Martim Ventura hopes to make his Dakar Rally debut in 2026, and thus has been upping his schedule for 2025 to include more races in the desert. He seems to be getting the hang of it in the dunes after a dominant showing at the Carta Rallye.

Two months after finishing fourth in class at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Ventura went to Morocco and put on a clinic in the Carta Rallye. He finished top two in all seven stages and won four to beat Benjamin Melot by over 42 minutes.

Melot, who finished runner-up in Malle Moto at Dakar, won the first stage by a minute on Ventura. Although he never finished lower than fourth across each day, Melot couldn’t close the gap to Ventura as the latter’s stage wins helped him gap Melot.

Nearly two hours back of Ventura, Gautier Paulin rounded out the overall podium as the Over 450cc winner. The former FIM MXGP star was running his first rally raid on a bike and second in general, having previously won the 2024 Africa Eco Race in T3 as a driver.

Paulin rode the new Ténéré 700 Rally GYTR, as did his teammate Alessandro Botturi. The Ténéré swept the Over 450cc top five, with Kevin Gallas of the Ténéré Spirit Experience sandwiched between Paulin and Botturi. Gallas was the only Yamaha to win a bike stage outright.

“Racing with Marc (Bourgeois, team manager) and the Ténéré Yamaha Rally Team has been a pleasure, and the new bike is amazing,” said Paulin. “I only had a few days to learn navigation before arriving here, so I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I enjoyed it. I had so much fun in the dunes, and the bike was so smooth that what should have been very challenging was actually fun. We had no issues whatsoever all rally, and to finish on the overall podium and win the Over 450cc class is incredible.

“It was an honor to share this adventure with the team, and I want to thank them all for making it so much fun. It was also very cool to ride with Stéphane Peterhansel and meet the TSE riders.”

Botturi, the 2025 AER bike runner-up, had to deal with a fever throughout the race. Additional problems sank him in Stage 2 when he missed five waypoints. Despite the early snags and his lingering illness, he managed to regain his ground and was satisfied to score a class podium.

Whereas Ventura was the top bike despite his relatively green résumé in desert rallies, Simon Vitse was the fastest car in what has been a dominant April in Morocco. He won every leg save for the 50-kilometer Night Stage, beating Hugues Lacam by over three hours.

Vitse had also won the T1.2 class at the Morocco Desert Challenge just a week prior.

The SSVs were a toss-up between Lacam, Jérôme Pelichet, Pedro Gonçalves, and David Casteu. Lacam held an 11-minute lead over Pelichet going into the final day, but finished ahead of him to ice the victory.

Hervé Guillaume, who finished 18th in Challenger at Dakar, had his race ruined by a crash after hitting a dune head-on at 90 km/h. Kart racer Omar Benhayoun was 16th in SSV in his first cross-country rally.

Noa Sainct, the son of the late great Richard Sainct, placed 20th among all bikes in his maiden desert rally.

Stage winners

Stage	Bike	Time	Auto	Time
Stage 1	Benjamin Melot	3:43:15	Simon Vitse	3:25:06
Stage 2	Kevin Gallas	2:57:52	Simon Vitse	2:29:37
Stage 3	Martim Ventura	2:25:41	Simon Vitse	2:16:43
Night Stage	N/A	N/A	Frédéric Valverde	44:58
Stage 4	Martim Ventura	2:34:54	Simon Vitse	2:18:08
Stage 5	Martim Ventura	3:05:58	Simon Vitse	2:49:47
Stage 6	Martim Ventura	3:59:42	Simon Vitse	3:31:12
Stage 7	Charlie Herbst	2:54:07	Simon Vitse	2:48:05

