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The Taurus T3 Max has been dominant at the Rallye du Maroc so far, but it was not enough for Nicolás Cavigliasso to make a last-minute charge for the World Rally-Raid Championship in the Challenger class.
Stage #3 was Cavigliasso’s last chance to close the gap on Rokas Baciuška for the title. He went into Wednesday trailing by 42 points, meaning he would have needed to win at least two of the last three stages and finish higher than third in the other to overtake him.
Although Tauruses swept the Challenger top seven to follow up their 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8 on Tuesday, Cavigliasso failed to score any stage points as he finished sixth. Consequently, even if he wins Stages #4 and #5 (which award five bonus points apiece) and the overall (thirty points) while Baciuška fails to record any points whatsoever, he still falls short by two points.
Despite concerns with the shock absorbers and a puncture, Baciuška finished eighth. Coupled with his SSV title in 2023, he is the first driver with a W2RC crown in multiple classes.
“This is a historic event,” said Baciuška. “It’s hard to imagine that it’s possible to achieve this, but overall, it’s great to become a world champion.
“The goals are being achieved even today. On a day like this in the forest, the biggest challenge was probably a headache. I feel a little sick, but in a good mood, and becoming a world champion for the third time is amazing.”
Challenger is the third class to have its points battle wrapped up before the end of the season finale after Quad and Rally3. Quad was won by Manuel Andújar at the previous round in Argentina, while John Medina clinched by simply starting Morocco. Ross Branch is also on the verge of securing the RallyGP championship but still needs to reach the finish (regardless of position) to do so.
Andújar, now an SSV driver, finished third in the Experimental UTV class. Hunter Miller, a Can-Am ambassador and former King of the Hammers winner, notched his first stage win as a rally raid driver.
In RallyGP, Branch continued to race conservatively to protect his bike and was seventh. Tosha Schareina initially took the stage win but had thirteen minutes added to his time for exiting the neutralisation zone too soon. Daniel Sanders inherited the win for his maiden stage victory with Red Bull KTM Factory Racing.
As he has since Monday, Yasir Seaidan continued to be the best-finishing W2RC driver in SSV as he placed second behind Alexandre Pinto by two minutes. This halved his deficit on Sebastián Guayasamín to just two points as the latter finished third among points-earning racers due to Rebecca Busi nipping him by a minute.
At 325 kilometres, Stage #3 is the longest of the five. Despite the length, the Ultimate stage victory came down to just nineteen seconds as Sébastien Loeb finally notched his first with Dacia ahead of Guillaume de Mévius.
His team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah beat Yazeed Al-Rajhi for fifth and another crucial bonus point. The two are now separated by 31 points.
Stage #2 winner Lucas Moraes had a broken throttle pedal 140 kilometres into the leg that dropped him to twenty-sixth. Also in the class, Aliyyah Koloc retired from the race after her REVO Red-Lined T1+ slid into a ditch five metres deep; she and her co-driver Sébastien Delaunay were uninjured.
“We flew over a horizon and tried to get on the bridge. Unfortunately it was too slippery and we didn’t manage to break and stop quick enough and fell into a huge hole,” Delaunay explained.
Jongbloed Dakar Team‘s Renault hybrid trucks, the only Open Truck entries, had a difficult day. The nose on Gert Huzink‘s truck came loose multiple times, prompting him to leave it behind and keep going only for the engine to overheat because of the lack of proper airflow; this forced him to exit the race for the day. His cousin Kay Huzink lost the track rod in the final 100 kilometres followed by a broken shock absorber with ten km to go that snapped an air hose.
Mathieu Serradori was the fastest of the three Open Cars, having switched over from the standard Ultimate class following his disqualification on Tuesday. Martin Koloc withdrew after his daughter’s accident.
Stage #3 winners
Leaders after Stage #3
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