Daniel Sanders held on to win
the Rallye du Maroc.
WIND
IN THE
P60
Sanders Wins Rallye du Maroc,
Branch Takes Title
A
fter more than 890 miles of
racing, the 2024 Rallye du
Maroc has ended. The five-stage
race served as the series finale
of the World Rally Raid Champi-
onship (W2RC) and took place
across the vast terrain of the
Morocco desert. Red Bull KTM's
Daniel Sanders stood atop the
podium as the overall winner, but
Hero's Ross Branch clinched the
2024 W2RC championship.
Sanders battled all week at
the front of the rally. The Austra-
lian, who recently switched from
GasGas to KTM, made his pres-
ence known early in the week
with podiums on the first two
days of racing. He then made up
crucial time with back-to-back
wins on stage three and stage
four. These consistent results,
combined with penalties for
his main rival Tosha Schareina,
gave Sanders a comfortable
lead heading into the final stage
where he finished 13th. His
overall time of 15 hours and 45
minutes earned him the number-
one spot in this year's rally, 11
minutes clear of Schareina.
"I'm so pleased with how
the whole rally has gone, espe
-
cially taking the win, of course,"
Sanders said. "But it's definitely
a massive accomplishment
for myself and the whole team
since Dakar and the last race
in Argentina—it demonstrates
the hard work everyone has put
in over these last few months.
I'm happy to be back on the top
step. It's been a year and a half
since I broke my femur, so I'm
super-pumped to be back on
form and showing some good
speed ahead of Dakar."
Tosha Schareina was arguably
the fastest rider of this year's
rally. The Honda HRC pilot took
the victory on stage two and
put himself in the overall lead. A
13-minute penalty the next day,
followed by a navigation error
on stage four, derailed his race,
as the Spaniard lost valuable
time to Sanders. He bounced
