New Generation of Desert Racers Taste Glory at Rallye OLA Energy Du Maroc
A new wave of young racing talent announced itself at this week’s Rallye OLA Energy Du Maroc. 24-year-old Seth Quintero won the Ultimate class and 21-year-old Edgar Canet came out on top in the bike race. As the winds of change blew across the Sahara Desert, the remarkable results at Round 4 of the World Rally-Raid Championship hint at a change of direction for top off-road honours in the years to come.
Seth Quintero has shot to the top of the W2RC’s Ultimate class rankings thanks to a stunning victory in Morocco ahead of the final stop of the season. The American made it back-to-back wins after his maiden Ultimate class triumph was secured in Argentina at the previous round. Despite arriving in North Africa with a 13-point deficit in the W2RC rankings, a faultless drive over the Saharan dunes has now propelled Quintero to the summit of the championship with a 13-point lead of his own.
"The team did such an amazing job so all glory to those guys. It’s been a really intense week and it’s really nice to walk away with the win. It’s incredibly exciting to go into the final round of the championship in the lead.” – Seth Quintero
Although Quintero is decades younger than recent winners of the Dakar, he’s been on a long journey towards his recent success. Both Quintero and his co-driver Andrew Short are previous winners of Rallye du Maroc, but in Challenger and Bike classes respectively.
Quintero’s closest rival in Morocco turned out to be his Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Henk Lategan. The South African fought back from a tricky opening stage to run alongside Quintero all the way to the finish line in Zagora.
“There’s a lot to look back on at this race and a lot to learn from. We definitely put the mechanics through their paces this week because the cars took a massive beating.” – Henk Lategan
Quintero now leads both Sébastien Loeb and Nasser Al-Attiyah in the W2RC Ultimate rankings ahead of next month’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. Both Dacia Sandrider race cars driven by Loeb and Al-Attiyah ran into various issues on the desert dunes, with Loeb having to tow his team-mate over the finish line on Stage 2. While the pair have now slipped behind Quintero on the leaderboard, there’s no way either driver will give up the fight while there’s still championship points on offer.
“Stages 2 and 3 were a disaster, but we accept this is how our sport can be. We tried our best to collect points each day, but it just wasn’t working for us. In Abu Dhabi we’ll try to score maximum points for the championship.” – Nasser Al-Attiyah
The third Dacia driven by Lucas Moraes was in the hunt for the overall win until a crash near the end of Stage 3 derailed his rally. Despite a less than perfect run in Morocco, Moraes is taking the positives away from Round 4.
“I’m really happy with the partnership with my new co-driver Pablo Moreno that we built this week. Thanks to the whole Dacia team for putting this together and we’ll try again in Abu Dhabi.” – Lucas Moraes
The fleet of four Ford Raptor T1+ race cars at Rallye du Maroc all showed great pace over the week. It was Nani Roma in fourth overall who secured the team’s best finish, closely followed home by both Mitch Guthrie Jr. and Carlos Sainz in the general classification. Mattias Ekström collected the team's only stage win of the rally as the squad now prepare for a final tuneup before important races to come.
“We came here with the hope of fighting for the overall win, but we didn’t have the luck on our side. We ended up with one stage win and a lot of good experience. We never lose, we either win or learn.” – Mattias Ekström
There was an impressive first W2RC outing by Cristina Gutiérrez in her Santana 400 T1+. The 2021 Dakar winner in the Challenger category steered her new car to ninth place overall in the Ultimate class. Adjusting to a new car, a new co-driver and new team midway through the season is never easy, but Gutiérrez showed what’s possible when you have plenty of determination and desert racing knowledge.
“It’s difficult to put into words how much this rally has meant to me. Beyond the result itself, I’m incredibly happy to be back doing what I love, competing again and feeling like a racing driver again.” – Cristina Gutiérrez
The premature exits of Kevin Benavides, Laia Sanz, Dania Akeel and Guillaume De Mévius underlined the intense difficulty of this latest edition of Rallye du Maroc. A perilous combination of big dunes and sharp rocks meant that traps were waiting around every corner of the 1,500km race route.
“The pace was good all week and today we were up to 13th overall. Sadly on Stage 5 we had a mechanical failure. A bearing broke on the car and we had to quit the stage before it got worse.” – Dania Akeel
Just as Quintero announced himself as the fresh, new face on top of the W2RC’s Ultimate class rankings, there was also a major shift in the two-wheel contest. 21-year-old Edgar Canet took his first-ever RallyGP class win thanks to a faultless week of riding in the Sahara Desert. In his debut season in the W2RC’s elite bike race the young Catalan has now taken his maiden rally win. The youngest-ever RallyGP winner in the history of the W2RC was overcome with emotion at the finish line in Zagora as he celebrated his family and team-mates. Beating a world class field of Dakar winners has the entire bivouac excited to see just how much the Red Bull KTM Factory Team rider can go on to achieve in rally-raid.
“This win feels so good. It’s been an up and down season and I’ve been fighting a lot to ride at this level. Victory in Morocco feels like taking an important step forward towards other things that I want to achieve in the future.” – Edgar Canet
Behind Canet, the intense World Championship battle between fellow Red Bull KTM Factory Team riders Daniel Sanders and Luciano Benavides ebbed and flowed over the dunes of North Africa. Sanders was disappointed to finish runner-up to Canet, but was able to increase his lead over Benavides in the W2RC rankings to 13 points ahead of the season’s final round in Abu Dhabi.
“I survived the rally, picked up some points and held onto the championship lead. Edgar’s improved a lot and that’s good for the team.” – Daniel Sanders
Also completing Round 4 of the 2026 W2RC on two wheels were Chile’s Benjamin Herrera and India’s Harith Noah. The pair of Rally2 class riders stood up to everything the Sahara threw at them as they covered the 1,500km race route stretching from Agadir to Zagora.
Matthias Walkner wasted no time getting to grips with his Can-Am Maverick in the SSV class. The Austrian won three stages and finished as runner-up on the other two days on his way to a comprehensive victory. The 2018 Dakar bike race winner is making waves during his debut W2RC season on four wheels. Victory in Morocco in the SSV race comes off the back of his Round 3 win in Argentina in the Challenger class.
“This is a really special win for me. We had some great battles, a tough setback on Day 3, but we came back and made a lot progress.” – Matthias Walkner
In the Stock class Stéphane Peterhansel made it three W2RC wins on the spin behind the wheel of his Defender Dakar D7X-R. Peterhansel’s first nine Dakar triumphs were won in Africa and the Frenchman was clearly at home racing in the Sahara Desert this week.
“This year has given us really demanding races, especially Morocco, which was demanding for the car, demanding for the team and the drivers.” – Stéphane Peterhansel
It was a double celebration for Defender at the finish line in Morocco as Rokas Baciuška celebrated the 2026 W2RC title in the Stock class. It’s the 26-year-old’s fourth W2RC title of his fledgling racing career with two SSV wins and another in the Challenger class already on his CV.
“To be the winner, especially in Stock for the first year for Defender, it’s really amazing. Thanks to all the team who support us all season.” – Rokas Baciuška
Next up for the rest of the W2RC convoy is the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, running November 22-27. Dunes will once again be on the menu at the season finale and precious championship points will be fought for across five desert stages. Those 13-point gaps separating the leading contenders in both the Ultimate and RallyGP categories will end up being unlucky for some, but lucky for others!
