The six-day event starts and finishes in the port city of Agadir plus heads into the southern deserts for the first time in many years, taking in two overnight bivouacs at Tan and Laâyoune.
Co-driven by Belgian-driver Fabian Lurquin in a Prodrive-built Hunter BRX, Loeb currently holds an one-point lead over Al-Attiyah within the Drivers’ Championship, courtesy associated with finishing second to his Qatari rival at the Dakar Rally and taking points for sixth at round two in Abu Dhabi.
Al-Attiyah is a six-time winner of the Moroccan occasion (2014-2018 plus 2021) and claimed a fourth Dakar title this year with co-driver Mathieu Baumel – himself a seven-time winner in Morocco. Al-Attiyah also scored points with regard to 11 th in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in their South African-built Toyota Gazoo Racing GR DKR Hilux, which sports the latest T1+ technological improvements in Morocco.
Yazeed Al-Rajhi heads to Morocco fresh from winning the opening round of the Saudi Toyota Rally Championship inside Abha and the Overdrive Racing Toyota driver will be hoping to close the gap on the 2 leading title contenders. Regular co-driver Michael Orr fractured his fibula during an on-stage incident at Baja Poland earlier this month. His seat alongside Al-Rajhi will be taken by Dirk von Zitzewitz, the German being the particular winner from the Moroccan event back within 2006 plus 2007 when he was part of the Volkswagen Motorsport team.
The X-raid Mini JCW Team has entered the pair associated with Buggies regarding Poland’s Jakub Przygonski and Argentina’s Sebastien Halpern. The particular former holds fourth place in the name race plus teams up with new Spanish co-driver Armand Monleón. X-raid has won the occasion on five previous occasions.
Overdrive Race will run additional Hiluxes for Dutchman Erik van Loon, Argentina’s Juan Cruz Yacopini and Frenchman Lionel Baud.
Argentina’s former FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas champion and 2013 Rally of Morocco winner Orlando Terranova drives the second Prodrive Hunter BRX. His co-driver Alex Haro won the event alongside Giniel de Villiers in 2019. The team has also built a third Hunter intended for former X-raid factory car owner Guerlain Chicherit, the Frenchman making a return to the cross-country discipline inside a machine run by GCK Motorsport.
Another likely T1 front-runner will be Evgeny Kireev at the particular helm associated with an SRT Racing Century CR6 Buggy.
Toyota Gazoo Racing keeps a 33-point advantage over the X-raid Mini JCW Team in the W2RC Manufacturers’ series and is a further five in front of Bahrain Raid Xtreme. Toyota has a good record around the African classic plus has received the last five Moroccan rallies.
Twenty-seven vehicles grace the entry for the highly competitive FIA T3 category, where South Racing Can-Am Team motorist Francisco Lopez currently enjoys a 25-point cushion more than the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team’s Cristina Gutierrez (OT3). The particular Spaniard’s team-mate Seth Quintero is the close third in the points’ standings. All three will be looking to strengthen their title bids.
The Red Bull Rough-road Junior Team is running additional Grallyteam OT3s to get Guillaume de Mevius and Mitch Guthrie, while the particular FN Speed Team is usually represented simply by Sebastien Guayasamin, Jordi Segura and Merce Marti.
Lopez is joined within the Southern Racing Can-Am Team T3 line-up Annett Fischer, while Frenchman Jean-Luc Pisson plus Aussie Glenn Brinkman wheel out a pair of PH Sport-built Zephyrs. The team is definitely also taking part in the Manufacturers’ Championship.
Gutierrez’s co-driver François Cazalet leads Germany’s Dennis Zenz by 19 factors in the tussle in order to become the top T3 co-driver.
Twenty-one rivals will end up being looking to upstage FIA T4 category leader Austin Jones and his closest rival Marek Goczal. The particular duo are separated simply by just four points in their South Racing-built Can-Ams, with Arizona-based Jones entered under the Can-Am Factory South Racing banner great Polish competitor representing the particular Cobant-Energylandia Move Team.
Lithuania’s Rokas Baciuška trails Jones by 15 points after two rounds of the series and represents the particular South Race Can-Am Group alongside Rodrigo Luppi plus Lucas Del Rio. The Brazilian and the Chilean are fifth and 6th in the FIA T4 Drivers’ Tournament standings. Spaniard Pau Navarro, meanwhile, drives an FN Speed Can-Am and is also registered to score T4 points in the W2RC series.
Jones’s co-driver Gustavo Gugelmin prospects Lukasz Laskawiec by 4 points in the T4 co-drivers’ series.
