The first leg of the Morocco Rally marathon stage brought mixed feelings for the Monster Energy Honda Team. On one hand, it was a great success for Ricky Brabec, scooping his first stage victory in a world championship event, while Paulo Gonçalves fought a losing battle against an unbearable pain, following yesterday’s right hand injury.

American Ricky Brabec proved to be the fastest as the Morocco Rally arrived at its third stage – the first leg of the two-day marathon stage – which took place from Erfoud and the Lihoudi Erg region. Brabec was looking particularly comfortable astride the Honda CRF450 RALLY, hurtling through the special stage at a cracking pace. The timed section had been reduced to 142.79 kilometres due to the high level of water in the rivers. This marks Brabec’s first triumph in the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, adding to the seventh stage victory in the most recent Dakar Rally.

Paulo Gonçalves’ fortunes were the opposite. The Portuguese rider fell heavily yesterday damaging his right hand. After battling his way through today’s stage with considerable pain, both the rider himself and the team have deemed it appropriate to retire the rider from the event. In doing so, Paulo will be able to fully recover the hand before the season’s main objective: the Dakar Rally.

Meanwhile, Argentinean rider Kevin Benavides finished the stage in fifth position, a mere three minutes adrift of Monster Energy Honda Team buddy Ricky Brabec. Benavides lies in second overall position in the general rankings, less than ten minutes behind the leader. Brabec is third.

The penultimate stage of the rally takes place tomorrow, Monday, with the second leg of the marathon stage, which will take the riders back to Erfoud. The stage will feature a total of 170.86 kilometres of special, as the scheduled second part has been cancelled.

Paulo Goncalves

STAGE: 27th OVERALL: 10th

It was very hard for me at the beginning of the special; there were many bumps and I had a lot of difficulty getting the bike to do the things I wanted to. I had to change the way of riding to try not to hurt my hand, going much slower and consequently I lost a lot of time. It was very hard and I think that starting tomorrow could be much worse. I've tried, but I think the smartest thing to do, even though I’ll lose all chances of winning the world championship, is to take care of this hand, to be able to make it to the Dakar in good condition.

Kevin Benavides

STAGE: 5th OVERALL: 2nd

Today was a very fast stage and with a lot of stones in the first part and I wanted to take it easy in that section. Then, with about 30 kilometres of dunes I think I did a good job. I am happy with the starting position for the second part of the marathon. Today we had to take care of the bikes, which have been going very well and haven’t given us any problems.

Ricky Brabec

STAGE: 1st OVERALL: 3rd

I had a tough time over the previous days with a bad cold that meant that I didn’t feel at all comfortable over the first day, but I think that the heat has done me some good. I’m really happy to have won this first stage in the world championship and for the two final stages we will see if we can help the team get a result. The navigation today was pretty difficult in some spots. It was a really fast track today so it was fairly easy to look down and take your time. Some parts were really confusing with all the tracks going in every direction, which was tough. The bike feels good. The rougher terrain for me is better. I was raised in California and our deserts are pretty rough so I’m used to that and it’s one of my strong points. We’ll see what tomorrow has to bring. I can open the track well and get a top five in the stage. The speed is there for us; it just comes down to navigation at that speed, which is tough. We’ll get there eventually. I’m still learning how to go fast and read the roadbook at the same time. We’re working on it.

2017 Cross-Country Rallies
Stage Round FIM-5 , 3   Morocco

Stage 3 results

Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Brabec Ricky USA Monster Energy Honda Team Honda 1:30'15
2 Walkner Matthias AUT KTM Factory Racing Team KTM +0'10
3 Quintanilla Pablo CHI Husqvarna Factory Rally Team Husqvarna +0'42
4 Van Beveren Adrien FRA Yamaha Motor Europe Yamaha +2'40
5 Benavides Kevin ARG Monster Energy Honda Team Honda +2'57
6 Pedrero Joan 17 SPA Rieju - FN Speed Team Rieju +4'00
7 Meo Antoine FRA KTM Factory Racing Team KTM +6'24
8 Sanz Laia SPA KTM Factory Racing Team KTM +7'38
9 Rodrigues Joaquim POR Hero Motorsports Team Rally Hero +7'54
10 Botturi Alessandro ITA Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team Yamaha +9'17
11 Metge Adrien 11 FRA Sherco TVS Rally Factory Sherco +10'14
12 Benavides Luciano ARG KTM Factory Racing Team KTM +10'55
13 Patrao Mario POR KTM Portugal KTM +11'52
15 Chunchungguppe Santosh IND Hero Motorsports Team Rally Hero +14'34
26 Goncalves Paulo POR Monster Energy Honda Team Honda +25'38
2017 Cross-Country Rallies
Stage Round FIM-5 , 3   Morocco

Provisional Standings after Stage 3

Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Walkner Matthias AUT KTM Factory Racing Team KTM 6:12'21
2 Benavides Kevin ARG Monster Energy Honda Team Honda +9'44
3 Brabec Ricky USA Monster Energy Honda Team Honda +10'57
4 Pedrero Joan 17 SPA Rieju - FN Speed Team Rieju +15'17
5 Meo Antoine FRA KTM Factory Racing Team KTM +16'58
6 Rodrigues Joaquim POR Hero Motorsports Team Rally Hero +26'45
7 Sanz Laia SPA KTM Factory Racing Team KTM +28'05
8 Metge Adrien 11 FRA Sherco TVS Rally Factory Sherco +30'48
9 Patrao Mario POR KTM Portugal KTM +31'01
10 Goncalves Paulo POR Monster Energy Honda Team Honda +32'14
Location Information

Morocco has always been a land of rally raid. The story began in 1982 with the arrival of Paris-Agadir, the first rally raid to run in Morocco. The following year, the rally took the name of ‘Atlas Rally’ and became the flagship rally to the Rally Raids calendar. The Atlas… read more.

Winner 2022 Skyler Howes (Husqvarna)
Winner 2021 Pablo Quintanilla (Honda)
Winner 2020 Cancelled due the COVID-19 Pandemic
Winner 2019 Toby Price (KTM)
Winner 2018 Toby Price (KTM)
Winner 2017 Matthias Walkner (KTM)
Winner 2016 Toby Price (KTM)
Winner 2015 Sam Sunderland (KTM)
Winner 2014 Marc Coma (KTM)
Winner 2013 Paulo Gonçalves (Honda)
Winner 2012 Cyril Despres (KTM)

Agadir, Morocco - View in Google Maps