The Argentine motorcycle racer has been proclaimed world champion of the specialty, after finishing second in the last special, 156 km
Benavides, who started the last section opening the track, was only surpassed in the general classification by Toby Price (Red Bull KTM), finishing second
The Argentine pilot Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna), which attended the Morocco Rally as leader of the motorcycle World Championship, has proclaimed itself specialty world championafter finishing second in the last special, 156 km.
Benavides, who began the last section opening the track, He was only surpassed in the general standings by Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), with the Argentine finishing second. and, with this, obtaining the necessary points advantage over the Australian to take the world title.
The last stage was won by the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda), with 1:49.17, followed by Benavides (1:50.41); while Price finished sixth. With this, the Morocco Rally finished in the general classification led by Price (15:56.43), followed by Benavides (15:59.43) and Pablo Quintana (15:59.55).
The overall World Cup has Luciano Benavides with 100 points, compared to Price’s 96; an advantage that gives the Argentine the title. “It’s a dream come true for me. It’s been a long journey to get to this point since I finished my first rally here in Morocco in 2017. To finish like this against Toby on the last day of the rally, while he opened the stage is incredible. “I can’t thank the team enough for all the hard work and their faith in me! Today was crazy,” says Luciano Benavides, in statements provided by his team.
The Argentine pilot also pointed out that “Navigation at this stage was complicated”: “I got lost at some points, but I managed to get back on track quickly and make up time. I loved opening the stage in the dunes and I knew I had to get ahead because the others would catch up to me.”
“I finally have my first World Championship! The wait for confirmation of the championship when I finished was tense, 40 minutes seemed like four hours, but I knew that today I gave my best because there was no other option. It was really special to start first because I could look ahead and keep goingand no one caught me, so I finished first too,” he added.
Benavides also did not hesitate to point out that he wants to “celebrate and enjoy this feeling for a while, because, although it is incredible, it has been a hard season.” “I want to rest for a week or two. After that, we will accelerate again because I want to maintain the same rhythm and rhythm for the Dakar, since for me it is another dream to win,” he commented.
Al Rajhi wins the final car stage
In cars, the Qatari Nasser Al Attiyah (Toyota) had to retire from the last special after stopping at km 6, although he had already secured the world championship. Al Attiyah thus achieves his second consecutive world title by finishing ahead of the Saudi Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing).
Yazeed Al Rajhi was the final winner of the Morocco Rally, finishing ahead of Denis Krotov (Overdrive Racing) and the Spanish Nani Roma (M-Sport Ford). The other Overdrive drivers, the Argentine Juan Cruz Yacopini and the Italian Eugenio Amos, completed the ‘Top 5’ of the final overall standings.
The Argentine Orlando Terranova (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) was the winner of the closing stage, in which they finished ahead of Al Rajhi. The South American won by 5 seconds by taking advantage of a 10-second penalty imposed on his opponents. The Spanish Carlos Sainz (Audi), plagued by breakdowns, finished in 22nd place.
Laisvydas Kancius, world quad champion
In quads, the Frenchman Alexandre Giroud wins the last quad special ahead of his teammate Jérôme Connart and the first driver registered in the W2RC, Rodolfo Guillioli.
Furthermore, the Frenchman took the final victory in Morocco with a margin of 19:56 ahead of the Slovakian Juraj Varga (Varga Motorsport) and with Guillioli third. With this result, the Lithuanian Laisvydas Kancius (Story Racing) wins the quadricycle world championship.