The Monster Energy Honda Team rider Toscha Schareina was the fastest rider across the 272 kilometres of the second stage of the Rallye Du Maroc today as he sped to victory which elevated him into the lead of the rally.
The stage route today was changed slightly due to the huge amount of rain that fell upon the area recently necessitating some kilometres swapped out for rocky tracks in order for the rally to continue. Tracks were hard to pick out for the riders heading the charge from dawn this morning with more waypoints than normal added in but for the Honda riders in the searingly hot conditions, all went well with them and their Honda CRF450 RALLY bikes.
A third of the way into the stage competitors would also have to tackle the Erg Chigaga, one of the most spectacular collection of dunes in the eastern region of Morocco with peaks of over 150 metres that cover an area nearly 30 kms long.
Ready to tackle these and setting off the line in third today, Tosha Schareina was looking to add to his prologue victory from two days ago and didn’t wait more than 43kms into the stage before he had got himself into the lead. After losing a little time mid-stage he got back to the top of the leaderboard at the 214km mark to hold that hard fought advantage to the finish line for the stage victory and a return to the top of the overall standings by 42 seconds after six hours of hard rallying.
With the title fight now between Adrien Van Beveren and the lead out rider Ross Branch, today’s stage was a chance for the Frenchman to capitalise on the speed he has to push hard and grab back some of the time that slipped away yesterday. Stopping to assist Sebastian Bühler who crashed out 142km into the special, Van Beveren (who was credited back the stationary time taken to assist an injured competitor) got going again to finish in an impressive second place and jump ahead of his championship rival in the overall standings.
2021 Rallye Du Maroc winner Pablo Quintanilla really gelled with his Honda CRF450 RALLY today, keeping the pressure on throughout the day to swap the lead of the stage at the halfway point with Schareina. On the run in to the finish line he kept the high pace and clocked fourth on the stage today just 2’22’’ behind his team mate.
Tomorrow’s stage sees the riders head out of Zagora on a north easterly route to the final bivouac at Mengoub Bouârfa, situated in the Figuig Province. With a mammoth 676km distance to be covered on the bikes tomorrow, the riders will rest up early tonight as the longest day of this year’s rally looms.
Ruben Faria
We got to the end of stage two but it was another difficult day with broken pistes, it was very stony and conditions were similar to yesterday but with around 100km more of riding. Today was better in terms of results as finally we had a normal stage. Tosha did a really good job, he had good pace and although he made a couple of mistakes he recovered well from them. Adrien had to stop to help a rider and was there for around 30 minutes, after getting the time back he finished second overall and also Pablo did a good job, he lost a little bit of time at the end but he finished fourth.
In my opinion tomorrow will be difficult for Tosha and Adrien as they will open the day on a long stage from Zagora. Riding the Erfoud and Merzouga dunes will be tough but we believe that we can do a really good stage and making sure Daniel Sanders doesn’t catch Adrien and Tosha will be our goal. Tomorrow is the middle of the race and we are in a really good position, we’re taking it day by day, the bikes are working well which is really important.
Pablo Quintanilla 7
STAGE: 4TH OVERALL: 4TH
Today was a good day although the terrain is super broken so it’s not easy to ride. From the start I had a good pace, wasn’t too aggressive, but rode smoothly as I didn’t want to take any big risks.
The terrain was really mixed between some dunes with rock sections and broken off pistes, but in the end it was a good day. Yesterday I did a small change in the set up of the bike and made it much better to ride, so I’m happy.
Adrien Van Beveren 42
STAGE: 2ND OVERALL: 5TH
I started the stage in eighth position and I could see I was catching the guys in front of me, but unfortunately at about the 140km mark, I arrived and saw the bike of Sebastian Bühler on the ground, he’d had a really big crash in a bad stony section. For sure I stopped, but it was a really difficult moment to know what to do. When I got going again I tried to regroup and refocus because I knew that if I didn’t it would be easy to have that sort of accident too as the terrain was rough with a lot of difficult sections. I rode well to the end and am happy with the result today.
Tosha Schareina 68
STAGE: 1ST OVERALL: 1ST
It was a good stage for me, the first 30km I tried to push but after that I made two big mistakes and I think I lost about a minute each time. After that I tried to push again, I caught Ross in the dunes and then before the refuelling I caught Daniel. It was so difficult with the dust, so I continued to ride smoothly, so as not to crash and be safe for stage three, which I will open tomorrow.
Rally GP Results – Stage 2
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1 SCHAREINA Tosha 68 SPA Monster Energy Honda Team 03:23:44
2 VAN BEVEREN Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda Team + 01:19
3 SANDERS Daniel AUS KTM Factory Racing Team + 01:24
4 QUINTANILLA Pablo 7 CHI Monster Energy Honda Team + 02:22
5 BENAVIDES Luciano 1 ARG KTM Factory Racing Team + 02:38
6 SANTOLINO Lorenzo 15 SPA Sherco TVS Rally Factory + 07:40
7 CORNEJO FLORIMO José Ignacio 11 CHI Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 08:51
8 EVAN BRANCH Ross 16 BWA Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 13:21
9 GONÇALVES Rui 19 POR Sherco TVS Rally Factory + 14:26
10 MAIO Antonio 30 POR Franco Sport Yamaha Racing Team + 37:06
Rally GP Provisional Standings after Stage 2
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1 SCHAREINA Tosha 68 SPA Monster Energy Honda Team 05:59:23
2 SANDERS Daniel AUS KTM Factory Racing Team + 00:42
3 BENAVIDES Luciano 1 ARG KTM Factory Racing Team + 07:53
4 QUINTANILLA Pablo 7 CHI Monster Energy Honda Team + 08:23
5 VAN BEVEREN Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda Team + 10:42
6 EVAN BRANCH Ross 16 BWA Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 11:51
7 CORNEJO FLORIMO José Ignacio 11 CHI Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 23:16
8 SANTOLINO Lorenzo 15 SPA Sherco TVS Rally Factory + 26:21
9 GONÇALVES Rui 19 POR Sherco TVS Rally Factory + 32:02
10 MAIO Antonio 30 POR Franco Sport Yamaha Racing Team + 01:02:30