Kees Koolen can be tackling the particular W2RC in an Iveco Powerstar truck entered in the FIA T5 section plus holds the 32-point cushion over Czech rival Martin Macik right after two models. The Dutchman teams up with Wouter de Graaf and Paulo Ceci on the head of an eight-truck field that also includes his closest challenger Macik and his Czech team-mates, Frantisek Tomasek and David Svanda.
The third of the particular three trucks registered pertaining to W2RC T5 points is certainly a Ford Cargo within the hands associated with Tomas Vratny, Bartolomiej Boba and Jaromir Martinec. The particular T5 series reaches its conclusion in North Africa, as trucks will not take part in the Andalucia Rally at the end of October.
The Move of The other agents starts along with a short Qualifying Stage on Saturday, October 1 st and heads deep into southern Morocco with bivouacs scheduled within Tan and adjacent to the particular Atlantic coast in the town of Laâyoune. This area was regularly used on previous classic Dakar and The other agents rallies. Competitors can expect strong winds plus fierce temperatures in addition to punishing and challenging desert terrain.
“We wanted to take the competitors elsewhere on new tracks, ” said Event Director David Castera. “From a sporting point of view it will certainly be more interesting because the regulars won’t have a lot more reference points than the rivals who are less initiated with Morocco. Navigation and sand will be big parts in this edition, which will take place in wilder territories. ”
The event finishes back inside Agadir upon Thursday, Oct 6 th .
Entrants may tackle six selective sections and one, 583km against the clock in the compact total route of 2, 319km.
2022 Rally of Morocco – leading entries :
| 200. Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL) | Prodrive Seeker BRX |
| 201. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Mathieu Baumel (FRA) | Toyota GRMS DKR Hilux |
| 202. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Dirk von Zitzewitz (DEU) | Toyota Hilux Overdrive |
| 203. Orlando Terranova (ARG)/Alex Haro (ESP) | Prodrive Hunter BRX |
| 204. Martin Prokop (CZE)/Viktor Chytka (CZE) | Ford Raptor RS Cross-Country |
| 205. Erik vehicle Loon (NLD)/Sébastien Delaunay (FRA) | Toyota Hilux Overdrive |
| 206. Jakub Przygonski (POL)/Armand Monleón (ESP) | X-Raid Mini John Cooper Works Buggy |
| 207. Sebastien Halpern (ARG)/Bernardo Graue (ARG) | X-Raid Mini Steve Cooper Functions Buggy |
| 208. Guerlain Chicherit (FRA)/Alex Winocq (FRA) | Prodrive Hunter |
| 209. Lionel Baud (FRA)/Gabriel Pemeant (FRA) | Toyota Hilux |
Timetable associated with events:
| Friday, September 30 | |
| Administration checks, Agadir Stadium | 08. 00hrs-18. 30hrs |
| Scrutineering checks, Agadir Stadium | 09. 30hrs-20. 00hrs |
| Pre-event press conference, Palais des Congrès, Agadir | 18. 00hrs |
| Saturday, October 1 | |
| Qualifying Stage (Leg 1A — 9km), Agadir | 16. 54hrs |
| Sunday, October 2 | |
| Leg 1B (Agadir-Tan – 316km) | First car – TBA |
| Monday, Oct 3 | |
| Leg 2 (Tan–Laâyoune – 315km) | First car – TBA |
| Tuesday, October 4 | |
| Leg 3 (Laâyoune–Laâyoune – 299km) | First car : TBA |
| Wednesday, October 5 | |
| Lower-leg 4 (Laâyoune–Tan – 346km) | First vehicle – TBA |
| Thursday, October 6 | |
| Leg 5 (Tan–Agadir – 290km) | 1st car – TBA |
| Podium ceremony, Palais des Congrès, Agadir | 21. 00hrs |
Notes to editors:
2022 marked a good exciting new chapter meant for cross-country rallying, as the discipline became the seventh World Championship underneath the governance of the FIA.
The four-round inaugural world series kicked off along with the famous Dakar Move in Saudi Arabia. It remained in the Middle East for that Abu Dhabi Desert Problem in the particular UAE, before heading to Northern Africa designed for the Rallye du Maroc and Andalucia Rally in Europe.
Revolutionary new technical regulations, in support of the FIA’s long-term environmental strategy, have been implemented, marking the debut of alternative and experimental technologies within the discipline. Regulations for T5 prototype trucks have furthermore been introduced and, in general, all regulations pertaining to cross-country vehicles have been aligned to ensure inclusivity and consistency for competition across all events around the globe.
The new FIA World Rally-Raid Championship became a member of the FIA Formula One World Tournament, the FIA World Rally Championship, the FIA World Endurance Championship, the FIA World Rallycross Championship, the particular FIA Formula E Globe Championship and the FIA Karting World Championship at the highest levels of the sport.
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