A new RallyGP winner, a dominant Rally2 victory and a motorcycle champion celebrating in an SSV: the 2026 Rallye du Maroc delivered far more than a dress rehearsal for the Dakar. After the finale in Zagora on 3 October, Edgar Canet, Martim Ventura and Matthias Walkner are at the centre of attention. But the smaller classes, the ZXMOTO debut and the stories of the privateers also deserve their place.
Editorial status: 4 October 2026. Times follow the published results lists after Stage 5, some of which are still described there as provisional. Class positions and cross-class results are shown separately.
RallyGP: Canet prevails, Sanders remains championship leader
At 21, Edgar Canet celebrates his first RallyGP victory. The KTM rider finished in the top four on each of the five stages and won by 1:02 minutes from Daniel Sanders. Ricky Brabec took the final stage win for Honda and third place, and Luciano Benavides was fourth. Canet’s success is also proof of how much consistency counts in a rally full of navigation tasks.
| Position | Rider | Make | Time / gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edgar Canet | KTM | 15:41:55 |
| 2 | Daniel Sanders | KTM | +1:02 |
| 3 | Ricky Brabec | Honda | +3:32 |
| 4 | Luciano Benavides | KTM | +7:52 |
| 5 | Adrien Van Beveren | Honda | +23:08 |
Sanders nevertheless leaves as championship leader: he has 87 points, with Benavides and Tosha Schareina following on 74 each. Brabec has 70, Canet 58 points. KTM has therefore won every 2026 championship round so far, with three different riders. Source: KTM final report.
Rally2: Ventura wins clearly – Campbell and Crivilin impress
Martim Ventura won with four stage victories and left Michael Docherty 30:45 minutes behind. Preston Campbell completed the podium; Neels Theric was fourth, Toni Mulec fifth. Ventura extended his lead in the Rally2 World Cup standings to 18 points.
| Position | Rider | Time / gap |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martim Ventura | 15:57:04 |
| 2 | Michael Docherty | +30:45 |
| 3 | Preston Campbell | +38:39 |
Particularly noteworthy is Bruno Crivilin’s sixth place in the class: the Brazilian won the Rally2 prologue and finished his first Rallye du Maroc, and only his second rally ever. Behind the result lies an intensive week of learning, with heat, dunes and demanding navigation. Source: Honda HRC.
Rally3 and Quads: rally victory, title premiere and a perfect week
In Rally3, Albert Martín won for Triumph Spain. The bigger historic moment belonged to Murun Purevdorj: the Xraids Experience rider secured the championship title and is thus the first Mongolian to win a title in the W2RC. The rally winner and the title winner are therefore two different riders here.
In the Quads, Antanas Kanopkinas of CFMoto Thunder Racing triumphed, winning the prologue and every stage. Source: official W2RC final report.
ZXMOTO: Howes reaches the finish, Ebster retires late
The new ZXMOTO Joyride Factory Rally Team made its debut in Morocco. Before the start, the brand had stressed that the 450 Rally is still a development project. Alongside speed, reliability, range and rider feedback were to be tested. Source: W2RC team presentation.
- Skyler Howes: 9th in RallyGP, 2:05:34 hours behind Canet; 22nd in the cross-class motorcycle classification.
- Tobias Ebster: The Rally2 rider retired on the final stage at kilometre 149 with a technical problem that could not be fixed on site. No regular finisher result can be given as a consequence.
Howes’s position is documented by Honda’s RallyGP results list; the overall position and Ebster’s retirement are given by RallyTracks.
Even the first stage produced a story away from the standings: according to 131 Off-Road, Howes ran out of fuel shortly before the finish after a misunderstanding over refuelling. Ebster helped with petrol, and Mathieu Dovèze assisted with towing him to the petrol station. It shows how much organisation and mutual help matter alongside pure speed. Source: 131 Off-Road.
