The fifth leg of the 2024 Rallye du Maroc was the final shot for those contending for World Rally-Raid Championships. For some who trailed entering Friday like Yazeed Al-Rajhi, it was too little, too late. For others like Yasir Seaidan, it was enough to leave Morocco with as champion.
Al-Rajhi entered the final stage with perhaps an impossibly tall order as he needed to make up 21:21 on Nasser Al-Attiyah. Although Al-Attiyah had his worst outing of the rally in eighth, so did Al-Rajhi as he finished fifteenth.
Romain Dumontier‘s Rally2 title defence also came up short. After entering Morocco as the points leader, he had little answer for Bradley Cox and a disastrous Stage #4 doomed his chances. Even beating Cox for third on Friday and the class stage win among points-eligible riders was not enough to make up the gap.
In contrast, Seaidan stepped up his game to officially leapfrog Sebastián Guayasamín for the SSV title. As Fidel Castillo Ruiz won the stage in his return to racing after his broken collarbone in August, Seaidan trailed by thirty-eight seconds to top the W2RC drivers. Guayasamín was seventh outright (second for points drivers) and eleven minutes back of Seaidan.
Rokas Baciuška “celebrated” his Challenger championship, which he clinched after Stage #3, by having a mechanical failure just fifty-three kilometres into the stage. In the meantime, Tauruses concluded a dominant rally with their second 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8 finish led by Michał and Eryk Goczał. Baciuška’s retirement meant no Can-Am Mavericks finished in the top ten on the last day as João Dias and Lionel Baud rounded out the order in their G Rally OT3s.