Henk Lategan’s World Rally-Raid Championship hopes are in serious jeopardy after a rear differential failure in Stage 2 of the Rallye du Maroc. His rival Nasser Al-Attiyah won the leg to give himself some space.

Lategan was running third for much of Tuesday’s leg until the diff broke 110 kilometers in, right before the first dune section of the race. The issue cost him an hour and dropped him from fifth to 22nd overall, effectively ending his pursuit of Al-Attiyah in the points battle unless the latter also experiences trouble.

“These cars don’t go through the sand as well as they do in four-wheel drive. We only had the front-wheel drive,” Lategan commented. “Really, really tough day after. We struggled a lot, we really had to find different ways around the dunes. There’s no way to go across the big ones. We kept on trying and fighting and finding ways across. I think we probably did an extra 50 Ks for the stage, but we got it back here.

“I think we’re out of the running, but we could still drive tomorrow and get some experience for next year.”

To add insult to injury, Lategan’s drop also relegates him from second to third in points behind teammate Lucas Moraes, who is also second in the race overall behind Nani Roma by just 47 seconds. Moraes currently trails Al-Attiyah, who is seventh, by nine points.

Mechanical issues took out more than a handful of competitors. Lategan and Moraes’ other teammate Seth Quintero retired from the stage as did Toyota colleague Tomáš Ouredníček. Francesco Dracone, who lost his rear brakes in Stage 1, couldn’t get going with his Hilux either. Frédéric Chesneau had a triangle break on his Century.

Stage 1 SSV winner João Dias was forced out, which opened the door for a Can-Am podium sweep of Francisco López Contardo, Jeremías González Ferioli, and Hunter Miller. Ferioli also claimed the overall lead for the class.

Taurus is still seeking its first stage win of the rally as Puck Klaassen held off Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari by 1:09. A Taurus also retired as Martin Benko suffered an engine failure, but he can rejoin on Wednesday after an engine swap. Paul Spierings arrived at the finish without his hood, though that was probably better than when he rolled over in shakedown on Friday.

The Truck win came down to a minute and 25 seconds, with Gert Huzink beating Martin Macík Jr. It was a nice rebound for Huzink after retiring from Stage 1.

“Today was a tough test for both driver and passenger, with so many crashes partly because a bunch of dangerous situations weren’t mentioned in the roadbook,” Huzink explained. “We started off fairly calmly and pushed hard on the hard surfaces, sometimes pushing ourselves to the limit. It was hard work in starting last and then setting the fastest time, but we succeeded. We had a few moments ourselves and sometimes had to search for the right path, but no technical difficulties like yesterday.”

His cousin Kay wasn’t as lucky. While running third with 50 kilometers to go, he encountered cooling issues that forced him to stop and top up on water, costing five minutes. 30 km later, he got stuck in a dune so Gert had to pull him out. Finally, with two km to go, his truck lost speed on a tall dune and rolled onto its side. Another truck came by to pull the hybrid back onto the wheels, after which Kay opted to skip a waypoint in order to reach the finish before the time limit.

The Open entries were especially brutalized on Tuesday as everyone except for Ali Oubassidi completed the stage.

The motorcycles weren’t safe either, with Ignas Daunoravičius‘ being run over by a Hilux and damaging the front of his bike.

Skyler Howes was forced to retire with a mechanical issue after 104 kilometers. At least his teammates were able to pick up where he left off as Tosha Schareina, Ricky Brabec, and Adrian Van Beveren finished 1–2–4. Daniel Sanders was sandwiched in third.

Stage 2 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia Sandriders	3:19:17
Challenger	17	302	Puck Klaassen	G Rally Team	3:42:42
SSV	21	401	Francisco López Contardo*	Can-Am Factory Team	3:46:05
Truck	39	601	Gert Huzink*	Kuipers-Jongbloed Hybrid Dakar Team	4:17:54
Experimental Stock	55	501	Akira Miura*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	4:56:24

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	68	Tosha Schareina	Monster Energy Honda HRC	3:28:26
Rally2	7	22	Michael Docherty	BAS World KTM Racing Team	3:38:50
Rally3	37	183	Thomas Zoldos	Aub’Moto	4:22:51

Open

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Open Car	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	N/A	DNF
Open SSV	1	722	Ali Oubassidi*	Africa Rallye Team	6:28:19
Open Truck	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	N/A	DNF

Leaders after Stage 2

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	227	Nani Roma	Ford M-Sport	6:11:14
Challenger	19	305	Yasir Seaidan	Race World / MMP Compétition	6:59:52
SSV	25	411	Jeremías González Ferioli*	Can-Am Factory Team	7:10:55
Truck	36	600	Martin Macík Jr.*	MM Technology	7:42:00
Experimental Stock	54	501	Akira Miura*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	8:31:54

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	6:49:41
Rally2	6	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	7:01:11
Rally3	37	183	Thomas Zoldos	Aub’Moto	8:30:40

Open

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Open Car	2	700	Aliyyah Koloc*	Buggyra ZM Racing	11:53:26
Open SSV	1	722	Ali Oubassidi*	Africa Rallye Team	14:08:57
Open Truck	6	751	Jürgen Hellgeth*	Hellgeth Engineering	N/A

Featured image credit: Julien Delfosse / DPPI / ASO