Pablo Quintanilla wins the Morocco Rally 2021

I'm happy to finish another rally, it's been good training for the Dakar. I'm also very excited for the Honda team to be on top of the podium. Unfortunately, we couldn't have two Honda riders on the final podium. It takes a lot of guts to win a stage and it takes a lot of courage to open a stage: only three riders have opened this rally, and I think we opened the most difficult stages. I'm really looking forward to the Dakar and this was just training. I made a couple of mistakes and missed out on the podium on the last day, but at least we'll get home safe and sound and get back to training to be ready for the Dakar.

I'm happy to finish another Rally du Maroc, which is always very hard and demanding. The overall result is not what I would have liked, but we are happy because we kept a good pace and the bike was fantastic. The whole team is working very committed to this project and you can see a very important solidity in the team. It's positive as training for the Dakar. Today I was able to go faster than yesterday and that's good to reach the usual race pace.

I am very happy with the victory. It was a very difficult week and I want to thank the whole team for the great job they did. It was fantastic for us. Personally, I felt very comfortable, I was riding with great pace, with good navigation and that's very good for my confidence. I am also very motivated for the next objective, which is the Dakar. We are going to take a short break, rest, recharge our batteries and then we will concentrate on the Dakar.

I'm happy with the pace we've shown all week here in Morocco. The truth is that the times have been very tight. It's also true that in the end it's a race that is decided on small details. But let's keep the positives: the pace, getting back to the desert, being able to cover a lot of kilometres... to be able to get to the Dakar, which is our goal.

The Rally du Maroc ended with a very easy final stage. When we started this rally we knew it would be very tough. We were counting on this last stage to be decisive, but everything changed with the shortened route: no dunes and a lot of dust on the track. Whoever started behind had no chance. Pablo had it in his head that he had to attack to win the race. In the end, it went as planned and he finished first in the final standings. We wanted Ricky on the podium, but with the change of the stage we saw that it was impossible and in the end he finished fourth. Nacho Cornejo crashed yesterday and ended up finishing tenth. It doesn't describe the good race he had ridden until yesterday, but he managed to finish the rally, which was the main objective. Joan had a good rally, I think he was the strongest rider in the rally, but he made a navigation error in the third stage and, with the penalty, he paid dearly, finishing eleventh. To wrap up, I would just like to emphasise that this was a race that we didn't have to win, but it was a way of bringing everyone together: riders, bikes and team. We wanted to finish the rally with all the riders, we didn't want any crashes, we just wanted to work on the navigation. That's why we leave here very happy, with the team and with the bike. Now we are going to focus on working, working and getting to the Dakar and trying to win it for the third year in a row.