Monster Energy Honda Team at the Morocco Rally to close the season

The Morocco Rally, the fifth and final race of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World
Championship, will be held in the African country from 4th to 9th October and will feature the
participation of the Monster Energy Honda Team.

The riders from the Monster Energy Honda Team will, once again, be back in the fray for the final
calendar date of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies season, as the campaign crosses the Atlantic to
Morocco. Kevin Benavides (Argentina), Paulo Gonçalves (Portugal), Ricky Brabec (U.S.A.) and José
Ignacio Cornejo (Chile) are set to line up together for the concluding event. Joan Barreda, meanwhile,
will sit out the rally while he goes through the final recovery phase after the wrist operation that he
underwent six weeks ago.

In the overall world championship standings, Paulo Gonçalves currently lies in third position on 57
points, after the string of recent positive results in South America which included a win in Argentina’s
Ruta 40. Paulo is just twelve points adrift of the championship leader and will be hoping to improve on
his present position with a good result in Morocco. Kevin Benavides, with 53 points, holds fourth place
behind his Portuguese stablemate. The other two Monster Energy Honda Team competitors, Ricky
Brabec and José Ignacio Cornejo, hold seventh and ninth overall places respectively.

The Morocco Rally kicks off on October 4th in Fez, after the mandatory administrative and technical
shakedown is cleared. A ten-kilometre prologue will dictate the starting order for the following day’s
first full stage, will the racing concentrated most heavily in the Erg Chebbi region in the southeast of
the country.

Día Etapa Enlace Especial Total Km

Thursday 4th October Prologue Fez-Fez 37km 10km 47km

Friday 5th October Stage 1 Fez-Erfoud 322km 167km 489km

Saturday 6th October Stage 2 Erfoud-Erfoud 36km 281km 317km

Sunday 7th October Stage 3 Erfoud-Erfoud 5km 305km 310km

Monday 8th October Stage 4 Erfoud-Erfoud 23km 294km 317km

Tuesday 9th October Stage 5 Erfoud-Fez 259km 198km 457km

Total 682km 1255km 1937km

RAÜL CASTELLS
Morocco marks the watershed point in the as the racing season ends and the countdown to the Dakar
Rally in January begins. The Monster Energy Honda Team, after the victories in Chile, Argentina and
Peru, are very highly-motivated and ready to tackle this final world championship event. We are
looking forward to seeing how the team is after all the intense preparations that we have done in a
completely different continent. Everyone is in good physical shape and we are confident that they can
complete one more test in a satisfactory way before a short break in the preparations for the 2019
Dakar.