The Rallye du Maroc hasn’t been easy for the Gulf Oil pseudo-rally raid team. The company doesn’t actually have such an outfit, but is sponsoring the Porsche 964 DKRs of father-and-son duo Axel and Pierre-Louis Berrier along with the GasGas RX 450F Replica of Ben Howard.

Howard is out of the race after a crash in Stage 2, while Pierre-Louis’ 964—nicknamed “Tequila”—has been nagged by mechanical issues all week. Axel’s “Marguerite” hasn’t had much luck either, needing a clutch replacement overnight following Stage 3.

Luck finally smiled down on the team on Friday. With the new clutch installed, Axel won Stage 4 with 39 points ahead of Lorenzo Fluxá’s 52. The younger Berrier finished seventh, his best run since third in the Prologue.

Filippo Colnaghi set the tone early with the cleanest run in Regularity Test 4-1, but the older Berrier made up the gap on the two Navigation Tests. Juan Morera, teammate to the Berriers at Nantes Prestigo Autos in his own 911, edged out Colnaghi in RT 4-3 by one point while Berrier was third in the test. Colnaghi finished third, one point more than Fluxá but ten fewer than Morera.

Ali Oubassidi had a rough day as he finished sixth but racked up 104 points, more than he accumulated across the first three stages combined (102). Still, he holds a 136-point advantage over Josef Unterholzner for the overall lead going into the final stage on Saturday. Axel is fourth and knocking on the door of an overall podium, trailing Colnaghi by eight points.

Tecnosport enjoyed a strong start to the RdM Classic with Colnaghi and Taz Harvey, but the latter retired on Friday with a mechanical issue.

Nicolo Mussetto and Stéphane Jaillant respectively received three- and one-point notional penalties for helping Ludovic Bois and Frédéric Fatien during RT 4-3, consequently arriving late.

Stage 4, heavily reliant on navigation, brought forth a plethora of new winners. Some were in similar situations as Berrier.

Mattias Ekström is out of the RdM overall after mechanical issues knocked him out prior to Stage 3, but rebounded Friday by beating Henk Lategan for the FIA win. Lategan was 35 seconds back and in the middle of a Raptor sandwich as Mitch Guthrie held off Lucas Moraes—himself out of the picture because of his rollover on Thursday—for third by four seconds.

Martin Macík Jr. finally broke Mitchel van den Brink’s winning streak in Truck after the latter suffered a flat tire. Murun Purevdorj likewise ended Albert Martín’s monopoly in Rally3, though he’s still an hour and a half behind Martín in the overall. Macík is the only Truck driver trailing van den Brink in the overall by less than an hour, though it’s still a sizeable gap of 33:14.

It’s the same story in Rally2. Martim Ventura had made the category his playground across the first four days (including the Prologue), but finished third on Friday behind Michael Docherty and Neels Theric. Still, Ventura remains a comfortable 29:25 ahead of Docherty and 34:35 on teammate Preston Campbell, the latter crashing several times throughout the day.

“In the morning, I had a problem with my roadbook switch and couldn’t scroll through the notes, which messed up my navigation a bit,” Ventura explained. “There was also a tricky note where everyone got lost. I just wasn’t feeling it today, to be honest, and the guys behind caught me.

“The big positive was getting to ride with Daniel (Sanders), Adrien (Van Beveren), and Ricky (Brabec). It was like a childhood dream to ride with them and learn from them. At times I was able to pass, navigate and help with the pace, which I really enjoyed. But overall, it was a tough day for me.”

Sara Price set the fastest time in Stock, but got a 20-hour penalty because of an engine change overnight that relegated her to last in class. Her disastrous Stage 3 had been caused by a hard hit that damaged the radiator and caused coolant to leak, resulting in overheating and internal damage that necessitated the swap.

“We don’t technically get first place on paper but based on our actual time we absolutely killed it,” said Price.

Philip McVay lost his brakes 60 kilometers into the stage but otherwise enjoyed what navigator Willem Avenant called a “great day for us.” They finished ninth in Challenger.

Others weren’t so fortunate. Paul Spierings rolled while going 135 km/h and sheared off the roof, ending his race. 12 riders officially retired on Friday like Jatin Jain due to a crash.

The strangest DNF, however, belonged to Lucas Secco. Two days prior on Wednesday, he loaded his Kove onto the back of a sweeper truck that eventually rolled down a dune and crushed his bike beyond repair. While the accident was in Stage 2, he formally exited the rally on the fourth stage.

The FIA’s bank account became a little heavier after the stage. Van den Brink and Khalifa Al-Attiyah were each fined €1,000 because of crew members wearing t-shirts and shorts while missing balaclavas in the refuel zone, all deemed safety violations. Back in the bivouac, Rik van den Brink received a €5,000 fine because his team didn’t have a fire extinguisher operator on standby while draining the fuel tank; the team mechanic was also still servicing the CR7 even though FIA rules state one can’t be within three meters of the vehicle during such a process.

Stage winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	226	Mattias Ekström	Ford Racing	3:02:52
Challenger	26	301	Alexandre Pinto	Odyssey Academy by BBR	3:30:02
SSV	25	412	Matthias Walkner	South Racing	3:28:46
Stock	59	502	Rokas Baciuška	Defender Rally	4:04:47
Truck	31	600	Martin Macík Jr.	MM Technology Factory Team	3:35:07

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	1	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	3:14:31
Rally2	6	19	Michael Docherty	Hero MotoSports	3:22:56
Rally3	40	160	Murun Purevdorj	Xraids Experience	4:31:20
Quad	45	180	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	4:41:45

Open

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Auto	1	723	Daniel Schröder	BBR Motorsport	3:38:06
SSV	2	722	Ján Hnidka	JSK Racing	3:47:35

Classic

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Points
H2	1	826	Axel Berrier	Nantes Prestige Autos	39
H3	2	809	Lorenzo Fluxá	LJS Racing	52
H4	11	814	Paolo Fellin	R Team	598

Overall leaders

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	203	Seth Quintero	Toyota Gazoo Racing	13:13:39
Challenger	17	301	Alexandre Pinto	Odyssey Academy by BBR	14:30:06
SSV	22	401	Jeremías González Ferioli	Can-Am Factory Team	15:00;24
Stock	41	500	Stéphane Peterhansel	Defender Rally	17:03:42
Truck	24	603	Mitchel van den Brink	Eurol Rally Sport Team de Rooy	15:04:29

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	1	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	13:45:03
Rally2	5	84	Martim Ventura	Monster Energy Honda HRC	13:58:47
Rally3	36	175	Albert Martín	Triumph Spain	18:29:18
Quad	43	180	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	19:19:21

Open

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Auto	1	701	Christian Lavieille	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	17:36:03
SSV	2	721	Brahim Ettaiek	BE Racing	25:06:27

Classic

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Points
H2	1	832	Ali Oubassidi	Compagnie Saharienne	206
H3	2	802	Josef Unterholzner	R Team	342
H4	10	814	Paolo Fellin	R Team	1,583

Featured image credit: Nantes Prestige Autos