Moto

Up to 450cc

Finish	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	1	84	Martim Ventura	Old Friends Rally Team	21:49:57	Leader
2	2	39	Benjamin Melot	Team Esprit KTM	22:32:10	+ 42:13
3	6	86	Charlie Herbst	Challenger Racing Team	24:48:53	+ 2:58:56
4	8	16	Adrien Costes	Nomade Racing	26:17:10	+ 4:27:13
5	10	43	Clément Talmant	Talmant	29:15:54	+ 7:25:57
6	11	40	Romain Bouzigon	Team Esprit KTM	29:59:26	+ 8:9:29
7	12	28	Loic Peyrichout	Rallye Aventure	30:14:07	+ 8:24:10
8	13	20	Tony Van Cauwenberghe	Rallye Aventure	30:14:09	+ 8:24:12
9	14	30	John Comoglio	John Comoglio	30:25:39	+ 8:35:42
10	15	17	Kevin Maiorana	Nomade Racing	30:45:39	+ 8:55:42
11	16	19	Tracy Morandin	Rallye Aventure	31:52:48	+ 10:02:51
12	17	14	Rémy Moreau	Nomade Racing	31:56:19	+ 10:06:22
13	18	15	Chris Jautard	Nomade Racing	32:10:01	+ 10:20:04
14	19	38	Ludovic Pennant	Rev 2 Roues	32:58:08	+ 11:08:11
15	20	7	Noa Sainct	Nomade Racing	33:08:13	+ 11:18:16
16	21	11	Attilio Fert	Rallye Aventure	33:50:06	+ 12:00:09
17	23	37	Pascal Pouguet	Pascal Pouguet	38:09:11	+ 16:19:14
18	24	35	Cyril Forget	Forget	40:16:44	+ 18:26:47
19	26	42	David Mulot	David Mulot	41:31:49	+ 19:41:52
20	27	26	Marcel Cioltan	Marcel Cioltan	44:25:54	+ 22:35:57
21	29	1	Radu Craita	Motoclub Haita Deva	46:20:55	+ 24:30:58
22	30	41	Claude Gabriel Fayet	Dragon Racing	48:26:57	+ 26:37:00
23	32	10	Romain Cayla	Challenger Racing Team	55:10:35	+ 33:20:38
24	33	36	David Luce	Solurent	57:25:59	+ 35:36:02
25	34	34	Christopher Rongeat	Action Enduro	57:40:58	+ 35:51:01
26	35	27	Jon Florea	Team Gerula	64:17:15	+ 42:27:18
27	37	32	Olivier Hyest	Hyest	80:39:53	+ 58:49:56
28	38	5	Souleymane Addahri	Souleymane Addahri	81:21:30	+ 59:31:33
DNF	DNF	31	Charles Catteau	ICD	DNF	N/A

Over 450cc

Finish	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	3	21	Gautier Paulin	Yamaha Ténéré World Raid Team	23:48:51	Leader
2	4	71	Kevin Gallas	Ténéré Spirit Experience	24:34:28	+ 45:37
3	5	3	Alessandro Botturi	Yamaha Ténéré World Raid Team	24:34:52	+ 46:01
4	7	6	Bertrand Gavard	Ténéré Spirit Experience	26:08:52	+ 2:20:01
5	9	24	Nicolas Charlier	Ténéré Spirit Experience	27:43:59	+ 3:55:08
6	22	22	Alexandre Englebert	Challenger Racing Team	35:36:33	+ 11:47:42
7	25	23	Vlad Murariu	Motoclub Haita Deva	40:49:35	+ 17:00:44
8	31	18	Yann Duprey	Ténéré Spirit Experience	54:13:04	+ 30:24:13
9	36	9	Thibaud Chandezon	Challenger Racing Team	70:41:50	+ 47:02:59
10	39	8	Jérôme Clastre	Ténéré Spirit Experience	85:00:00	+ 61:11:09
DNF	DNF	25	Felix Predescu	Motoclub Haita Deva	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	29	Khoun-Sith Vongsana	Khoun-Sith Vongsana	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	33	Frédéric Murat	Ténéré Spirit Experience	DNF	N/A

Quad

Finish	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	28	45	Alexis Varagne	Dragon Racing	44:59:57	Leader
DNF	DNF	44	Anthony Baille	Rallye Adventure	DNF	N/A

Auto

Ultimate

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	1	101	Simon Vitse	Max Delfino	Team Vitse	20:45:04	Leader

2WD

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	26	102	Jérôme Cambier	Alain Brousse	Team Vitse	39:40:13	Leader
2	28	105	Nicolas Delencre	Jonathan Lurquin	Config Racing	42:08:44	+ 2:28:31
3	31	104	Kacem Hamsas	Paul Duramé	Hamsas	44:18:53	+ 4:38:40
4	32	103	Yves Fromont	Vincent Ferri	Team Fromont	46:08:23	+ 6:28:10

4×4

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	22	108	Laurent Ducreux	Philippe Cantreau	Team Ducreux	37:03:30	Leader
2	37	110	Mantas Bernickis	Deividas Bliudzius	BRO Racing	54:10:30	+ 17:07:00
3	44	107	Bernard Andrieux	Marion Andrieu	Modulauto	64:00:35	+ 26:57:05
4	49	109	Franck Augustin	Lionel Widloecher	Desert Djinn	96:00:00	+ 58:56:30

