Edgar Canet snatches Rallye du Maroc victory from Daniel Sanders

21-year-old Edgar Canet makes RallyGP history in Morocco

The 2026 Rallye du Maroc refused to settle until the final kilometres, with the lead repeatedly changing hands between KTM and Honda before 21-year-old Edgar Canet produced the biggest result of his young career.

Daniel Sanders won the Prologue, Ricky Brabec struck on Stage One, Sanders hit back on Stage Two, Luciano Benavides turned the order upside down on Stage Three, and Sanders appeared to have wrestled control back with a commanding victory on the penultimate day.

Yet it was Canet, who did not win a single full stage all week, who ultimately held the pieces together best.

The Spaniard started the final day needing to recover around a minute and a half from his Australian team-mate. With Sanders opening the road, Canet eventually caught him on course and turned the deficit into a 1m02s victory.

Brabec bookended the rally with stage victories and claimed third overall for Monster Energy Honda HRC, while Benavides completed a strong week for KTM in fourth.

There was also plenty of interest further down the RallyGP order. Skyler Howes brought ZXMOTO’s new 450 Rally to the finish of its first world-level rally, taking ninth overall after showing considerably more pace than the final two-hour deficit might initially suggest.

Sanders fires the first shot

The Rallye du Maroc opened with a short but intense 16.7-kilometre Prologue near Agadir.

Sanders immediately laid down the marker on the Red Bull KTM 450 Rally, setting a 10m58.4s benchmark. Canet was only 12 seconds slower, while Brabec was another second back in third.

Luciano Benavides made it three KTMs inside the top four, ahead of defending Rallye du Maroc winner Tosha Schareina and Adrien Van Beveren.

Howes also made a promising start to the ZXMOTO programme. The American was ninth, only 1m14s from Sanders, which put the new machine immediately amongst the established RallyGP field on outright pace.

The Prologue was largely about road position, though, and the real test would begin the following morning with an enormous run inland from Agadir to Zagora.

Brabec draws first blood

Stage One combined a long pre-dawn liaison with 272 kilometres of timed competition and provided the first genuine Dakar-style examination of the week.

Hard and stony tracks gave way to dunes, riverbeds and faster sections through the Draa Valley, with both speed and navigation coming into play.

Brabec was immediately competitive. The American was only three seconds from Sanders after the first 35 kilometres before taking control of the stage and gradually building an advantage.

Sanders and Canet closed again late in the day, but Brabec held on to win by 23 seconds over the Australian. Canet was third, only 44 seconds down, with Benavides fourth at 1m53s.

That put Brabec into the rally lead by ten seconds over Sanders and 43 seconds over Canet. It was the first time a Honda rider had headed a W2RC rally since Stage 12 of the Dakar.

Van Beveren recovered from a slower opening to take fifth, while Schareina endured a difficult day with tablet problems and finished seventh.

For Howes and ZXMOTO, Stage One was the outlier that would shape the final classification. Howes finished tenth, 1h10m03s behind Brabec.

That single result effectively removed the American from the overall contest, but what happened over the next four days would paint a considerably more encouraging picture of the new bike’s actual performance.

Sanders responds on one of Morocco’s toughest tests

Before Stage Two, Rallye du Maroc director Marc Coma described the 300-kilometre special as one of the toughest stages in the event’s history.

Brabec had the unenviable job of opening the road after his Stage One victory, while Sanders set off in pursuit.

The Australian soon caught Brabec and the pair spent much of the stage navigating together. Sanders was fast enough that even without the time bonuses available for opening the road he would still have won the special.

Sanders completed the stage 3m04s ahead of Brabec and 3m34s ahead of Canet, earning the 35th RallyGP stage victory of his career and returning to the head of the overall standings.

He now led Brabec by 2m54s and Canet by 4m07s. Benavides remained fourth, but the next group was already much further adrift.

