Morocco Rally: Ferreira (Toyota) wins Stage 1 – Loeb falls far behind

The first stage of the Rallye Morocco was fiercely contested, with numerous changes in position at the front. Ultimately, Ferreira and his co-driver Filipe Palmeiro emerged victorious after the 268-kilometre special stage from Agadir to Zagora.

The young Toyota driver crossed the finish line three seconds ahead of the Brazilian Moraes and his new co-driver, Pablo Moreno. The French Century driver, Mathieu Serradori, finished 13 seconds behind the Dacia. American Mitch Guthrie finished fourth in his Ford Raptor, just under a minute behind, ahead of his Ford team-mate Mattias Ekström, who was 2 minutes 15.5 seconds adrift.

Die Toyota-Youngsters Joao Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro gewinnen erste Etappe

Foto: A.S.O.

Saood Variawa and Seth Quentero (both Toyota) are ranked seventh and eighth.

Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah is in eighth place, having lost 4.28 minutes to his Dacia Sandriders team-mate Morares at the front. For the Qatari, however, things went perfectly in terms of the overall World Championship standings, as the current leader, Sébastien Loeb, had a disastrous day. The Frenchman lost more than 45 minutes after being forced to stop with technical problems at the 201-kilometre mark. By that point, the nine-time World Rally Champion was already a good minute behind Al-Attiyah and had slipped to ninth place. Loeb was classified 92nd in the day’s results

Sebastien Loeb liegt nach technischen Problemen weit zurück

Foto: A.S.0.

As a result, the Alsatian’s chances of securing a top position in the overall standings at the Rally Morocco have completely slipped away.

Toyota driver Saood Variawa had led the stage at the 35-kilometre mark. After that, Carlos Sainz (Ford) took the lead at the 95- and 127-kilometre marks. At the 201-kilometre mark, Guillaume de Mevius in the X-raid Mini also briefly took the lead in the dune landscapes.

In eleventh place is the Saudi Toyota driver Yazeed Al Rajhi with his new co-driver Dennis Zenz, who is standing in for the injured Timo Gottschalk.

Matthias Walkner führt in der Challenger-Kategorie

Foto: A.S.0.

In the Challenger category, Matthias Walkner leads in the South Racing Can-Am Maverick.