SSV Open

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	2	201	Hugues Lacam	Delphine Delfino	Speed Up	23:59:55	Leader
2	3	204	Jérôme Pelichet	Antoine Lecourbe	Team Pelichet	24:35:11	+ 35:16
3	4	236	Pedro Gonçalves	Hugo Magalhães	Franco Sport	24:52:50	+ 52:55
4	5	210	David Casteu	François Bonnet	Casteu Trophy	25:12:05	+ 1:12:10
5	6	217	Xavier Lormand	Guillaume Jorda	Hotel Flamants Roses	25:25:18	+ 1:25:23
6	8	209	Adrien Choblet	Laurent Magat	Casteu Trophy	26:20:40	+ 2:20:45
7	9	211	Axel Dutrie	Adrien Merceron	Dragon Racing	27:13:22	+ 3:13:27
8	10	228	Algirdas Talutis	Mykolas Paulavičius	BRO Racing	27:46:07	+ 3:46:12
9	11	239	Jean-Benoît Houssin	Alban Mugner	Team Solurent Racing	28:26:32	+ 4:26:37
10	12	202	Stéphane Zosso	Caroline Zosso	ZZK Racing	30:05:35	+ 6:05:40
11	14	215	Frédéric Valverde	Loïc Minaudier	BTR	30:45:45	+ 6:45:50
12	15	221	Bertrand Honvault	Kevin Bailly	Drag’on Rally Service	30:47:00	+ 6:47:05
13	19	205	Kevin Boulenaz	Charles Perrin	ZZK Racing	35:11:24	+ 11:11:29
14	20	216	Benoit Lepietre	Rodrigue Relmy-Madinska	BTR	35:21:30	+ 11:21:35
15	21	233	Naima Kabbage	Camille Pourchier	RM Sport	36:37:25	+ 12:37:30
16	23	231	Omar Benhayoun	Tanguy Ferreira	RM Sport	37:44:22	+ 13:44:27
17	24	226	Nikola Hristov	Nedko Hristov	Synthesia	39:00:25	+ 15:00:30
18	27	207	Emmanuel Lavit	Guillaume Taupenas	BTR	41:45:33	+ 17:45:38
19	29	222	Gauthier Honvault	Maxime Braulle	Drag’on Rally Service	43:18:02	+ 19:18:07
20	30	218	Raoul Fenestraz	Stephanie Fenestraz	ZZK Racing	43:48:11	+ 19:48:16
21	33	235	Paolo Sottile	Matteo Sottile	BTR	48:55:00	+ 24:55:05
22	34	224	Patrick Martin	Mayeul Barbet	BTR	49:06:43	+ 25:6:48
23	35	214	Hervé Guillaume	Maxime Guillaume	BTR	52:15:59	+ 28:16:04
24	36	219	Gregoire Erbeia	Fleur Erbeia	ZZK Racing	52:58:20	+ 28:58:25
25	38	208	Heatcliff Zingraf	Eric Bersey	Casteu Trophy	54:30:56	+ 30:31:01
26	39	234	Olivier Goullioud	Thomas Gaidella	Zitoun Racing	57:01:49	+ 33:01:54
27	40	220	Pascal Henon	Peter Serra	ZZK Racing	57:41:43	+ 33:41:48
28	41	212	Alain Joan	Simon Lenglet	Dragon Racing	61:27:11	+ 37:27:16
29	42	206	Eric Frey	Bernard Nachen	ZZK Racing	62:52:10	+ 38:52:15
30	43	242	Pierre Marie Bergeret	Victor Bergeret	BTR	63:27:57	+ 39:28:02
31	45	227	Tomas Mickus	Darius Leskauskas	BRO Racing	71:00:36	+ 47:00:41
32	46	229	Aivaras Kavaliauskas	Ernestas Česokas	BRO Racing	73:46:53	+ 49:46:58
33	47	232	Othmane Benhayoun	Yassine Amor	RM Sport	74:24:20	+ 50:24:25
34	48	223	Jean-Denis Piccini	Stéphane Denecheau	JDV Sports	75:15:09	+ 51:15:14

SSV Series

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	7	238	Joel Labille	Renaud Niveau	El Mobility	25:29:50	Leader
2	13	241	Gabriel Pemeant	Noah Jacquet	Team Pacman	30:28:23	+ 4:58:33
3	16	240	Rodolphe Mauduit	Cynthia Mahe	Experaid Merzouga	32:09:17	+ 6:39:27
4	17	237	Edouard Leconte	Julio Ano	El Mobility	34:00:29	+ 8:30:39
5	18	203	Damien Cousin	Franck Baes	Team Solurent Racing	34:34:50	+ 9:05:00
6	25	225	Fabrice Della Barbera	Maxence Depaive	Eurojapan Aventure	39:01:48	+ 13:31:58

Featured image credit: João Beltrão