The Dacia Sandriders will start tomorrow’s deciding day of Rallye du Maroc in the lead after Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger maintained their advantage on the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship season showdown.
Loeb and navigator Boulanger were the third crew to tackle Stage 4 today (Thursday) and did so with an overall lead of 3m25s following their impressive performance on Wednesday, the longest of the rally in terms of timed distance.
By completing the 284 competitive kilometres of Stage 4 with the second quickest time, the Frenchmen will begin Friday’s decisive Stage 5 in front by an increased margin of 3m38s aboard their sustainable-fuel Dacia Sandrider. That’s after they outpaced their closest rivals by 13s.
Loeb, who won Stage 1 on Tuesday, has finished inside the top three on all four stages of Rallye du Maroc run so far, with the exception of Stage 2, which he completed with the eighth fastest time after he was forced to change a damaged tyre.
Chasing a fourth consecutive FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) crown, Nasser Al-Attiyah was fourth quickest through Stage 4.
As well as earning two stage points, the Qatari – the winner of Sunday’s Prologue and Tuesday’s second stage – has moved into fourth place in the overall order, 43s adrift of the final podium spot, alongside his Belgian navigator Fabian Lurquin.
It was another promising yet frustrating day on Rallye du Maroc for Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno. Delayed by a navigation issue and tyre damage on Wednesday, the Spaniards were forced to make another stop on Thursday to replace a flat tyre.
But they didn’t let that delay their progress too much as they completed Stage four 9th quickest to climb up from 12th to 11th in the overall classification.
Rallye du Maroc, which counts as the deciding round of the five-event 2025 W2RC season, concludes tomorrow (Friday) with a 216-kilometre stage followed by a Power Selective Section of 33 kilometres when additional points will be up for grabs for the fastest three crews.
KEY QUOTES
Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar), Driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « The stage was very difficult, the navigation was not easy, but we did a good job, no risk. We are really happy to come back from where we started and now we are fighting for the podium, which is very important. Tomorrow we need to have a really big push and the road position will be good for us. It will be very close and anything can happen, every kilometre is very important. »
Cristina Gutierrez (Spain), Driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « Today was pretty good. It was not an easy stage, we thought it was much faster, but it was everything in this stage. We had dunes, camel grass, broken parts and fast tracks. We had a puncture, so I think this rally has given us the perfect training for Dakar because we are having a lot of problems during this rally, but this is good for us because we are training a lot, and the goal is this. We are happy to see Sébastien and Nasser did a great job, I think everyone is doing
an amazing rally. We just need to finish and congratulate everyone. »
Sébastien Loeb (France), Driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « It was a really good stage. We started third on the road but quickly we overtook Seth Quintero and then we started to catch Henk Lategan and we finished close to him. From our side the stage was good, the navigation was quite tricky, a lot of off-piste, so not an easy one but we had a good one. We are still leading the rally. I was not sure with our starting position if we’d be able to keep the position but, finally, we did. Tomorrow is still a long stage, but everything is going
well for the moment. »
Fabian Lurquin (Belgium), navigator, The Dacia Sandriders : « Overall, a good day but a tough day. It was difficult navigation and a couple of times we were on the line, and I was not 100 per cent sure we were right but, eventually, it turned out to be good. We make another strong day, we are happy, the team make a strong day, Sébastien and Édouard as well and we can also see that Cristina and Pablo made a good day, so we will be in a good position for the finish tomorrow. We hope to make another strong day tomorrow and see what it brings. We will see who will be champion, and who will be on the podium of this rally on the very last day, which is the best that can happen for the fans and, of course, for us also because we fight to the finish, and we like that. We can see the level is very high and that’s nice. »
RALLYE DU MAROC STAGE 4 RESULTS (UNOFFICIAL) – Erfoud-Erfoud
Stage distance: 284km Liaison distance: 95km Total distance: 379km
2rd: Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), 2h40m59s
4th: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL), 2h41m25s
9th: Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP)/Pablo Moreno (ESP), 2h47m23s
RALLYE DU MAROC PROVISIONAL ULTIMATE CATEGORY OVERALL RESULTS AFTER STAGE 4 (UNOFFICIAL)
1st: Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), 12h27m01s
4th: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL), +7m34s
11th: Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP)/Pablo Moreno (ESP), +43m55s
RALLYE DU MAROC: THE BIG NUMBER
218: Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger will take a lead of 3m38s (or 218 seconds) into the final day of Rallye du Maroc tomorrow (Friday).
THE DAY AHEAD: STAGE 5, OCTOBER 17
According to the event organisers, only a fool would underestimate the challenge of Rallye du Maroc’s deciding day – and the final day of the W2RC season. It features a 216-kilometre special followed by a Power Selective Section of 33 kilometres where bonus points are awarded to the fastest three crews.
Stage distance: 216km Liaison distance: 90km Total distance: 306km
Power Selection Section, Stage distance: 33km Liaison distance: 6km Total distance: 39km
Linda Hirvonen,