Howes, meanwhile, delivered the first strong indication that Stage One had not been representative of the ZXMOTO’s pace.

The American finished Stage Two fifth, 10m34s behind Sanders and ahead of all three factory Hondas other than Brabec.

Howes had also noted during the rally that the ZXMOTO was lacking some outright top-end speed compared with the established factory machines. That was an obvious development area, but fifth in a stage of this difficulty was nevertheless a significant result for a motorcycle contesting its first world rally.

One navigation error blows the rally wide open

Stage Three changed everything.

Sanders entered the day in control but a navigation mistake cost the championship leader heavily. He eventually finished seventh, 8m24s behind the stage winner.

That winner was Benavides.

The 2026 Dakar champion took advantage of his starting position and produced his strongest ride of the week, beating a resurgent Schareina by 1m58s. Ignacio Cornejo was third for Hero MotoSports, with Canet fourth.

Schareina’s second place was an important turnaround after a difficult opening two days. Honda had spent considerable time changing settings and searching for a solution that would restore the defending Rallye du Maroc winner’s confidence, and the Spaniard finally felt he could attack again.

More importantly for the overall contest, Sanders’ mistake completely reshuffled the top of the leaderboard.

Canet moved into first place despite still not having won a stage. Benavides was second at 1m25s and Sanders third at 1m30s.

KTM therefore occupied the first three positions overall, separated by just 90 seconds.

Brabec was hardly out of it either. The Honda rider sat fourth, only 2m48s from Canet, setting up a genuine four-rider fight with two stages remaining.

Howes again put the ZXMOTO inside the top ten, finishing eighth on the stage, 16m49s from Benavides.

Sanders takes control again

If Stage Three had been Sanders’ mistake, Stage Four was his response.

The penultimate day featured another long loop from Zagora and a major timed section through fast tracks, sand and dunes.

Sanders attacked from the outset and produced one of his strongest performances of the rally, beating Canet by 3m01s.

Van Beveren delivered his best result of the week in third, only another 16 seconds behind Canet, with Brabec fourth.

Benavides, however, lost almost ten minutes after navigation problems and dropped away from the immediate fight for victory.

Sanders returned to the head of the rally with roughly a minute and a half over Canet. Brabec was more than eight minutes back in third, with Benavides another couple of minutes behind.

After the pendulum had swung repeatedly throughout the week, Sanders now appeared to have finally put himself in the box seat.

Howes again finished eighth, this time 12m16s from Sanders.

Across the three stages since his Stage One problems, the ZXMOTO rider had now recorded a fifth and two eighths.

Canet turns the rally around on the final day

The final day comprised two timed sections totalling approximately 257 kilometres, including the Chegaga dunes and a short final dash back towards the Zagora bivouac.

Sanders faced the critical disadvantage of opening the road after winning Stage Four.

Canet knew he needed to recover around 90 seconds and drew inspiration from the way Benavides had overturned a similar final-day deficit to Brabec at the Dakar earlier in the year.

The 21-year-old did exactly what was required.

Canet gradually closed the physical distance to Sanders and eventually caught his team-mate on the road. The overall lead was changing hands while the riders were still racing through the desert.

At the same time, Brabec was producing a superb final stage of his own.

The American led by the 91-kilometre checkpoint and continued to stretch his advantage, eventually winning in 1h52m15s.

Benavides was second, 2m36s down, with Schareina third at 3m03s.

Canet finished fourth, 3m11s behind Brabec.

Sanders was fifth at 5m39s.

Thus Canet had taken 2m28s out of Sanders in raw stage time, enough to turn the overnight deficit into a final winning margin of 1m02s.

After more than 15 hours and 40 minutes of competition, the Rallye du Maroc had been decided by little more than a minute.

Canet had also achieved it without winning a full stage. From the Prologue onwards his sequence was second, third, third, fourth, second and fourth.

That consistency made him the first Rally2 champion to subsequently win a W2RC RallyGP event and, at 21, the youngest motorcycle winner of the Rallye du Maroc.

