Dacia Sandriders achieve spectacular debut result with a 1-2 finish on Rallye du Maroc
The Dacia Sandriders has achieved a spectacular debut result with a 1-2 finish on Rallye du Maroc following five days of gruelling competition covering almost 2500 kilometres of rugged terrain.
What was very much a test event for the all-new team and its sustainably-fuelled Dacia Sandriders, ended in a standout FIA World Rally-Raid Championship victory.
Of greater significance, however, was the fact that Rallye du Maroc served as perfect preparation for January’s Dakar, the toughest event on the international motorsport calendar, and the next challenge for The Dacia Sandriders.
Having led from the start by winning Monday’s first stage, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger secured victory to become the FIA World Rally-Raid champion driver and co-driver for 2024 respectively once results achieved with different teams earlier in the year were taken into account.
Al-Attiyah, from Qatar, is now a three-time world champion, while his Rallye du Maroc victory was his seventh in total.
Having won Wednesday’s longest stage, the 325-kilometre from Zagora to Mengoub, Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin completed Rallye du Maroc by winning Stage 5 on a famous Friday for The Dacia Sandriders. After starting the final day in fourth position, Loeb’s charging drive meant he finished second overall to deliver an emphatic 1-2 for The Dacia Sandriders.
Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno battled back from a series of earlier setbacks to finish seventh on Stage 5 held over typically challenging off-road terrain.
With three stage wins out of five and a one-two finish, The Dacia Sandriders was able to demonstrate great performance, while also gathering crucial data and feedback.
But the work to be ready for the 2025 Dakar, which takes place in Saudi Arabia from January 3-17, has only just begun, with a month of intense preparation in store before The Dacia Sandriders heads to the Middle East at the end of the year to take on its greatest challenge yet.
KEY QUOTES
TIPHANIE ISNARD, TEAM PRINCIPAL, THE DACIA SANDRIDERS
“I’m really proud for the team because it was a huge, huge effort from so many people. Nobody will be able to appreciate how much tireless effort was required to have three cars on the start line for Rallye du Maroc. To finish first and second with Nasser and Seb and with Cristina making a great job it’s really amazing. But this was only our first event, a test event for the Dakar so it’s a result we could not have expected. Now it’s important to keep our feet on the ground because this is only just the start of our adventure. In four weeks the cars will be on the boat to Saudi Arabia for the Dakar and we have big job ahead of us because we learned a lot during this race and there are some things we need to improve because the Dakar is such a tough race. But we’re all super-happy with this result, everyone in the team deserves this and we’re super-motivated to continue pushing towards the Dakar.”
NASSER AL-ATTIYAH (QATAR), DRIVER, THE DACIA SANDRIDERS
“It’s really nice to win Rallye du Maroc seven times and to be world champion for the third time, really I am so happy. But to win also for the first time for Dacia is incredible, it’s amazing. We will now continue to do our best with the development of the Dacia Sanrider to get ready for Dakar. With a new car to have this result is really good for the team and we now have more information to be even better for the Dakar. To be world champion for a third time is not easy but it’s really nice for me and the team and thanks to Edouard for his first year with me.”
CRISTINA GUTIÉRREZ (SPAIN), DRIVER, THE DACIA SANDRIDERS
“We are happy. We needed to have one clean stage like this and all the team deserve the result we have done, first and second overall and a good result from me on this stage. We should be proud and this is a really good preparation for the Dakar.”
SÉBASTIEN LOEB (FRANCE), DRIVER, THE DACIA SANDRIDERS
“A great result for the team to be first and second. For me I struggled a little bit at the beginning of the rally. In the Prologue we had an issue and we started very far back for the first stage. We were doing very well on that stage but then we had a little contact with an SSV and we broke a steering arm. From that point we lost 10 minutes and from then we were trying to catch the time. We did four good stages, we were pushing hard all the time and had no problem with the car. Everything was working perfectly. It shows we have a good performance. The car is good, we are comfortable driving the car and everything is in a good way for the Dakar.”
RALLYE DU MAROC OVERALL POSITIONS AFTER STAGE 5 (UNOFFICIAL)
1st: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Edouard Boulanger (FRA), 14h26m34s
2nd: Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL), 14h31m44s
79th: Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP)/Pablo Moreno (ESP), 35h48m40s
RALLYE DU MAROC: THE BIG NUMBER
1 and 2: The Dacia Sandriders completed an emphatic 1-2 finish on its first ever event with Nasser Al-Attiyah heading home team-mate Sébastien Loeb on Rallye du Maroc.
