In 2002, Grégoire de Mévius was leading the Arras–Madrid–Dakar Rally overall until disaster struck in Stage 9: his Nissan failed to start, got stuck in the sand, then lost a clutch. If losing 12 hours to new leader Hiroshi Masuoka wasn’t bad enough, he also received a 24-hour penalty for missing three time control points. That was final crushing blow that prevented him from finishing any higher than 27th overall.

It might not be Dakar, but dominating the Merzouga 1000 Classic 24 years later at least means his Nissan can finally be called a race winner.

Like in 2025, de Mévius was far and away the top driver in the Merzouga 1000. Rather than his Range Rover Halt’up, he opted to run the 2026 edition in the same Nissan Pickup he raced in that fateful 2002 Dakar. His family’s G Rally Team prepped the Nissan, though it’s a different wing than those run by his sons Guillaume and Ghislain.

Despite the heartbreak he faced as a 39-year-old in the red Team Dessoude truck, it more than cooperated for the 63-year-old. He was the fastest driver overall in every stage except for the last, where he was still just 7:43 behind that day’s outright winner Philippe Delahaye, and swept the Open category for vehicles made in the 2000s.

Delahaye won the Desert One division for two-wheel-drive buggies built before 2010. Classic, reserved for ’90s machinery, was claimed by Jean-Michel Villot’s PlayStation-liveried Mitsubishi Pajero V6 that starred at the turn of the millennium.

The Moroccan desert took its beating on the old-school cars, most notably a mechanical issue sandwich with DNFs on both the first and final day. The diesel fuel supply system on Emmanuel Grelaud’s RMA Buggy went out on Stage 1, causing his engine to shut off, then the ignition sensor on Axel Berrier’s Porsche 964 DKR failed on Stage 5 so he had to be towed.

Even Delahaye had his own trouble in Stage 3, but still finished third overall and won Desert One for the day. He was second overall for much of the rally.

Stage winners

Stage	Classic	Total Time	Open	Total Time	Desert One	Total Time	Raider	Total Time
Stage 1	Frédéric Larre	5:50:24	Grégoire de Mévius	4:10:53	Patrice Auzet	4:24:02	Alexandre Felsenhart	9:32:00
Stage 2	Axel Berrier	3:44:05	Grégoire de Mévius	2:46:25	Philippe Delahaye	3:02:28	Dominique Silvani	16:00:00
Stage 3	Jean-Michel Villot	3:21:12	Grégoire de Mévius	2:48:24	Philippe Delahaye	2:57:51	Alexandre Felsenhart	16:00:00
Stage 4	Frédéric Larre	4:07:43	Grégoire de Mévius	3:40:24	Philippe Delahaye	4:05:24	Dominique Silvani	15:21:00
Stage 5	Jean-Michel Villot	6:49:35	Grégoire de Mévius	5:10:57	Philippe Delahaye	5:03:14	Alexandre Felsenhart	14:30:00

Results

Classic

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Class	Total Time
1	5	238	Jean-Michel Villot	Marie Tourneur	Mitsubishi Ralliart Classic	C2.4E	24:46:28
2	8	186	Frédéric Larre	Alfonso Larre	Nantes Prestige Autos	C3.4E	28:51:52
3	11	265	Axel Berrier	Jérémy Athimon	Nantes Prestige Autos	C2.4E	32:36:53
4	21	218	Maxime Sachs	Norman Sachs	Sachs	C1.4D	77:55:00

Open

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Class	Total Time
1	1	200	Grégoire de Mévius	André Leyh	G Rally Team	C3.4E	18:37:03
2	3	206	Alain Coquelle	Lois Boilly-Coquelle	Cars-Arras	C3.4E	19:56:09
3	4	234	Ludovic Baudens	Baptiste Baudens	Cars-Arras	C3.4E	20:36:31
4	6	240	Stéphane Henri de Frahan	Sophie Vanspauwen	JAC Motors	C3.4E	25:27:49
5	7	242	Laurent Jaspers	Anne Boutry	JAC Motors	C3.4E	2747:07
6	9	217	François-Georges Kuhn	Maxime Legendre	Panasport	C1.4D	30:23:55
7	10	222	Benjamin Brial	Philippe Lemenuet	Off Road Assistance	C1.4D	31:16:54
8	12	214	Jean Rega	François Carpentier	Mitsubishi Ralliart Classic	C1.4D	48:46:59
9	14	226	Vincent Tourneur	Laurent Bovis	Mitsubishi Ralliart Classic	C2.4E	63:34:00
10	22	215	Paul Tessier	Alexandre Tessier	Tessier	C3.4E	77:57:00

Desert One

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time
1	2	204	Philippe Delahaye	Valérie Delahaye	Team PhD Concept	19:34:52
2	13	210	Jean-Paul Reparat	Gaëlle Cremer	RMA Racing	52:53:11
3	15	202	Patrice Auzet	François-Xavier Bourgois	Acit Racing	66:25:02
4	16	208	Emmanuel Grelaud	Willy Boillevin	RMA Racing	70:42:00

Raider

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time
1	17	300	Dominique Silvani	Manu Soro	Off Road Assistance	71:32:00
2	18	212	Alexandre Felsenhart	Alain Gehennec	G Rally Team	71:33:00
3	19	246	Stéphane Yvorra	Nathan Yvorra	Merzouga 1000 Classic	71:39:00
4	20	248	Graziano Pelanconi		Merzouga 1000 Classic	71:42:00

Featured image credit: Merzouga 1000 Classic