Oilibya Rallye du Maroc
Tuesday 10 October
Fifth stage: Erfoud-Erfoud
Link section: 43.91 km - Special 1: 163.03 km – Link section: 16.47 km - Special 2: 8.65 km
At the end of the day, this tenth edition of the Oilibya Rallye du Maroc was not a walk in the park. This morning, Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) set out for this last stage of this last round of the FIM Cross Country Rallies World Championship in 3rd position but found himself in 9th position overall, as the Jury’s decision concerning Stage 2 had been overruled.
To be in with a chance of being crowned FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Champion, Kevin Benavides (Honda) had to win the race with Quintanilla finishing lower than 6th place. Unfortunately for him, the young man from Argentina, who set out in second this morning, got lost and the win went to Matthias Walkner, leaving Quintanilla, who finished 6th in the rally, to take the Championship title!
Happy and relieved at the end of a roller coaster of a week, Pablo Quintanilla was greeted by his team with huge congratulations. “Despite all the problems I had during this race”, he said with a smile, “I hung in there and it just goes to show that nothing is won in Cross Country Rallies until the chequered flag has gone down. I tried to stay focused and not think about the penalties. I just focused on my goal that we had been working for all year: the FIM Cross Country Rallies World Championship title! Today, I emerged stronger from all these ordeals and I would like to thank my team for all their efforts and their support.”
But while the laurels remain on the head of Quintanilla, the Oilibya Rallye du Madoc was won by Matthias Walkner (KTM). “It was a hard race to navigate”, explains the young man from Austria. “Since the Atacama and the Ruta 40, I wasn’t feeling very comfortable on the bike. With the arrival of the new KTM, that was quickly forgotten and I started to feel great.”
Ricky Brabec (Honda) made it on to the podium for the first time in Cross-Country Rallies, in third place. “It was good training for me”, said the man from California, “especially when I had to open the trail. It’s very hard for me just to read the road book, so imagine opening the trail…”
Antoine Meo (KTM) finished fourth in the rally but still has an injury to his left hand. He came in ahead of Joan Pedrero (Sherco TVS), Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) and Joachim Rodrigues (Hero), while Laia Sanz came in eighth and winner of the FIM Women’s Cup. The young Pole, Maciej Giemza (KTM Orlen), who finished in 16th overall, won the FIM Junior World Cup.
There was also a shake-up in quads, as Sébastien Souday made some navigation errors and lost the race lead. In so doing, he left the race win, the Rally win and the title of FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Champion in quads to Kees Koolen (Barren). The man from the Netherlands had a few problems and electric outages throughout the two Specials of the day. He therefore had to ride more gently and was therefore able to avoid getting lost like his rivals. So he ended up the winner ahead of Bruno Da Costa (Yamaha) and Rafal Sonik (Yamaha).
Full results on npolive.com
Provisional standings of the fifth stage, Motorcycles
1.Matthias Walkner (KTM) in 1h51’25
2.Ricky Brabec (Honda) at 1’20
3.Antoine Meo (KTM) at 2’57
4.Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) at 3’47
5.Joan Pedrero (Sherco TVS) at 5’05
6.Kevin Benavides (Honda) at 6’33
7.Alessandro Botturi at 9’50
8.Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) at 12’56
9.Santolino Sanchez (Sherco TVS) at 14’55
10.Andrew Short (Husqvarna) at 16’06
Provisional overall standings, Motorcycles
1.Matthias Walkner (KTM) at 6’49
2.Kevin Benavides (Honda) at 13’58
3.Ricky Brabec (Honda) at 20’27
4.Antoine Meo (KTM) at 22’19
5.Joan Pedrero (Sherco TVS) at 24’12
6.Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) at
7.Joachim Rodrigues (Hero) at 33’17
8.Laia Sanz (KTM) at 35’25
9.Santolino Sanchez (Sherco TVS) at 14’55
10.Adrien Metge (Sherco TVS) at 37’12
Provisional standings of fifth Special, Quads
1.Kees Koolen (Barren) in 2h16’14
2.Bruno Da Costa (Yamaha) in 2h17’10
3.Rafal Sonik (Yamaha) in 2h22’31
4.Alexander Maksimov in 2h22’57
5.Dmitryi Shilov in 2h41’27
Provisional overall standings, Quads
1.Kees Koolen (Barren) in 12h30’42
2.Bruno Da Costa (Yamaha) in 12h34’28
3.Rafal Sonik (Yamaha) in 12h34’28
4.Sébastien Souday in 12h57’51
5.Alexis Hernandez (Yamaha) in 13h49’27
Judith Tomaselli