After two days dedicated to scrutineering at the Hotel Marriott in Fez, 153 race vehicles set off this morning direction Erfoud for the first stage of the 2019 Rallye du Maroc.
Very technical in the mountains and rocky over the first part, the 226 km special for the FIA cars and FIM bikes and 204 km for the Maroc Telecom SSVs, Open and Enduro Cup Afriquia, became more rolling after the first 160 kms.
At the end the FIA car and FIM bike competitors headed into a section of camel grass and small dunes while the Maroc Telecom SSVs, Open and Enduro Cup Afriquia categories went directly to the end of the special at the bivouac. This first stage was the chance for the competitors to try out the new colour road book.
FIM BIKES: FIRST STAGE FOR QUINTANILLA
Pablo Quintanilla (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing) couldn’t have hoped for better for this first stage of the 2019 Rallye du Maroc.
Starting 18th this morning, the Chilean rider rode a good pace over the first kilometres, negotiating the tricky navigation to finally post the fastest time at the 2019 Rallye du Maroc bivouac. The Husqvarna rider beat the KTM of Sam Sunderland (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) into second place by 40” with the American Ricky Brabec (Honda) third at 1’31”.
Overall, with the prologue times having a coefficient 4, Sam Sunderland is this evening’s overall leader 28” ahead of Quintanilla, with Brabec third at 1’07”. In the quads victory went to the Chilean Ignacio Casale (Yamaha Raptor) just ahead of the Frenchman Alexandre Giroud (Yamaha Raptor) with the Pole Sonik Rafal third. Alex Dutrie (Team Drag’on) lost considerably time when he broke his left-hand drive shaft.
FIA CARS: A DAY OF CONTRASTS FOR TOYOTA
Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) is clearly very at home on the Moroccan pistes. Winner of the first stage, the Qatari driver had a virtually trouble-free run today, aside from one puncture that he quickly changed with the help of his co-driver Mathieu Baumel.
Behind him Mathieu Serradori (Century Racing CR6) celebrated his 40th birthday in style with a fine second place, 2’39” behind the five times Rallye du Maroc winner. Nasser’s team mate Giniel De Villiers (Toyota Gazoo Racing), completed the day’s podium at 3’14”.
It wasn’t however a perfect day for the South African Toyota Gazoo Racing team, with Fernando Alonso (Toyota Gazoo Racing) hitting a stone just after CP3 that stopped him for twenty or so minutes, before he was able to carry onto the bivouac at reduced speed.
In the end the double Formula 1 World Champion gave away 45 minutes. Over at the Minis Stéphane Peterhansel (Mini John Cooper Works Buggy), leading for much of the day, finally finished fourth at 5’14” while Carlos Sainz (Mini John Cooper Works Buggy) lost more than a quarter of an hour following multiple punctures.
Nasser Al-Attiya (Toyota Hilux)
“It was a hard day. Tricky from the beginning with 100 km of mountains. Then the last bit was more open desert with a lot of rivers. We had one flat tyre but we fixed it quickly. But ok, I’m really quite happy to have this performance and to be winning the stage.”
Mathieu Serradori (Century Racing CR6)
“We started this morning in 14th position, in accordance with our race number. David Castera warned us that it was bumpy and twisty right from the start and we had to be patient because we were quickly in the dust of the car in front. We eventually had 3 / 4 cars ahead of us, so we saw we had a good pace, but we started calm and took our time to get past them: Roma, Alonso, Garafulic, then Van Loon and for my 40th birthday we managed to avoid getting a puncture. We’ve made a good start. Fabian did a great job with the navigation and then at the end we got into terrain a little more suit to our buggy.”
ENDURO CUP AFRIQUIA / SSV MAROC TELECOM / OPEN CARS/TRUCKS: FLICK, CURRIE, LAVIEILLE AND VALTR, EARLY LEADERS
In the Enduro Cup Afriquia category Xavier Flick (Sherco TVS Rally Factory) wins the day’s stage. The Sherco rider takes part in his first Rallye du Maroc after having won his place on the Casteu Trophy. He leads Damien Miquel-Orlandi. (RS Concept CBO) by 13’21’’ and Vincent Padrona (Corsica ATV Team) at 39’28’’.
The Dutchman Tom Van Der Valk finishes ahead of the America Casey Currie (Monster Ernergy Can-Am) by 1’43’’in the SSV Maroc Telecom category and the Portuguese crew led by Serpa Rui (Yamaha) at 5’18’’.
In the Open car category Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body took the first two places with Christian Lavieille finishing ahead of Philippe Gache. Jean-Antoine Sabatier was third at 32’17’’. In the Open trucks Jaroslav Valtr (Iveco Powerstar Torpedo) wins the first stage ahead of his team mate Martin Macik (Iveco Powerstar Torpedo).
Stage 2: Sunday 6 October: Aoufous – Aoufous
The first loop around the bivouac is varied, well-balanced, difficult and features plenty of dunes, including the famous Chebbi Erg. Trials at the end, cars will have to be careful of punctures. FIM / FIA competitors have 45 km of liaison followed by 386 km of special finishing directly in the bivouac. The Enduro Cup bikes and Open class cars, SSVs and trucks share their liaison before embarking on 282 km of special and 65 km of liaison to bring them back to the bivouac.