Morocco Rally: Chicherit extends lead as Loeb struggles on a day of mixed fortunes for Bahrain Raid Xtreme

Al Attiyah third overall

Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah, Loeb’s major rival in the world title race, recorded the third fastest time in another Toyota Hilux and is placed third overall. But he lies more than 28min away from Chicherit, with a gap of almost 19min to Terranova.

The penultimate stage was the longest of the rally, and the most spectacular, unwinding across a variety of tracks and mountainous terrain to deliver the survivors to the overnight bivouac in the desert town of Tan-Tan.

Chicherit quickest

Once again it was Chicherit who set off quickest, showing his liking for the Prodrive Hunter and underlining his belief that he can only get faster in a car he is driving competitively for the first time.

After the first 89kms, he was 30sec ahead of Al Rajhi on the stage, 2min, 13sec in front of Al Attiyah, and 4min, 34sec ahead of Loeb.

Loeb runs out of luck

It was this stage, however, that Loeb ran completely out of luck when he was halted by mechanical issues, while still holding fourth place on the day and was in danger of not finishing the stage.

A fascinating battle for victory on the day continued to the end, meanwhile, with Al Rajhi finally edging Chicherit by 1min, 30sec. A final stage of 290 kms from Tan-Tan delivers the survivors to the finish in Agadir on Thursday. Game on! Bring it on!

Heading to dunes

An elite squad of drivers had headed to North Africa intent on dominate the dunes and collecting precious championship points. After five days of scorching action, it is down to the final stretch at the 2022 Rallye du Maroc!

We have already seen plenty of drama across the categories as racers go for the W2RC points. Let us head out to dunes to see which Dakar contenders are making their mark on the sands of Morocco.