Noa Sainct wants to follow in his legendary father Richard’s footsteps as a Dakar Rally rider, but that’s obviously easier said than still. Still, having a chance to win his class in his World Rally-Raid Championship debut is a good start.
Thomas Zoldos led Rally3 for much of the Rallye du Maroc in his pursuit for the title, but has been slowed down by Lyme disease and a metatarsis fracture he sustained in a Stage 2 crash. Although his finish of third in Stage 4 was still respectable given the circumstances, he was nearly 50 minutes behind Sainct.
After being almost an hour and a half back of Zoldos following the first pair of stages, Sainct entirely erased it over the next two days. Going into Stage 4, he was behind by 39:32.
Sainct’s stage win, consequently, propelled him into the Rally3 overall with one day to go. He leads Zoldos by 10:25.
“Another good day for me today on a fast track, taking the lead of the general in Rally3, another day tomorrow,” said Sainct.
Rally3 was one of two classes to see an overall lead change on the penultimate day alongside RallyGP. There, Daniel Sanders’ campaign to sweep the 2025 season is in trouble after making a navigation error and finishing fourth on Thursday.
Tosha Schareina initially scored his third consecutive stage win, but his 1:55 time bonus was reduced to 52 seconds after ERTF reported his GPS tablet had glitched out. Schareina has a 2:30 lead over Sanders in the overall.
José Ignacio Cornejo inherited the win as a result, his first since the 2024 Dakar Rally and inaugural as a Hero rider. It is also Hero’s first stage victory in what has been a difficult season.
“I am really happy with how today went. It was a very solid day overall,” said Cornejo. “The stage was quite technical in terms of navigation, but I felt confident on the bike and managed to keep a good rhythm. Thank you for your patience and constant support while I adapted to the bike.”
On the FIA side of things, Nani Roma beat overall leader Sébastien Loeb for the stage win by 44 seconds, who in turn edged out Lucas Moraes by 13. 13 seconds was also the margin between Moraes and his championship rival Nasser Al-Attiyah for the last step on the podium, earning him an extra point.
With one stage to go as well as the new Power Stage, Moraes trails Loeb in the overall by 3:38 while Al-Attiyah sits fourth. Factoring in stage points, Al-Attiyah is currently hanging on by just two points.
Konrad Dąbrowski scored KTM’s 100 stage win in Rally2. KTM, also set to ice their manufacturer’s title in RallyGP, has 156 stage victories total with 35 in RallyGP and 21 in Rally3 (the latter including Sainct’s win).
Attrition took a handful of drivers out of contention like Puck Klaassen and João Ferreira, who respectively had a broken rear differential at the start and a damper failure.
160 kilometers in, Adrien Costes was thrown from his bike at 70 km/h. He reported breathing difficulty afterward, which was traced to a hematoma in his lung.
Rik van den Brink and Kay Huzink hit a rut 20 kilometers into the stage that wasn’t marked on the roadbook. The impact caused the former to suffer a compression fracture in his spine and back fractures for the latter’s Joël Ebbers and Martin Roesink. Huzink’s cousin Gert, who finished the stage second in Truck, withdrew his truck afterward to focus on getting Ebbers and Roesink back to the Netherlands.
“That’s where all our attention is now, and that’s why we’re skipping the last day,” Gert explained. “That’s just the way it is. It’s also part of the game.”
Stage 4 winners
FIA
| Class | Overall | Number | Driver | Team | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultimate | 1 | 227 | Nani Roma | Ford M-Sport | 2:40:15 |
| Challenger | 24 | 304 | Dania Akeel | BBR Motorsport | 2:58:38 |
| SSV | 33 | 411 | Jeremías González Ferioli* | Can-Am Factory Team | 3:09:18 |
| Truck | 48 | 600 | Martin Macík Jr.* | MM Technology | 3:19:03 |
| Experimental Stock | 72 | 500 | Ronald Basso* | Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body | 3:44:38 |
FIM
| Class | Overall | Number | Rider | Team | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RallyGP | 1 | 11 | José Ignacio Cornejo | Hero MotoSports | 2:58:08 |
| Rally2 | 6 | 26 | Konrad Dąbrowski | DUUST Rally Team | 3:04:38 |
| Rally3 | 28 | 184 | Noa Sainct | Nomade Racing | 3:35:36 |
Open
| Class | Overall | Number | Driver | Team | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Car | 1 | 701 | Martin Koloc* | Buggyra ZM Racing | 3:28:40 |
| Open SSV | 2 | 437 | Juan Manuel Mañá* | Automode | 3:34:08 |
| Open Truck | 6 | 751 | Jürgen Hellgeth* | Hellgeth Engineering | 5:33:07 |
Leaders after Stage 4 winners
FIA
| Class | Overall | Number | Driver | Team | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultimate | 1 | 219 | Sébastien Loeb | Dacia Sandriders | 12:27:01 |
| Challenger | 21 | 303 | Pau Navarro | BBR Motorsports | 14:14:03 |
| SSV | 23 | 411 | Jeremías González Ferioli* | Can-Am Factory Team | 14:19:46 |
| Truck | 32 | 600 | Martin Macík Jr.* | MM Technology | 15:16:13 |
| Experimental Stock | 45 | 501 | Akira Miura* | Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body | 17:17:37 |
FIM
| Class | Overall | Number | Rider | Team | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RallyGP | 1 | 68 | Tosha Schareina | Monster Energy Honda HRC | 13:26:59 |
| Rally2 | 6 | 73 | Edgar Canet | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 13:59:33 |
| Rally3 | 41 | 184 | Noa Sainct | Nomade Racing | 18:02:42 |
Open
| Class | Overall | Number | Driver | Team | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Car | 2 | 701 | Martin Koloc* | Buggyra ZM Racing | 34:35:58 |
| Open SSV | 1 | 722 | Ali Oubassidi* | Africa Rallye Team | 26:57:36 |
| Open Truck | 4 | 751 | Jürgen Hellgeth* | Hellgeth Engineering | 56:04:57 |
Featured image credit: Julien Delfosse / DPPI / ASO
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