Edgar Canet

“I’m really happy. There are a lot of emotions right now and what we’ve achieved doesn’t quite feel real yet.

“We showed everyone what we can do and where we can be, so I’m really proud of that. It was a crazy race with lots of ups and downs, and navigation was really important.

“To win this rally is an amazing feeling. Hopefully, this isn’t the last one.”

Sanders misses the win but strengthens title position

For Sanders, losing the rally on the final stage was a bitter result after appearing to have regained control on Stage Four.

The Australian had nevertheless demonstrated his speed throughout the week, winning the Prologue and two of the five full stages.

More importantly in the wider championship picture, second place strengthened his position heading towards the final round.

Sanders now leads the RallyGP World Championship on 87 points. Benavides and Schareina are tied on 74, while Brabec remains mathematically in contention on 70.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing also extended its advantage in the manufacturers’ standings to 23 points over Monster Energy Honda HRC.

KTM remains unbeaten in W2RC competition this season. Benavides won the Dakar, Sanders claimed Portugal and Argentina, and Canet has now added Morocco.

Daniel Sanders

“A very unfortunate end to the Rally in Morocco for me personally. P2. Although it is a podium finish I am disappointed with the outcome because Morocco Rally is usually top tier racing.

“The standard of professionalism specifically relating to the making of the roadbooks and the accountable persons, has been disappointing, unsafe and a drastic drop from previous years. Many mistakes in the roadbooks were present and no accountability from these people was held.

“These roadbook inaccuracies resulted in significant time loss in my results.

“Competing at a World Class level we expect roadbooks to be accurate and safe. I really do hope that the new promoters of the Moroccan Rally take on feedback from all the competitors and implement it next year.

“Congratulations to Edgar Canet on his first victory and to the KTM team for the hard work. I want to say thank you to all the volunteers and medical team that made this race happen.

“On a side note I have a hand/wrist injury from my crash on stage 4, so when we get home we will get it checked out hopefully in preparation for Abu Dhabi.

“I have extended my overall lead in the World Championship. Bring on the last round.”

Brabec bookends the rally with victories

Brabec’s third place perhaps did not fully reflect how competitive the Honda rider had been.

He won both the opening and closing full stages and was the only rider other than Sanders to lead the rally during its first half.

Navigation and roadbook issues cost him time through the middle of the week, but his final-day pace again demonstrated that both rider and Honda CRF450 RALLY remained capable of challenging the KTMs.

The final stage also secured Brabec his fifth Rallye du Maroc podium.

Honda had made changes to his machine before the finale, and Brabec reported a noticeable improvement in confidence at higher speeds.

Ricky Brabec

“The week was cool, but it was definitely demanding. We had a couple of roadbook and navigation mistakes and some really broken ground, so it’s good to come away from here healthy and in one piece.

“I’m happy with the bike and with the changes we made for the final day. I think we’re heading in a good direction and now we can go home and focus on preparing for the Dakar.”

Schareina also finished considerably stronger than he started. After struggling with tablet issues and confidence early in the event, the defending winner was second on Stage Three and third on the finale, eventually taking sixth overall.

Van Beveren finished fifth overall, highlighted by his third place on Stage Four.

ZXMOTO completes its first world rally with Howes

While KTM and Honda fought over the outright victory, the Rallye du Maroc was also an important first examination for ZXMOTO.

The Chinese manufacturer entered the ZXMOTO 450 Rally with experienced American Skyler Howes; the programme operated in Morocco in conjunction with Joyride Race Service.

Howes is hardly unfamiliar with the event. He won the Rallye du Maroc in 2022, and that experience provided ZXMOTO with an established RallyGP benchmark against which to judge its new machine.

Ninth in the Prologue was an encouraging start, only 1m14s from Sanders.

Stage One then produced the major setback. Howes lost 1h10m03s and any realistic chance of figuring prominently in the overall classification disappeared immediately.

