Sébastien Loeb leads Rallye du Maroc for The Dacia Sandriders after he and navigator Édouard Boulanger charged to the fastest time on Stage 1 today (Monday).
They completed the 298-kilometre timed section of the gruelling 779-kilometre route, run from Fez to Erfoud, in 2h49m43s to hold first place overnight by 27s in their sustainable-fuel Dacia Sandrider.
Having started 14th on the road this morning, French pair Loeb and Boulanger reached the 175-kilometre mark in the lead. However, they trailed rivals Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon at 227 kilometres before fighting back to the front at 266 kilometres.
But while Loeb celebrated his fifth stage win for The Dacia Sandriders after he maintained his advantage for the remainder of the day, it was a frustrating start to the deciding round of the season for title leader Nasser Al-Attiyah, from Qatar, and Belgian navigator Fabian Lurquin.
Yesterday’s Prologue winner was the 10th driver to head out from Fez to Erfoud this morning only to stop after 210 kilometres of timed action with steering arm damage following an impact in rough terrain. He dropped 12m40s during the day and will be in comeback mode during Stage 2, which he’ll start 20th in the Ultimate category ranking.
To compound Al-Attiyah’s frustration, title rivals Henk Lategan and Lucas Moraes scored one and three stage points respectively to trim the Qatari driver’s narrow advantage in the championship chase.
Fifth on the Stage 1 start list, Spaniards Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno completed Stage 1, which was characterised by its frequent changes of rhythm and hard terrain, in 12th position in the third Dacia Sandrider.
Rallye du Maroc, which marked The Dacia Sandrider’s competition debut 12 months ago, continues tomorrow (Tuesday) with a loop stage around Erfoud covering 304 timed kilometres.
KEY QUOTES
Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar), Driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « After 200 kilometres, maybe 190 kilometres, we had a small ditch, but it was in first gear, we take it easy and we go. Suddenly the front-right wheel was playing around so we stopped to see what was the problem. We find the front steering arm was damaged. We decided to change and it cost 10 minutes. It was not an easy day. Tomorrow we start 20th and we try to push. Things change very quickly and it’s not easy. Today was a tricky stage because sometimes we followed the bike line and the bikers are always trying to jump the bad places. But we are here, Seb wins the stage and we will see tomorrow. »
Cristina Gutierrez (Spain), Driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « It was a nice day. We trained a lot with the navigation. Sometimes with the wind it was super-difficult to see the correct way. For sure we missed some seconds there but, in general, we are happy. The car worked well, and we did a good job. If we keep like this, constant during the next four days because it’s going to be super-difficult and tough, it will be a good result for us for sure. Tomorrow is another day, we are looking forward. Congratulations to Seb and Édouard because they made an incredible job. »
Sébastien Loeb (France), Driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « The stage was good, it was a nice stage. We kept a good rhythm from the start to the end, no problem with the car and we didn’t have any puncture also. We lost a bit of time in the dust but that was maybe the same for everybody. Except of that it was a clean stage. Tomorrow will be the first time with Édouard that we will be first on the road so it will be a new challenge. It’s quite tricky to be first sometimes and we can lose a lot of time if the tracks are difficult to see.
« For this I don’t know at the moment how will be the stage but that’s the game, we will see, we will start tomorrow first and do our best like today. »
Fabian Lurquin (Belgium), navigator, The Dacia Sandriders : « That was not the best day. Everything was going pretty smooth, trying to save the mechanics of the car because we knew it was the first day, so we took it rather easy. But it was pretty hard terrain and in one ditch we broke a steering arm, and we had to change it. It took nine or 10 minutes to change it and off we went again so it’s not the start we were hoping for, but we will be ready for the fight for the rest of the week. »
RALLYE DU MAROC STAGE 1 RESULTS (UNOFFICIAL) – Fez-Erfoud
Stage distance: 298km Liaison distance: 481km Total distance: 779km
1st: Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), 2h49m43s
12th: Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP)/Pablo Moreno (ESP), 2h56m57s
20th: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL), 3h02m.23s
RALLYE DU MAROC: THE BIG NUMBER
5: Sébastien Loeb’s fastest time on Stage 1 of Rallye du Maroc means he’s a five-time stage winner in the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship for The Dacia Sandriders.
THE DAY AHEAD: STAGE 2, OCTOBER 14
Rallye du Maroc’s second stage is the first of four consecutive loop stages starting from and finishing in Erfoud. A challenging route to north of the bivouac tests competitors over 306 timed kilometres and includes sections in sand dunes.
Stage distance: 306km Liaison distance: 86km Total distance: 392km
Linda Hirvonen,