Rallye du Maroc stage 2 - Another tough day - videos 10.10.2021: Rallye du Maroc Stage 2 Sunday, October 10th 2021 Distances : L1: 211 / SS: 334 / L2 : 62 km – Total : 607 (Moto FIM / Auto FIA) L1: 211 / SS: 318 / L2 : 62 – Total : 591 (Enduro Cup / Quad / SSV / Open) YOUTUBE CHANNEL Videos here

Rallye du Maroc
Stage 2
Sunday, October 10th 2021



Distances :

L1: 211 / SS: 334 / L2 : 62 km – Total : 607 (Moto FIM / Auto FIA)
L1: 211 / SS: 318 / L2 : 62 – Total : 591 (Enduro Cup / Quad / SSV / Open)

YOUTUBE CHANNEL Videos here





"The most scenic stage," according to David Castera. "The most balanced too," added the Rallye du Maroc’s alchemist. “A scaled down 2022 Dakar special," with a long morning liaison of more than 200 kilometres to reach, after 82 kilometres, the highest dunes of the Kingdom (150 metres) with a return trip back across the Chebbi Erg. A second sand stage. ‘Regulars’ were surprised to see how much has changed in the last two years.



Deprived of 4X4 tourists ‘thanks’ to the worldwide pandemic, their tracks in this remote Saharan zone of Southern Morocco have been swept away. Careful navigation was crucial. It should be noted that today the FIM RallyGP and FIA Auto categories had a slightly longer route through the dunes than the other categories.
 



ON TRACK



A good ride today from Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM Factory) who wins the stage and takes the overall lead. But also an impressive team performance from Monster Energy Honda. Starting first, second and third this morning on another stage sandy they worked well together to open the way and limit the damage.



Although Walkner leads this evening he will have to open tomorrow and overall is only 19 seconds ahead of Pablo Quintanilla (Monster Energy Honda) who will start second tomorrow morning, 1 minute ahead of Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda) who will start seventh tomorrow and 3 minutes in front of Joan Barreda (Monster Energy Honda) who will start back in 11th place ! Big losers today in the high temperatures were Franco Caimi (Hero Motorsport) and Stefan Svitko (KTM Svitko) both of whom broke engines.



In Rally2 another impressive performance from the young American Mason Klein (BAS Dakar KTM) who opened his class the whole day to win the stage 07:28 ahead of Paolo Lucci (Solarys Racing). Overall Klein leads Frenchman Camille Chapeliere (KTM Baines Moto) by 09:58. In Enduro Cup Afriquia the Morrocan Amine Echiguer continues to dominate with Axel Dutrie (Drag’on Racing) still the fastest quad.

In the cars Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) opened today but still managed to beat off his rivals, with Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) finishing 06:01 behind his rival after being slowed down by 3 punctures and a gearbox problem. Third on the day was Jakub Przygonski (X-Raid Mini) back in the race after yesterday’s mechanical problems.



 Overall Nasser now leads Yazeed by 10:18 with the Argentinian Lucio Alvarez (Toyota Overdrive) third at 32:32. In the T3 lightweight prototype class victory once again went to Cristina Gutierrez (Red Bull Off Road Junior Team) while in the T4 SSV class the Brazilian Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira (South Racing) won the stage with the Pole Michal Goczal (Energylandia) leading overall.



RADIO BIVOUAC

Neveu back in the race


Cyril Neveu, the creator of the Rallye du Maroc in 2000, is back! And this time he’s racing. He and his son Alexis are entered in the SSV Open Maroc Telecom category and he is also the team manager of Team Galag. The team are running two Can-Am Mavericks prepared by MMP Competition.


One for the father-son duo, the other in T3 for the newcomer Jérôme de Sadeleer and the experienced professional motorcyclist Michaël Metge (see Rallye du Maroc and me). The objective of this Saudi team is to run two TG-D1 T3s in the 2022 Dakar.


For Cyril Neveu, winner of the first rally-raid in Morocco in 1982, this is not his first outing on four wheels. After his motorcycle career he drove a Bourgoin buggy and then a Kellogg's buggy in the 1995 Atlas Rally, his last appearance as a competitor in Morocco.


"I'm here to help Jérôme de Sadeleer who will be our lead driver in the 2022 Dakar and to see what it is like to race a lightweight vehicle for myself. With my son the goal isn’t to win anything but to share an experience like I did with my father and my brother who assisted me in their Range Rover when I first started racing. For Alexis it's the first time. Yesterday it was him at the wheel, today it will be me.



I am very happy to be back on a rally-raid and return to the Dakar after 30 years! I was 35 the last time I took part, I'm 65 now".
 



STAT OF THE DAY : 14


A few years ago their categories didn’t even exist. Now they are the boom sectors in rally-raid. Relatively affordable and easy to drive, T3s and T4s dominate the bivouac with the South Racing team alone entering a staggering 14 of them on the 2021 Rallye du Maroc: 2 T3 lightweight prototypes and 12 T4 SSVs.



That’s 28 competitors, 60 staff from 16 different countries and 12 support vehicles. On the 2022 Dakar, when they hook up with South Racing Middle East, they’ll be even more of them!
 
 



THE RALLY DU MAROC AND ME


Michaël Metge (Team Galag)
 


Where ?

“Fès.”



When ?

“It was in 2019. After 2 years with Yamaha and 3 with Honda I was into my second season with Sherco. I hadn’t raced Rallye du Maroc before because I was either injured or it wasn’t in my schedule.”



How ?


“Not great as I injured my knee on the prologue. I rode the race but couldn’t fight for a result. And in the end it meant I wasn’t able to go on the Dakar, with my brother Adrien taking my place. It was the year that Paulo Goncalves died and after that I decided to stop.


The Rallye du Maroc was thus my last race as a factory rider and now my first rally-raid as a co-driver. My teammate Jérôme de Sadeleer (Team Galad) is also a newbie in T3. We started together on the Baja Aragon and finished 3rd in our class. He’s a fast learner and I can help him with my experience.
 




TOMORROW’S PROGRAMME

Distances (km) : L1: 76 / SS: 340 / L2 : 187 – Total : 603
 




Matthieu Perez photos © MCH © DPPI / Julien Delfosse