2025 Rallye du Maroc: Sanders eyes grand slam at final W2RC round

Round five of the 2025 FIM World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), the Rallye du Maroc this week (October 10–17), sees Red Bull KTM’s Daniel Sanders head to North Africa aiming to complete an historic “grand slam” of race wins.

The newly crowned World Rally-Raid Champion stands on the brink of a perfect season, having won every round to date — including the Dakar Rally and Rally Raid Portugal. Already the 2024 winner in Morocco, the Australian’s goal is clear: finish the season unbeaten.

The 26th edition of the Rallye du Maroc, the race which traditionally acts as the precursor to the Dakar in January and sees strong entry numbers, features a 2299km route between Fez and Erfoud, including 1478km of timed specials — this year under the race directorship of none other than Marc Coma.

Record breaker

Daniel Sanders has already rewritten the record books in 2025. The Australian has won more RallyGP specials in a single season than anyone before — 15 from 31 so far — and holds the all-time record at 23. He’s also the only rider to have taken more than two rallies in one year. Four wins from four, with the “Grand Slam” in sight, the Red Bull KTM rider is in unstoppable form.

Enduro21 caught five minutes for an interiew with Sanders here: Interview: Daniel Sanders “I want to be the guy who changed rally”

All nine RallyGP riders line up in Morocco: KTM’s Sanders and Luciano Benavides; Honda’s Ricky Brabec, Tosha Schareina, Skyler Howes and Adrien Van Beveren; Hero’s Ross Branch and Ignacio Cornejo; and Sherco’s Bradley Cox.

Behind Sanders, a fierce three-way fight for second overall will unfold between Benavides (69 points), Schareina and Brabec (both on 66), separated by just three points. KTM also lead the manufacturers’ standings with 182 points, 30 ahead of Honda, and look set to break Honda’s three-year run of titles.

Canet lad

In Rally2, Edgar Canet (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) leads the charge from 103 competitors, the favourite to take over from 2024 champion Bradley Cox. The Spaniard holds 88 points to Michael Docherty’s (BAS World KTM) 74 and Tobias Ebster’s (Hero MotoSports) 67. BAS World KTM Racing top the Teams classification with 99 points, 40 clear of Xraids Experience. A clean sweep across RallyGP, Manufacturers, Rally2 and Teams titles is within KTM’s grasp.

The Rally3 class includes eight riders, headed by Thomas Zoldos (Aub’Motos), who claimed victory in Portugal on his Beta and leads the championship. The Frenchman is the only FIM bike class leader not on a KTM.