SSV: Walkner and Mena win despite heat stress
Matthias Walkner and Oriol Mena won the SSV class for South Racing in a Can-Am. Behind them, Jeremías González Ferioli and Gonzalo Rinaldi finished the rally in second. For Walkner, this success links his motorcycle past with his new chapter on four wheels.
The last day was by no means a relaxed run to the finish. While their Argentine rivals suffered technical problems, Walkner and Mena had to stop because of an overheating buggy. Dust behind slower cars had made the situation worse. They still brought the vehicle home and also won the final stage. Source: Salzburg24 with Walkner’s account; Class result: W2RC.
Ultimate, Challenger, Stock and Trucks
- Ultimate: Seth Quintero led a Toyota one-two-three ahead of João Ferreira (+4:23 minutes) and Henk Lategan (+4:42) and took the championship lead.
- Challenger: Alexandre Pinto won for Old Friends Rally and moved to the top of the championship after Puck Klaassen’s retirement.
- Stock: Stéphane Peterhansel won in the Defender. Yasir Seaidan took Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body onto a Stock podium for the first time; Rokas Baciuška remained championship leader.
- Trucks: Mitchel van den Brink won with Bart van Heun and Jarno van de Pol for Team de Rooy, ahead of Martin Macík.
Sources: W2RC and RallyTracks. In the additional Masters classification, Marek Goczał was confirmed as the first W2RC title winner.
What lingers beyond the podium places
Malle Moto: Javi Vega won the class for riders without assistance, held for the first time, on a Kove. He was the best of this group on every race day. These riders in particular combine navigation and racing pace with their own work on the motorcycle.
Help in the finale: Sébastien Loeb stopped about 700 metres before the finish with a technical problem. Martin Macík’s truck towed him to the finish, a telling picture of mutual help in rally raid. Source for both stories: RallyTracks.
A personal stage for Noa Sainct: The Rally2 rider competed on the first long race day on the 22nd anniversary of the death of his father Richard, the three-time Dakar winner. For Noa, Morocco was part of his preparation for his planned Dakar debut in 2027. Source: 131 Off-Road.
Safety on Stage 3: The balance sheet also includes the neutralisation after several incidents. 131 Off-Road reports heavily stretched rescue crews and the cancellation of further timing at the next checkpoint in each case. An official, complete assignment of individual air rescue operations to specific riders is therefore not documented. In particular, this report does not allow the conclusion that every accident mentioned triggered a helicopter operation. Source: 131 Off-Road, Stage 3.
Classic and Open: new stories, final standings still open
With the Rallye du Maroc Classic, a new regularity event was added in 2026; there were also Open classifications. A noteworthy switch: after his earlier Open SSV successes, Ali Oubassidi competed in Classic in a Toyota Land Cruiser and won the second stage there. Source for the Classic premiere: organiser; Source for Oubassidi: 131 Off-Road.
Status of results: For Classic, including its sub-groups, as well as Open Car and Open SSV, no reliably confirmed complete final classification could be evaluated by the editorial deadline. For that reason, no interim leaders are named here as overall winners.
After Morocco, the season remains open
The next and final W2RC round is the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge from 22 to 27 November. Source: W2RC. Morocco leaves different starting positions for it: Canet departs with his breakthrough, Ventura with a clear class win, ZXMOTO with development work. The rally has also shown that a result without a look at navigation, technology and mutual help tells only part of the story.
Photo credits
- Canet and KTM team: © Matteo Gebbia / Edophoto. KTM press report, 3 October 2026.
- Ventura, Stage 5: press picture from the Honda Racing Corporation gallery, 3 October 2026. Offered there for editorial use; photographer not named.
- Howes with ZXMOTO: © rocketsvisuals_. W2RC team presentation, 21 September 2026.
- Walkner and Mena: © Kin Marcin / Red Bull Content Pool. Image source: Salzburg24, 3 October 2026.
The four article photos are unaltered original images and are embedded via external image URLs. The separately provided banners are AI-designed editorial collages based on the Canet and Walkner/Mena photos; they are not additional documentary race images. Image bases as above, logos: Rallye du Maroc and W2RC.