The forthcoming six-day Ola Energy Rally of Morocco (September 28th-October 3rd) has attracted a massive field of 104 FIA cars, in addition to eight trucks, with many teams potentially taking part in the 2027 Dakar Rally also using the event as a test and shakedown opportunity.
The 2026 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) has already visited Saudi Arabia, Portugal and Argentina this season and the popular round in North Africa precedes the year’s finale at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in late November.
Frenchman Sébastien Loeb and his navigator Edouard Boulanger head into the penultimate round attempting to defend a slender three-point cushion over their team-mates Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin in the W2RC Drivers’ and Navigators’ Championships.
Al-Attiyah triumphed at the Dakar Rally and Loeb picked up maximum points in Portugal. Their individual successes mean that the Dacia Sandriders team heads to North Africa with a 65-point lead over the Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC operation with Ford Racing a further 80 points adrift in third.
Toyota’s Seth Quintero and Andrew Short won round three in Argentina and are their closest challengers. They trail Loeb by just 13 points heading to the start of the Moroccan desert event in Agadir.
Spaniard Joan ‘Nani’ Roma and navigator Alex Haro missed the second round in Portugal but lead the way for Ford Racing in fourth in the rankings, just two points clear of Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz in the third of the Dacias.
Competition will be fierce in the Ultimate category with 32 of the 56 entrants registered for the W2RC. A dozen Ford Raptors are chasing W2RC points. Veteran Spaniard Carlos Sainz and Dani Oliveras line up alongside Roma in a Ford Racing entry along with the Swedish duo of Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist.
There are also Raptors for Frenchman Romain Dumas, Czech Martin Prokop, the Polish father and son Energylandia Rally Team duo of Marek and Eryk Goczal, American Mitch Guthrie and additional privateer entries for Denis Krotov, Kees Koolen, Jourdan Serderidis and Mark Mustermann.
Quintero’s Toyota challenge will be ably supported by the South African pairing of Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings in a TGR Hilux GR and Yazeed Al-Rajhi and a returning Timo Gottschalk in their Yazeed Racing entry run by Overdrive Racing. They are nominated to score Manufacturers’ points for Toyota.
Overdrive Racing is also running registered Toyota Hilux GRs for Japan’s Akira Miura, Chilean privateer Hernán Garcés and Saudi Arabia’s Dania Akeel. Toyota’s challenge is further boosted with Toyota Gazoo Racing SA and SVR entries for Guy Botterill, Saood Variawa, Marcos Baumgart, Lucio Alvarez and the in-form João Ferreira. All are chasing both overall and Ultimate category points.
Guillaume de Mévius and Mathieu Baumel crew the sole registered petrol-engined X-Raid Mini JCW. There are also a pair of Century Racing CR7s for Lionel Baud and Mathieu Serradori, an Optimus MD Rallye in the hands of Jean-Luc Ceccaldi and Laia Sanz at the wheel of an Audax Motorsport Ebro S800 XRR.
The large number of non-registered Ultimate drivers include former two-time Dakar motorcycle winner Kevin Benavides (2021 and 2023) in an Overdrive Toyota, recent Dacia factory driver Cristina Gutiérrez in her new Santana and Argentina’s Sebastian Halpern in an X-Raid Mini.
Puck Klaassen and Augusto Sanz look to defend slender Challenger leads
Only six of the 26 crews entered in the Challenger category are chasing W2RC points in Morocco. Puck Klaassen and Augusto Sanz currently lead the standings by just nine points in their KTM X-Bow Lab Team G Rally Team G-ECKO. The Dutch girl, who resides in South Africa, has picked up consistent points from all three events so far.
Her closest rivals are the Portuguese duo of Alexandre Pinto and Bernardo Oliveira in an Odyssey Academy by BBR Taurus T3 Max. They picked up maximum points from the last two rounds in Portugal and Argentina.
Neither Pau Navarro nor Yasir Seaidan are competing in the Challenger class in Morocco and defending champion Nicolas Cavigliasso has switched to the Ultimate category for the first time with an SVR Toyota, although he is not registered for the W2RC on this occasion.
This means Paul Spierings has a golden opportunity to move up the leaderboard in his Taurus. The Dutchman currently holds sixth in the rankings.
Other registered Challenger drivers in Morocco are Portugal’s Rui Carneiro (Taurus), Qatar’s Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (QMMF Can-Am) and Germany’s Daniel Schröder (BBR Odyssey).
Can-Am’s Ferioli and Rinaldi lead the registered SSVs
Can-Am Maverick Rs dominate the registered machines in the SSV section, although only six of the 18 entries in SSV are chasing W2RC points.
The series-leading Portuguese crew of João Monteiro and Nuno Morais are conspicuous by their absence. That has opened the door for the Can-Am Factory Team’s Argentinian duo of Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli and Gonzalo Rinaldi to seize the momentum. They only trail the absent Portuguese by 11 points.
Kyle Chaney is also missing in Morocco and that should enable Lithuania’s Mindaugas Sidabras and Ernestas Česokas and the Spanish duo of Juan Piferrer and Xavier Blanco to take full advantage. They are currently third and fifth in the points’ standings with Chaney sandwiched between them in fourth.
The South Racing Can-Am Team is also running registered Maverick Rs for Saudi Arabia’s Hassan Jameel and Italy’s Eugenio Amos. Former Dakar-winning motorcycle rider Matthias Walkner is also chasing SSV points in a third South Racing Can-Am.
Competition for the Defender Rally Team from Toyota
The Defender Rally Team has dominated proceedings in the Stock category this season with Defender Dakar D7x-Rs in the hands of Lithuania’s Rokas Baciuška, multiple Dakar champion Stéphane Peterhansel and American Sara Price holding the top three places in the rankings with their respective navigators, Oriol Vidal, Michael Metge and Sean Berriman. Baciuška leads the Drivers’ Championship by 29 points.
But Toyota has entered the event in Morocco and regular Challenger competitor Yasir Seaidan has made the switch to drive a Toyota Land Cruiser GR Sport entered by Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body with French navigator Jean-Michel Polato.
This year’s Moroccan event starts in Agadir and finishes in Zagora. It will be fought out over five desert selective sections of approximately 1,575km (subject to final route checks) in a route of 2,524km.
The opening leg takes teams from Agadir to Zagora. The event will then be based at a centralised bivouac in the desert with four further selective sections looping through the dunes and sandy and rocky desert trails around Zagora.