But his results thereafter are arguably much more informative when assessing where the motorcycle currently sits.

Thus, after the troubled opening stage, Howes never again finished outside the top eight.

His fifth place on Stage Two was particularly noteworthy, while three consecutive eighth-place finishes to close the event demonstrated repeatable RallyGP pace rather than a single favourable result.

Howes had acknowledged during the rally that the ZXMOTO was still giving away top-end speed to the leading factory machinery. That remains one obvious area for development before Dakar.

The American eventually finished ninth overall, 2h05m34s behind Canet. His final time also included 16 minutes of penalties.

The raw overall deficit therefore tells only part of the story. The more relevant takeaway for a completely new rally project is that the motorcycle finished its first world-level event and, once past Stage One, repeatedly operated inside the RallyGP top ten.

Howes’ reaction afterwards left little doubt that he regarded the exercise as a successful first step.

Skyler Howes

“We made it! First world rally on the ZXMOTO and it went the distance. Straight out of the gate it’s proven to be a top 10 capable bike.

“There is so much that we can and will improve and I’m excited to get to work on it. Very happy to be a part of this team and have a boss like Zhang Xue.

“Not very many CEO’s will come and sleep in the desert, wrench on bikes and be as hyped as he is. Thank you to ZXMOTO and Joyride for their effort! Dakar is coming soon!”

The reference to Zhang Xue is also significant. Howes described the ZXMOTO boss not as a distant corporate figure but as someone camping in the desert and working on the motorcycles alongside the team.

There is clearly still a substantial development programme ahead, particularly if ZXMOTO wants to close the outright speed gap to KTM and Honda, but Morocco provided the project with something far more useful than a laboratory test: five days of real W2RC punishment and a finish at the end of it.

Ventura dominates Rally2

Monster Energy Honda HRC enjoyed a much more commanding victory in Rally2.

Bruno Crivilin actually struck first, winning the Rally2 Prologue on his Rallye du Maroc debut by just six-tenths of a second.

Martim Ventura then took control once the longer stages began.

The Portuguese rider won Stage One by almost a minute over Michael Docherty, repeated the result on Stage Two, and made it three consecutive victories on Stage Three.

By then Ventura had built an 18m36s advantage over Docherty.

Stage Four was the first time Ventura was beaten once the rally proper began. A problem with his roadbook switch prevented him from scrolling through his notes correctly and contributed to navigation difficulties early in the day.

Docherty finally converted his speed into a stage victory, beating Neels Theric by 1m35s, while Ventura recovered to third.

Even after that difficult day, the Honda rider still carried an advantage of almost half an hour into the finale.

Ventura then removed any doubt by winning Stage Five as well.

Four stage victories from five gave Ventura the Rally2 win by 30m45s over Docherty.

Preston Campbell completed the podium for Honda, while Theric was fourth and Toni Mulec fifth.

Crivilin finished sixth on his first Rallye du Maroc after gaining considerable experience in the dunes, heat and camel grass that make Morocco such an important Dakar preparation event.

Martim Ventura

“It’s been a really good week and the rhythm was there from the beginning. I know I still have a lot to improve, especially with my navigation.

“When you start riding faster, everything comes at you quicker and you have to make those navigation decisions even faster, so that’s something I know I need to keep working on.

“But I have to be happy with what we’ve achieved here.”

Ventura now leads the Rally2 World Cup with 94 points, 18 ahead of Mulec. Campbell is third on 68.

2026 Rallye du Maroc RallyGP Final Classification

2026 Rallye du Maroc Rally2 Final Classification

2026 W2RC RallyGP Championship after Round Four

2026 W2RC Manufacturers Championship after Round Four

2026 Rally2 World Cup after Round Four

The fifth and final round of the 2026 World Rally-Raid Championship will be the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge from November 22-27, before attention turns fully towards Dakar 2027.