Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger Shine in Morocco Rally Stage
After two grueling days at the 2026 Morocco Rally, Sébastien Loeb and his co-driver Édouard Boulanger were finally able to relish a smoother stage. Competing under the Dacia banner, this French duo capitalized on their advantageous starting position (17th) to launch an aggressive attack during the 363 km sand stage around Zagora. Following a mechanical failure in the initial stage and a subsequent effort to tow their stranded teammates, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin, Loeb and Boulanger delivered a commanding performance, securing victory with a time advantage of 6 minutes and 50 seconds over Carlos Sainz and Daniel Oliveras from Ford, and 7 minutes and 44 seconds ahead of Seth Quintero and Andrew Short from Toyota. Notably, Belgian driver Guillaume de Mévius and his French co-driver Mathieu Baumel (Mini) finished impressively in fourth place, trailing by 8 minutes and 31 seconds.
This victory marks Sébastien Loeb's 25th win in the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), yet it unfortunately extinguishes any hopes for an overall championship title at the 2026 Rally du Maroc, as their deficit stands at a staggering 20 hours, 22 minutes, and 55 seconds. The overall leaderboard is now led by Carlos Sainz and Daniel Oliveras. The official Ford team duo capitalized on the misfortune of the earlier leaders, Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz (Dacia), who suffered a crash at kilometer 348 and are now sidelined. This incident further adds to the dramatic twists of the race.
Carlos Sainz took the lead in the Morocco Rally for the first time since joining the American manufacturer at the end of 2024, marking a significant shift as he had not headed any W2RC event since his victory with Audi at the 2024 Dakar Rally. Sainz's lead is followed closely by Seth Quintero in a Toyota Hilux (+3:23 minutes) and another Ford driven by Nani Roma (+6:12 minutes). Meanwhile, Toyota drivers Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings lost ground due to their role as trailblazers in the desert, dropping to sixth place.
As reported by autohebdo.de.
