Morocco Rally: Mattias Ekström wins the fourth stage in a Ford Raptor

After the third stage, Quintero was still in second place overall, behind Carlos Sainz (Ford). On the fourth stage, the 24-year-old Californian put in a strong performance and finished sixth despite starting as the third driver off the mark. As the starting order was determined by the results of the previous stage, Sébastien Loeb in the Dacia – the winner of the third stage – led the field ahead of Carlos Sainz. The pair crossed the finish line more than twelve minutes behind the stage winner, Mattias Ekström.

The former DTM driver made the most of his seemingly unfavourable 20th starting position. The blond-haired driver was able to make the most of the tracks already laid and ultimately prevent Henk Lategan from taking the stage victory by a margin of 35 seconds. The stage once again followed a loop from and to Zagora via a 318-kilometre special stage.

Toyota-Maverick Seth Quintero besitzt große WM-Chancen

Foto: Red Bull

The second big winner of the day was Seth Quintero, who took the overall lead in the fourth round of the World Rally Raid Championship with a comfortable lead of 2.45 minutes over Henk Lategan and 5.09 minutes over Nani Roma (Ford). Carlos Sainz is now fourth overall, ahead of the young Portuguese driver João Ferreira, the winner of the first stage. Belgian driver Guillaume de Mévius in the X-Raid Team Mini is in seventh place (+7.04), ahead of Century driver Mathieu Serradori (+14.04).

Der US-Amerikaner Seth Quintero hat im Toyota die Führung übernommen

Foto: A.S.O.

On the opening stages, the Dacia Sandriders Nasser Al-Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb lost a lot of time and can no longer finish in the top 10. As a result, Seth Quintero could make a big leap forward in the championship standings. Before Morocco, Quintero was 13 points behind Loeb and ten points behind Al-Attiyah in the standings. He now has a great chance of winning the World Championship title. It is also worth bearing in mind that the season could potentially end in Morocco, as the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge – the planned final round – is not yet confirmed due to the political and military situation in the Middle East.

Guillaume de Mevius/Mathieu Baumel im X-Raid-Team-Mini liegen auf Platz 7

Foto: Red Bull

Lithuanian Rokas Baciusska (Defender Rally) was the stage winner in the Stock category. His team-mate Stéphane Peterhansel remains in the overall lead.

Stephane Peterhansel führt im Defender in der Stock-Kategorie

Foto: A.S.O.

After his terrible run of bad luck the previous day, Matthias Walkner (South Racing Can-Am) secured another SSV stage victory. Ahead of the final day, the former Dakar motorbike winner lies just nine seconds behind Can-Am factory rider Jeremias Ferioli.