Botswana Ross BranchHeroon motorcycles, and on Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Cazoo Racing), in cars, this Saturday marked the best time in the prologue of Morocco Rally, disputed in Agadir on a timed 9-kilometer route that decides the starting order for the first stage, this Sunday between that city and Tan-Tan.
On two wheels, Ross Branch won the first contact of the race, which runs until Thursday, October 6, by setting a winning time of 1:01.28 minutes.
The Hero Motorsports rider finished with a winning time of 1:01.28 minutes, ahead of Australia’s Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Team), in 40 hundredths, and Argentina’s Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna), in 56.
Defending champion Kevin Benavides of Argentina (Red Bull KTM Factory Team) finished twelfth, one place ahead of current World Championship leader Briton Sam Sunderland (GasGas Factory Racing).
Sunderland are the big favorites after winning the last Dakar and Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. He leads the overall standings with a 17-point advantage over Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Monster Energy Honda), sixth this Saturday in the Morocco prologue behind Skyler Howes (Husqvarna), fourth, and Adrien van Beveren ( Honda), fifth.
In cars, Al-Attiyah was fastest in the prologue, where he beat Saudi Yasser Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing) and French sebastien loeb (Bahrain Raid Extreme).
In the Open SSV category, the new Audi RS Q e-tron Evo2 debuted with the Swedish Mathias Ekström, the French Stephane Peterhansel and the spanish Carlos Sainzwhich, in this order, finished thirty seconds behind the best time in the T1 class, which is a shy debut ahead of this Sunday’s long stage.
Audis participate in a specific category, the Open SSV class, and therefore cannot be ranked alongside their T1 competitors.
The Morocco Rally has a total route of 2,233 kilometers and 1,506 kilometers of timed specials. This Sunday’s stage is 557 kilometers long, 316 of them against the clock.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
