Toscha Schareina was the fastest rider across the 272 kilometres of the second stage of the Rallye Du Maroc as he sped to victory over Adrien Van Beveren and Daniel Sanders which elevated him into the lead of the rally.
The stage two route was changed slightly due to the huge amount of rain that fell upon the area recently necessitating some kilometres swapped out for rocky tracks in order for the rally to continue. Tracks were hard to pick out for the riders heading the charge from dawn this morning with more waypoints than normal.
A third of the way into the stage competitors also had to tackle the Erg Chigaga, one of the most spectacular collection of dunes in the eastern region of Morocco with peaks of over 150 metres that cover an area nearly 30 kms long.
Ready to tackle these and setting off the line in third, Tosha Schareina was looking to add to his prologue victory from two days ago and didn’t wait more than 43kms into the stage before he had got himself into the lead. After losing a little time mid-stage he got back to the top of the leaderboard at the 214km mark to hold that hard fought advantage to the finish line for the stage victory and a return to the top of the overall standings by 42 seconds after six hours of hard rallying.
“It was a good stage for me, the first 30km I tried to push but after that I made two big mistakes and I think I lost about a minute each time,” Schareina explained. “After that I tried to push again, I caught Ross in the dunes and then before the refuelling I caught Daniel. It was so difficult with the dust, so I continued to ride smoothly, so as not to crash and be safe for stage three, which I will open tomorrow.”
With the title fight now between Adrien Van Beveren and the lead out rider Ross Branch, today’s stage was a chance for the Frenchman to capitalise on the speed he has to push hard and grab back some of the time that slipped away yesterday. Stopping to assist Sebastian Bühler who crashed out 142km into the special, Van Beveren (who was credited back the stationary time taken to assist an injured competitor) got going again to finish in an impressive second place and jump ahead of his championship rival in the overall standings.
“I started the stage in eighth position and I could see I was catching the guys in front of me, but unfortunately at about the 140km mark, I arrived and saw the bike of Sebastian Bühler on the ground, he’d had a really big crash in a bad stony section,” Van Beveren said. “For sure I stopped, but it was a really difficult moment to know what to do. When I got going again I tried to regroup and refocus because I knew that if I didn’t it would be easy to have that sort of accident too as the terrain was rough with a lot of difficult sections. I rode well to the end and am happy with the result today.”
Making his way to the front of the field by the checkpoint at kilometer 43, Australian Daniel Sanders began to clock up the bonus time awarded to the rider opening the stage. In total, he would be awarded one minute and 34 seconds for his hard work – enough to secure the Australian third place on the stage. Daniel’s consistency is paying off – with two stages now complete, he lies second overall, less than one minute from the lead, and will have the advantage of chasing down the rally leader on Wednesday’s stage three.
“Stage two was a very long one – it was originally stage one but they were reversed due to the rain the other day,” Sanders said. “I started off second and then caught Ross (Branch) about 20 kilometers in. I opened from there till the refueling at kilometer 210, so that meant navigating on my own all the way through the dunes, which went pretty well, actually. Then Tosha (Schareina) caught me at the refueling and after that, I eased off just a little to make sure I didn’t have to open tomorrow. On the whole, the stage went well – got a few changes to make to the bike, and it’s going to be another long day tomorrow, but I’m looking forward to it.”
2021 Rallye Du Maroc winner Pablo Quintanilla really gelled with his bike, keeping the pressure on throughout the day to swap the lead of the stage at the halfway point with Schareina. On the run in to the finish line he kept the high pace and clocked fourth on the stage today just 2’22’’ behind his team mate.
“Today was a good day although the terrain is super broken so it’s not easy to ride,” Quintanilla reflected. “From the start I had a good pace, wasn’t too aggressive, but rode smoothly as I didn’t want to take any big risks. The terrain was really mixed between some dunes with rock sections and broken off pistes, but in the end it was a good day. Yesterday I did a small change in the set up of the bike and made it much better to ride, so I’m happy.”
The winner of stage 1, Ross Branch, decided to play it safe today. The Botswanan has a laser-like focus on the Rally GP world championship. Now that Ricky Brabec is out of the race, Branch, the championship leader, will claim the throne as long as he manages to finish the Rallye du Maroc. This fact lies at the core of his strategy: “I’m trying to stay upright and get to the finish line. It can be frustrating to see people overtake you, but I need to be smart and think long-term, try and stay focused on the road book and avoid any mistakes,” Branch said.
Tomorrow’s stage sees the riders head out of Zagora on a north easterly route to the final bivouac at Mengoub Bouârfa, situated in the Figuig Province. With a mammoth 676km distance to be covered on the bikes tomorrow, the riders will rest up early tonight as the longest day of this year’s rally looms.
Provisional Results – 2024 Rallye du Maroc, Stage 2
1 Tosha Schareina (ESP), Honda, 3:23:44
2 Adrien Van Beveren (FRA), Honda, 3:25:03 +1:19
3 Daniel Sanders (AUS), KTM, 3:25:08 +1:24
4 Pablo Quintanilla (CHL), Honda, 3:26:06 +2:22
5 Luciano Benavides (ARG), KTM, 3:26:22 +2:38
Provisional Standings – 2024 Rallye du Maroc (after 2 of 5 stages)
1 Tosha Schareina (ESP), Honda, 5:59:23
2 Daniel Sanders (AUS), KTM, 6:00:05 +0:42
3 Luciano Benavides (ARG), KTM, 6:07:16 +7:53
4 Pablo Quintanilla (CHL), Honda, 6:07:46 +8:23
5 Adrien Van Beveren (FRA), Honda, 6:10:05 +10:42
