The Dacia Sandriders completed the penultimate day of Rallye du Maroc today (Friday) with two of its crews in the top five stage positions.
With their Dacia Sandrider fully repaired following their unfortunate crash on Thursday, Lucas Moraes and Pablo Moreno were a strong fourth fastest after 318.8 kilometres of challenging action on terrain consisting of technical sandy sections, fast tracks in mountainous areas and
rocky passes.
The early event pacesetters led Stage 4 after 112 kilometres but eventually dropped back to fourth after they encountered a navigational delay.
Team-mates Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin were just behind in fifth following a navigational delay of their own to earn a crucial stage point in their pursuit of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship Drivers’ and Navigators’ titles.
After winning Stage 3 on Thursday, Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger had high hopes of another top performance on the route northeast of Zagora. Instead, a battery charging issue nearing the end of the stage. Although they reached the stage finish, albeit restricted to the 16th fastest time, they had to count on a competing crew to tow them to the bivouac in Zagora.
Philip Dunabin, Technical Director, The Dacia Sandriders, said: « Seb’s car stopped at the end of the stage with a problem with the charging of the car. First glance it may have looked like it was similar to Tuesday but, in reality, it’s something completely different. Today the pump which operates the cooling system, which keeps the generator unit cool, stopped working. The generator continued running for about half an hour and then it reached its maximum temperature, at which point it shuts itself down to protect the unit.
« The problem that we had with Sébastien’s car earlier in the rally is a completely different issue where there was an internal failure within the MGU unit, which then managed to contaminate the multi unit with water, and then, of course, it stopped charging. The two items have the same effect in the end that causes the charging to stop, but the causes of the failures are completely different. They’re things we’ve not seen previously on events or during testing. All of our procedures are rigorous in terms of checking all these things. All of the generator units had been serviced before we came to this event, so to have failures like this at this time of the season is really disappointing.
« It’s also the same case with the pump that stopped today. It was the first time we’ve had one of these failures so we need to go and have another look at that and see if there is anything we can do better, whether we need to shorten the life of the part or there’s actually some mechanical or electrical fault with the unit itself.
« Other than that we had a problem with Nasser’s car with the gearbox input shaft that failed [on Wednesday]. It’s not something we expect and it’s not something we’ve seen before in testing or on rallies. These parts go through a rigorous system between events. If we re-use a part, first of all, it has to be within its maximum mileage that’s allowed for the part. In this case these parts that we run quite comfortably to more than 12,000 kilometres and it failed at 5000 kilometres. Now we need to go and look at the non-destructive testing reports which are done each time the gearbox is rebuilt to be sure there are no errors with that. There’s always a potential for there to be a problem with the material in the component itself. It was a Strange failure for us to see but it’s come down to being a disappointing week. »
Rallye du Maroc, which counts as the penultimate round of the 2026 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship, concludes tomorrow (Saturday) with a loop stage south of Zagora measuring 259 kilometres in length.
KEY QUOTES
NASSER AL-ATTIYAH (QATAR), DRIVER, THE DACIA SANDRIDERS : « It was a good stage, clear without any problems except for in one point where we got lost for around three minutes. But, okay, the rest of the stage was good just to come back again. We finished in the top five and tomorrow should be better. We try to push and score maximum points for the championship. »
SÉBASTIEN LOEB (FRANCE), DRIVER, THE DACIA SANDRIDERS : « After such a good day yesterday, today was really frustrating as the bad luck we have experienced on this rally continues. It’s very disappointing because when everything goes to plan we can be really fast. Thank you to Nani Roma for towing us to the bivouac, we really appreciate their help. »
LUCAS MORAES (BRAZIL), DRIVER, THE DACIA SANDRIDERS : « It was definitely a better day after yesterday. I just want to do a big shout out for The Dacia Sandriders because I know the night was long and it means a lot to have the car in one piece today after a big impact yesterday. But it was a good day. We led some part of this stage and then we messed it up a little bit on the navigation. With Nasser we were together, and it was a really tricky point. Beside that all good, I’m happy with fourth and we try for the stage win tomorrow. »
RALLYE DU MAROC STAGE 4 RESULTS – Zagora-Zagora
Stage distance: 318.88km Liaison distance: 131.50km Total distance: 450.3km
4. Lucas Moraes (BRA)/Pablo Moreno (ESP), 3h05m28s
5. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL), 3h05m42s
16. Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), 3h15m40s
RALLYE DU MAROC ULTIMATE CATEGORY OVERALL RESULTS AFTER STAGE 4
19. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL), +1h44m11s
33. Lucas Moraes (BRA)/Pablo Moreno (ESP), +14h03m40s
35. Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), +20h28m44s
RALLYE DU MAROC: THE BIG NUMBER
2: The Dacia Sandriders was successful in getting two of its crews into the top five on Stage 4 of Rallye du Maroc, a further demonstration of the performance of its sustainable-fuelled Dacia Sandrider, a four-wheel drive robust and outdoor prototype engineered to withstand the most extreme conditions.
THE DAY AHEAD: STAGE 5, OCTOBER 3
The penultimate round of the 2026 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship will be decided on a 259-kilometre stage south of Zagora tomorrow (Saturday). It might be Rallye du Maroc’s shortest stage, but a typically challenging finale is expected ahead of the Saturday evening finish.
Stage distance: 259km Liaison distance: 98km Total distance: 357km
Linda Hirvonen,