World Rally-Raid Championship: Rallye du Maroc stage two results and video highlights

Video highlights and results from the bike category at the 2022 Rallye du Maroc, World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) where Adrien Van Beveren took his first day win onboard the Monster Energy Honda – Skyler Howes takes over the rally lead.

Up until the refuelling the motorcycle race was going pretty much as per usual but some tricky navigation and some very soft sand tripped up many of the lead riders. That allowed Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda) to take his first special win for HRC on only his second ever stage with his new team.

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It could have been much more costly for the likes of Skyler Howes and Husqvarna Factory Racing teammate Luciano Benavides, who were leading for much of the stage, but in the end they came up trumps with Skyler taking the overall lead ahead of the Red Bull KTM's Luciano Benavides and Ricky Brabec.

After topping the time sheets on day one, piste opener Ross Branch (Hero Motosports) lost 16 places on the stage but not as much in time as expected and stands sixth overall, 4’33 behind the leader.

Good start positions for the predicted tough day three could help the Botswanan rider among others who can use Van Beveren's tracks in the sand to help navigation.

Dumontier claims day win in Rally2

Another rider who didn’t have a good day on the run down to Laayoune was Mason Klein. The Rally2 rider was even leading scratch but lost time bending his chain guard straight.

That allowed Romain Dumontier to win the day ahead of Mathieu Doveze, but Klein remains head-and-shoulders the best in class and is still a staggering 21’15 in the lead of Rally2 overall.

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Rally3 was once again won by the Moroccan Amine Echiguer who now leads the class by 26’50. In the quads yesterday’s leader Axel Giroud drops out of contention after breaking his engine.

Stage 3: Laâyoune – Laâyoune

Liaison: 23 km / SS : 299 km (93%) / total : 322 km

The most difficult special of the rally says race director, David Castera: “The third stage will be the most difficult, with a lot of dunes at the beginning. We had to give up crossing them in the planned direction because it was not possible to get over so many of them.

“So, we will take them with the break in the direction of the descent. Then it will be a mix of visible and less visible tracks on plateaus similar to those you find in Saudi Arabia, to finish on more technical tracks. There is everything in this special stage, which will take place in three ‘acts’. It will bring together the three ingredients that make this edition so special. It is the one that will require the pilots and navigators to be the most complete.”