monster Energy Honda Team Honda + 17:40
- Santolino Lorenzo SPA Sherco TVS Rally Factory Sherco + 22:53
- Maio Antonio POR Franco Sport Yamaha Racing Team Yamaha + 30:12
2024 Rallye du Maroc Standings
(after 4 of 5 stages)
- Sanders Daniel AUS KTM Factory Racing Team KTM 13:01:25
- Schareina Tosha SPA Monster Energy Honda Team Honda + 21:44
- Benavides Luciano ARG KTM Factory Racing Team KTM + 24:23
- Van Beveren Adrien FRA Monster Energy Honda Team Honda + 32:01
- Evan Branch Ross BWA Hero Motorsports Team Rally Hero + 45:53
- Cornejo Florimo José Ignacio CHI Hero Motorsports Team Rally Hero + 53:58
- Santolino Lorenzo SPA Sherco TVS Rally Factory Sherco + 01:01:53
- Maio Antonio POR Franco Sport Yamaha Racing Team Yamaha + 02:21:29
