Oriol Vidal‘s 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship is over. On Monday, he announced he will not run the Rallye du Maroc in October due to lingering pain from his back injury sustained at the Dakar Rally. Consequently, he will not be able to win the Challenger category’s championship for co-drivers.
Vidal is currently second in the Challenger navigator standings, trailing Nicolás Cavigliasso’s co-driver Valentina Pertegarini by five points. Marcelo Gastaldi’s partner Carlos Sachs is the only other co-driver with a shot at the title as he is third and thirty-five points back.
“It was a very difficult decision, but during the recent test in Morocco with the new Can-Am Factory Team, the symptoms were worse than ever so now I need to rethink the path to find a solution,” said Vidal.
“This means I am giving up on repeating the World Championship, but I will fight with all my strength to be at the Dakar Rally. We are currently doing more tests, and we will see what the future holds in the coming weeks.”
He suffered the injury at Dakar, where he and Rokas Baciuška finished third in Challenger. It was not much of an issue during the first half of the season as he continued to race, finishing second at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and winning the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid, before the pain started to kick in over the summer. Vidal attempted to recover without undergoing surgery, but was not cleared to do the Desafío Ruta 40 in June.
Although Vidal was able to return to the co-driver’s seat at the Baja España Aragón the following month, finishing runner-up in the process, the injury continued to persist when he and Baciuška went to Morocco to test.
Baciuška won the DR 40 with Sébastien Delaunay filling in for Vidal. While the latter’s hopes of winning his title are dashed, Baciuška can clinch the drivers’ championship in Morocco early as he has a 44-point advantage over Cavigliasso.
The Rallye du Maroc will conclude the W2RC on 6–11 October.
