Nobody’s perfect.

2025 was a dream season for Daniel Sanders, who won the Dakar Rally then the next three rounds to clinch the World Rally-Raid Championship in RallyGP a race in advance. He certainly would’ve loved to complete the season sweep with the Rallye du Maroc, especially as he was technically riding a five-race win streak since he won the 2024 edition, but Tosha Schareina had other plans.

Although Sanders won the first stage, Schareina notched three victories of his own and gradually pulled away from Sanders. The champion tried to catch up and trailed by 2:30 entering the final day, but Schareina simply iced the victory instead.

Sanders didn’t do himself any favors with the occasional navigation errors either. Besides the Stage 1 win, he came as close as five seconds behind Schareina in Stage 3 and 42 seconds in the fifth, but otherwise struggled in the even-numbered legs with a third and fourth in Stages 2 and 4.

“Obviously, I’m happy to finish the race here in Morocco safely and on the podium, but I’m a little disappointed not to have taken the win,” Sanders commented. “After wrapping the championship up in Portugal, I really wanted to focus on this race and do my best. I’m riding good, I know that, and when I’m riding good, I’m fast. I just need to clean up my mistakes.

“It’s good to get a bit of a wake-up call, and now ahead of Dakar, I know there are things I need to work on with myself. We’ve got a couple of months to get motivated now and I know what I need to do to improve. It’s not just the physical side for me; it’s the mental side as well, and I want to be ready for Dakar. The season has been incredible and I can’t thank the team enough for everything they have done to get me here. The goal now is to reward them with another win in Saudi next January.”

The win is Schareina’s fourth in the W2RC (third as a points-earning rider; he wasn’t registered for the championship at the 2023 Desafío Ruta 40). He also moved up to second in the final standings, 42 points back of Sanders and just ahead of Honda teammate Ricky Brabec.

In fact, Schareina very well could’ve beaten Sanders by more had ERTF not noticed his GPS tablet glitching. Schareina initially won Stage 4 with a 1:55 time bonus, but it was revised to 52 seconds after the glitch was spotted and he lost the win to former Honda teammate José Ignacio Cornejo.

Even if circumstantial, Cornejo certainly was glad to score a stage win as he finished fifth to cap off a difficult year for Hero MotoSports. The team entered 2025 as the defending riders’ champion courtesy of Ross Branch, but Branch retired from three races due to accidents or mechanical issues. The issues continued in Morocco with a fuel leak in Stage 3 that relegated him to last among finishing RallyGP riders. Even Cornejo wasn’t entirely safe as he had a crash in Stage 5 but reached the finish.

“This marks the end of my first full season with Hero MotoSports, and I am happy with how it has gone,” Cornejo stated. “We have had our ups and downs, but the team has been incredible, and the progress we’ve made with the bike is very satisfying. Thursday’s stage win, my first with Hero, was a big highlight. We’ll keep working hard to arrive at Dakar 2026 in top form and aim for a strong result there.”

Skyler Howes and Luciano Benavides retired due to a mechanical issue and crash, respectively. The latter knocked him from second in points down to fourth.

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	1	68	Tosha Schareina	Monster Energy Honda HRC	15:51:34	Leader
2	2	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	15:54:46	+ 3:12
3	3	9	Ricky Brabec	Monster Energy Honda HRC	16:01:11	+ 9:37
4	4	42	Adrien Van Beveren	Monster Energy Honda HRC	16:21:50	+ 30:16
5	6	11	José Ignacio Cornejo	Hero MotoSports	16:36:10	+ 44:36
6	7	15	Lorenzo Santolino*	Sherco TVS Rally Factory Team	16:44:19	+ 5:45
7	10	12	Bradley Cox	Sherco TVS Rally Factory Team	17:02:05	+ 1:10:
8	13	142	Štefan Svitko*	Slovnaft Rally Team	17:30:31	+ 1:38:57
9	22	1	Ross Branch	Hero MotoSports	18:32:58	+ 2:41:24
DNF	DNF	10	Skyler Howes	Monster Energy Honda HRC	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	77	Luciano Benavides	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	DNF	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Rider	Time
Prologue	1	Ricky Brabec	12:48.3
Stage 1	1	Daniel Sanders	3:04:37
Stage 2	1	Tosha Schareina	3:28:26
Stage 3	1	Tosha Schareina	3:37:48
Stage 4	1	José Ignacio Cornejo	2:58:08
Stage 5	1	Tosha Schareina	2:24:35

W2RC

Riders

Rank	Rider	Points	Margin
1	Daniel Sanders	133	Leader
2	Tosha Schareina	91	– 42
3	Ricky Brabec	82	– 51
4	Luciano Benavides	69	– 64
5	Adrien Van Beveren	61	– 72
6	José Ignacio Cornejo	55	– 78
7	Skyler Howes	46	– 87
8	Bradley Cox	28	– 105
9	Ross Branch	17	– 116

Manufacturers

Rank	Manufacturer	Points	Margin
1	KTM	202	Leader
2	Honda	193	– 9
3	Hero	72	– 130

Featured image credit: Julien Delfosse / DPPI / ASO