Results from stage one of the 2024 Rallye Du Maroc, World Rally-Raid Championship final round, where championship leader Ross Branch took a decisive day win for Hero Motosports as Ricky Brabec goes out with knee injury.

An adjusted route, tracks damaged by flooding and the heat in the dunes set the tone for stage one of the Rallye Du Maroc. Almost half the caravan still hadn’t arrived at the bivouac by 8pm for the briefing due to flooding of several wadis over the Ouarzazate-Zagora transfer route.

Race Director David Castera issued a written briefing instead announcing the swap of stages 1 and 2, with a reduction in the distance of the next day's special stage to allow a later start of 10.05 am for the first bike. In total, this new, modified stage comprised 172 kilometres of liaison and 180 kilometres of special – short and sweet by most standards.

Brabec out

It was a dramatic one for the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship RallyGP protagonists with a decisive win for points leader, Hero Motosports’ Ross Branch, and a disaster for Honda with closest challenger Ricky Brabec going out of this final round of the season.

The American, and reigning Dakar champion, injured his knee during the stage and although he was able to finish, immediately sought medical attention and took the decision to withdraw.

That places Adrien Van Beveren as Branch’s nearest title rival but at 16 points adrift and over 10 minutes already in the rally behind, this looks like Hero and the Botswanan Branch have one hand on the FIM world title.

Stage one in a nutshell:

Among the bikes, the podium finishers in yesterday's prologue who had chosen to start from 10th to 12th place clearly made the right choice. It was this trio, in a different order, who once again distinguished themselves.

Ross Branch finished the special 48‘’ ahead of Daniel Sanders and 1'48‘’ ahead of yesterday's winner Tosha Schareina. The Botswanan, leader of the world championship, did a great job taking the overall lead 48‘’ ahead of the Australian and 1'30‘’ in front of the Spaniard.

“I’m happy to have finished Stage 1 with a good result.” Said Branch. “It was a really tough one –definitely one of the most challenging stages I’ve ever ridden at Rallye Du Maroc! The tracks were really beaten up and washed away from yesterday’s rains, but I managed to pull through. Nacho did an amazing job opening the track, I can only imagine how much more difficult it would have been for him. Opening the Stage tomorrow will be a mammoth task, but we’re pushing forward with confidence.”

With Luciano Benavides (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) in 4th place, the Austrian team, who came to scrutineering with a modified chassis, seems to have been working in the right direction. The gaps in RallyGP are already substantial however with Benavides more than six minutes behind the leader.

In Rally2, Bradley Cox rode at RallyGP pace. Sixth overall, the South African won 3'19‘’ ahead of his compatriot and team-mate Michael Docherty. Romain Dumontier, like yesterday, finished3rd at 5'36‘’. BAS World KTM Racing placed the Cox-Docherty-Canet trio in the first 3 places.

In Rally3, Souleymane Addahri held off John Medina (XRaid Experience). In the overall standings, the Moroccan already has a 28'39’ lead. In the quad category, Kamil Wisniewski got the better of Antanas Kanopkinas (CF Moto Thunder) today. The Pole has 26'21’ on the Lithuanian.

2024 Rallye Du Maroc Stage 1 Results:

Stage 2 details

The programme for tomorrow’s stage remains Zagora - Zagora (liaison: 227 km / special: 272 km / Total: 499 km). Overall, the figures for the Rallye du Maroc have changed to 2,365 kilometres including 1,392 kilometres of special stages.
David Castera: “The first two stages take place in the M'Hamid sector, which has been badly affected by the rain. We've obviously kept the Chegaga dunes, but the bad weather has meant that we've had to add some gravel tracks in order to find ground that would ensure the race runs smoothly. We've had to remodel the special stage, which retains its distance. It also retains its 20 kilometres of separate route in the dunes. The tracks are not very visible, so we've had to add some WPs.”

Photo Credit: A.S.O. Juien Delfosse + Fred Le Floc'h