The 2025 World Rally-Raid Championship came to a close Friday with the fifth and Power Stages of the Rallye du Maroc. As the deciding leg, it was also the final chance for those still in points contention to make an impact.

Honda and Toyota had plenty to be pleased about. The former’s Tosha Schareina won Stage 5 and secured the FIM overall victory, preventing Daniel Sanders from sweeping all five rounds in 2025. The latter’s Seth Quintero notched his first stage win since the season opener while his teammate Lucas Moraes leapfrogged Nasser Al-Attiyah to steal the FIA championship.

Schareina entered Stage 5 hanging onto a 2:30 lead over Sanders, which he increased with a home run performance on Friday as he led from start to finish. Sanders kept close but settled for P2, 42 seconds back for the stage.

Quintero dominated for cars. Although Moraes finished 13th and couldn’t catch seventh-placed Sébastien Loeb for the overall win, he was narrowly ahead of Al-Attiyah. The latter then received a one-hour penalty for not stopping at the end of the timed section for the Power Stage, solidifying Moraes’ title.

The Power Stage is new for 2025 and was only used at Morocco, but will be at all W2RC races in 2026. Taking inspiration from the WRC and reserved for the FIA, it was a 33-kilometer course timed down to the tenth of a second with the top three earning bonus points. Nani Roma won the Power Stage by two seconds over Quintero.

Manuel Andújar finished second in SSV behind Francisco López Contardo, but López isn’t registered for points so Andújar scored his first W2RC stage victory as a driver.

Not everyone made it home. Geoff Minnitt’s gearbox broke just 60 kilometers in, leaving them stranded for four hours until help arrived. As luck would have it, the crew eventually came but with the wrong tool to put the gearbox in neutral so they had to leave it behind. Martin Benko, who previously retired from Stage 2 with an engine failure, was knocked out by a canal at KM 190 that smashed the front axle and arms.

“I’m really sorry about it, but it was a ditch with only one crossing over a concrete bridge,” Benko explained. “Several vehicles were ahead of us and kicked up a lot of dust, so we couldn’t see anything and missed the bridge by a few meters, and this is how it turned out. Fortunately, only the buggy was damaged while Marek (Sýkora) and I are both fine. I’m glad we’re racing a car and I don’t ride bikes anymore, because such a mistake wouldn’t have gone well there.

“The stage itself was beautiful otherwise. It had everything we wanted except for that bridge. We didn’t meet our goal, but that’s okay. The important thing is we almost made it to the end and, more importantly, gained an incredible amount of experience, data, and improved our teamwork in the car.”

Jatin Jain also hit a canal shortly before the finish, launching him into the air and destroying much of the navigation system; fortunately, fellow Indian rider Aishwarya Pissay stopped to help him continue and reach the end. Eryk Goczał suffered a broken driveshaft in the dunes but managed to reach the finish.

Tragically, the stage was overshadowed by Jorge Brandão’s fatal accident at KM 214.

Stage 5 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	205	Seth Quintero	Toyota Gazoo Racing	2:37:17
Challenger	18	308	Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari	QMMF Racing Team by Nasser Racing	2:58:42
SSV	27	401	Francisco López Contardo*	Can-Am Factory Team	3:07:13
Truck	49	600	Martin Macík Jr.*	MM Technology	3:36:54
Experimental Stock	52	501	Akira Miura*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	3:46:06

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	68	Tosha Schareina	Monster Energy Honda HRC	2:24:35
Rally2	4	22	Michael Docherty	BAS World KTM Racing Team	2:28:56
Rally3	30	183	Thomas Zoldos	Aub’Moto	2:52:30

Open

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Open Car	1	700	Aliyyah Koloc*	Buggyra ZM Racing	2:36:33
Open SSV	3	437	Juan Manuel Mañá*	Automode	2:54:08
Open Truck	8	751	Jürgen Hellgeth*	Hellgeth Engineering	4:36:26

Power Stage winners

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	227	Nani Roma	Ford M-Sport	16:24
Challenger	14	308	Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari	QMMF Racing Team by Nasser Racing	20:52
SSV	19	405	Hélder Rodrigues*	Santag Racing	21:50
Truck	42	600	Martin Macík Jr.*	MM Technology	26:48
Experimental Stock	38	501	Akira Miura*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	25:55

Overall winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	219	Sébastien Loeb	Dacia Sandriders	15:11:40
Challenger	18	303	Pau Navarro	BBR Motorsports	17:21:14
SSV	23	401	Francisco López Contardo*	Can-Am Factory Team	2:30:01
Truck	29	600	Martin Macík Jr.*	MM Technology	18:53:07
Experimental Stock	43	501	Akira Miura*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	21:03:43

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	68	Tosha Schareina	Monster Energy Honda HRC	15:51:34
Rally2	5	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	16:36:07
Rally3	40	184	Noa Sainct	Nomade Racing	20:57:56

Open

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Open Car	2	701	Martin Koloc*	Buggyra ZM Racing	37:23:01
Open SSV	1	722	Ali Oubassidi*	Africa Rallye Team	30:41:19
Open Truck	4	751	Jürgen Hellgeth*	Hellgeth Engineering	60:41:23

Featured image credit: Kin Marcin / Red Bull Content Pool