After Ricky Brabec‘s crash in Stage #1, Ross Branch simply needs to reach the finish on Friday to secure the World Rally-Raid Championship in RallyGP.
Brabec entered the Rallye du Maroc trailing Branch by nine points, but exited after the first day when he hurt his right knee on a landing at KM 77. He was able to ride to the finish, but the pain was too much for him to continue.
“I caught Pablo (Quintanilla) early on and we were riding really well together but then soon as we got to the dunes, I jumped a dune but when I landed I bottomed the frame out on the moguls that was on the other side,” Brabec explained. “That meant the first thing that hit the ground was my right leg which absorbed all the energy in the landing. For the remainder of stage I then had to take it easy. It’s a bummer I’m out as I’ve let the team down as I felt that this was the rally for me to shine, but Dakar is more important.”
Honda team-mate Adrien Van Beveren is the only other rider with a mathematical chance at the title as he trails Branch by sixteen points. Even then, his chances are slim as he would have needed Branch to finish last among the seven points-eligible riders while he won. With Brabec dubiously taking that spot instead, Van Beveren’s only hope now is to finish top two while Branch retires.
Of course, Van Beveren can only control his own performance. He described the first stage as a “tough day” after starting fifth and struggling to navigate with the new roadbook tablet. Van Beveren settled for seventh.
To make matters more challenging for him, Branch secured the stage win. He and Daniel Sanders duelled for the lead before the former pulled ahead in the closing twenty kilometres.
“It was a really tough one, definitely one of the most challenging stages I’ve ever ridden at Rallye du Maroc,” commented Branch. “The tracks were really beaten up and washed away from yesterday’s rains, but I managed to pull through.
“Nacho (Cornejo) 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.”
While the curtains inch closer for the FIM’s top championship, its FIA counterpart is still up for grabs.
FIA championship leader Nasser Al-Attiyah quickly chased down Prologue winner Guerlain Chicherit and easily held off Yazeed Al-Rajhi to score the maiden stage victory for the Dacia Sandrider. It is his leading fortieth W2RC stage win.
Al-Rajhi finished second to somewhat soften the blow in the standings. Unlike the FIM, the FIA awards bonus points to the top five in a stage, with Al-Attiyah earning five as the winner while Al-Rajhi’s runner-up fetched him fourth. Since Al-Attiyah went into Morocco with a 25-point advantage, that margin has only increased to 26 following Stage #1.
Al-Attiyah’s team-mate Sébastien Loeb finished eighth, a bit of a letdown for him after running top five for much of the day and on the heels of crashing into a ditch in Sunday’s Prologue.
The series’ tightest points battle, in SSV, got even closer when Yasir Seaidan finished second overall but best among W2RC drivers and a spot ahead of his rival Sebastián Guayasamín, who was fourth. Guayasamín led Seaidan by just six points entering the rally, and their second and first on Monday slims it down to five points.
In Challenger, Michał Goczał and his brother Marek Goczał finished 1–2 and eight seconds apart. Marek’s son and Prologue class victor Eryk Goczał was sixth after missing a waypoint and having to work his way back.
The stage was the 100th for the World Rally-Raid Championship since its inception in 2022. Due to severe flooding that affected travel to the Zagora bivouac on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday’s stages swapped their routes while the “new” Stage #1 was shortened to 180 kilometres in Selective Sections.
“I’m quite glad they shortened the first stage to 180 kilometres,” quipped Truck stage winner Martin Macík Jr. “Really tough from the start. We covered all sorts of terrain. Early in the stage, there was a blow that I had where we weren’t sure if we’d damaged something on Benny, but it seems we didn’t. Just dented the front a bit on a rock. There were so many stones out there.”
Stage #1 winners
| Class | Number | Competitor | Team | Time |
| Ultimate | 200 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Dacia Sandriders | 2:10:09 |
| Challenger | 322 | Michał Goczał | EnergyLandia Taurus Factory Team | 2:20:16 |
| SSV | 411 | Alexandre Pinto* | Old Friends Rally Team | 2:32:37 |
| Stock | 500 | Ronald Basso* | Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body | 3:16:14 |
| Truck | 600 | Martin Macík Jr.* | MM Technology | 2:34:56 |
| Experimental Car | 203 | Carlos Sainz* | Ford M-Sport | 2:12:42 |
| Experimental UTV | 406 | Francisco López Contardo* | Can-Am Factory Team | 2:27:32 |
| RallyGP | 46 | Ross Branch | Hero MotoSports | 2:16:57 |
| Rally2 | 18 | Bradley Cox | BAS World KTM Racing Team | 2:24:23 |
| Rally3 | 163 | Souleymane Addahri | Africa Rallye Team | 3:03:31 |
| Quad | 180 | Kamil Wiśniewski | ORLEN Team | 3:23:41 |
| Open Car | 702 | Martin Koloc* | Buggyra ZM Racing | 2:35:44 |
| Open SSV | 723 | Ali Oubassidi* | Africa Rally Team | 3:24:28 |
| Open Truck | 751 | Gert Huzink* | MKR Team | 2:42:03 |
Leaders after Stage #1
| Class | Number | Competitor | Team | Time |
| Ultimate | 200 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Dacia Sandriders | 2:10:09 |
| Challenger | 322 | Michał Goczał | EnergyLandia Taurus Factory Team | 2:20:16 |
| SSV | 411 | Alexandre Pinto* | Old Friends Rally Team | 2:32:37 |
| Stock | 500 | Ronald Basso* | Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body | 3:16:14 |
| Truck | 600 | Martin Macík Jr.* | MM Technology | 2:34:56 |
| Experimental Ultimate | 203 | Carlos Sainz* | Ford M-Sport | 2:12:42 |
| Experimental SSV | 406 | Francisco López Contardo* | Can-Am Factory Team | 2:27:32 |
| RallyGP | 46 | Ross Branch | Hero MotoSports | 2:34:09 |
| Rally2 | 18 | Bradley Cox | BAS World KTM Racing Team | 2:42:31 |
| Rally3 | 163 | Souleymane Addahri | Africa Rallye Team | 3:27:04 |
| Quad | 180 | Kamil Wiśniewski | ORLEN Team | 3:48:53 |
| Open Car | 702 | Martin Koloc* | Buggyra ZM Racing | 2:35:44 |
| Open SSV | 723 | Ali Oubassidi* | Africa Rally Team | 3:24:28 |
| Open Truck | 751 | Gert Huzink* | MKR Team | 2:42:03 |
