INDIA in F1

Tag: Dakar 2018

  • Toby Price wins Stage 13; CS Santosh 33rd, Walkner still in overall lead: Penultimate stage Dakar 2018

    Toby Price wins Stage 13; CS Santosh 33rd, Walkner still in overall lead: Penultimate stage Dakar 2018

    Dakar Rally 2018 – Stage 13
    Toby Price has won the penultimate stage of the 2018 Dakar Rally. His victory ensures he maintains his third-place position in the provisional overall standings, just over five minutes behind the runner-up. Third on today’s stage, Antoine Meo moves up to fourth overall. Matthias Walkner, who rode to a safe fourth place today, retains his lead in the overall rankings.

    The lone Indian campaign spearheaded by Chunchunguppe S Santosh (CS Santosh) continued to flourish for Hero MotoSports Rally team as he finished the penultimate stage in a well-fought 33rd position. The other Indian of Sherco TVS team has pulled out after a nasty fall in the earlier stages. J Pedrero Garcia of Sherco TVS has taken a commendable fifth place in the stage while the other Indian team member of Hero O Mena gatecrashed into the top ten with an admirable performance finishing the stage successfully in 8th position.

    Adil Darukhanawala, Automotive author & historian, Editor-in-Chief for Fast Bikes India & editor-at-large Evo India, commented about O Mena on twitter: “What a fine run from Oriol Mena! He is now ranked 10th overall n could have been higher still but for stopping to help Honda’s Kevin Benavides. With 4 more days to go he could climb even higher up the leaderboard!” But after Stage 13, Mena is in overall 8th position with a total time of 43H 57′ 11”.  Juan Pedrero Garcia of Sherco TVS Rally Factory team is in 11th overall position with a time of 44H 14′ 25″.
    The longest of the rally, stage 13 proved a real test for the competitors. Comprising 483km of liaison with a two-part 424km timed special, the day required supreme endurance from the riders in order to get to the finish both quickly and safely. With the route including a difficult mixture of terrain, riders had to decide whether to push or play it safe.One rider who had little choice but to push was Toby Price. After losing time on stage 10 through a navigation error, Price had to take every opportunity he could to make up time on the leaders. With today’s win, Price closes in on second-placed Kevin Benavides, but still trails his team-mate and leader of the rally Matthias Walkner by over 27 minutes with one stage remaining.

    Toby Price: “That was a great stage, I was leading from the front and it was really good fun. The tracks were fast, and rough in places so I pushed on as much as I could in those sections. Navigation wasn’t too difficult today, I made a couple of mistakes along the way but nothing huge. There were a lot of speed zones so you had to be careful not to overdo it there, but I did what I set out to do and won the stage. It would have been nice to take a little bit more time off Kevin (Benavides) in front, but there’s still one day left. If you’d told me six weeks ago I’d be here fighting for the podium I would have laughed at you. I’m really happy with how things have gone so far and I’ll see what I can do tomorrow.”

    After leading the stage early on, Antoine Meo was in a close battle for the runner-up position for the rest of the stage. Finally crossing the line in third place, Meo was pleased with his result. The Frenchman now moves up to fourth in the provisional standings, 50 minutes down on the leader.

    Antoine Meo: “Today’s stage was good fun. I tried everything I could to catch Toby, but he was on the gas today. The last part of the stage was really fast and I eased off a little because a mistake there could have been very scary. I’m happy with how the day went, the result moves me up to fourth in the standings and that is what I was aiming for today. Now we just have one more day to ride so I’ll do my best and hopefully get a good, safe finish.”

    Matthias Walkner continues to ride in the style that has placed him in a commanding lead at the top of the standings – fast, consistent and with the minimum of mistakes. Walkner’s performance throughout the rally has been superb. Taking his time and concentrating on navigation, his fourth-place result from today sees the Austrian go into tomorrow’s final stage with a 22-minute lead over second placed Benavides. The former MX3 World Champion is now within sight of his first Dakar win.

    Matthias Walkner: “That was a really long day today. The guys at the front are pushing really hard and I’m feeling a little nervous so my aim is just to take things steady and get to the line safely. It was a really fast stage and just a small mistake could cause a big crash. I have got a 20-minute gap over the guys behind but even that amount of time can disappear easily if you get lost or have a problem with the bike. Tomorrow we still have 120km to race and anything can happen. I’ll start thinking about the win when I eventually cross the finish line tomorrow.”

    Setting off 18th this morning, Laia Sanz immediately fought her way up to 13th place at the first waypoint. Laia carried that position right to the end of the 424km special and by doing so also improved her ranking in the overall to 12th. With just one stage left to ride, Laia is head and shoulders above the rest of the female competitors and will be trying her best to claim a top-10 position overall.

    Laia Sanz: “I had a good day today. The start of the stage was really tough, the sand was extremely soft and there were a lot of whoops – I found that really hard on my body, especially after having a couple of crashes recently. The second half of the day was a lot better, it was very fast but easier to push so I kept to a good safe pace and made it to the finish without any mistakes. Tomorrow I will try to stay safe and hopefully enjoy the final stage of the rally.”

    Tomorrow’s stage 14 marks the end of the 2018 Dakar Rally. Although short at only 286km in total, the stage will still prove difficult for competitors. With a technical timed special crossing approximately 30 rivers on route, the stage could still turn in a few surprises for the top runners. Riders will have to focus right till the finish line if they are to successfully complete this 40th edition of the rally.

    Provisional Results Stage 13 – 2018 Dakar Rally

    1. Toby Price (AUT), KTM, 4:48:33
    2. Kevin Benavides (ARG), Honda, 4:50:36 +2:03
    3. Antoine Meo (FRA), KTM, 4:51:17 +2:44 
    4. Matthias Walkner (AUT), 5:00:05 +11:32
    5. Juan Pedrero Garcia (ESP), Sherco, 5:03:45 +15:12
    Other KTM
    7. Armand Monleon (ESP), KTM, 5:10:04 +21:31
    10. Gerard Farres (ESP), KTM, 5:12:07 +23:34
    13. Laia Sanz (ESP), KTM, 5:16:12 +27:39 

    Provisional Standings after Stage 13 – 2018 Dakar Rally

    1. Matthias Walkner (AUT), KTM, 41:33:42
    2. Kevin Benavides (ARG), Honda, 41:56:13 +22:31
    3. Toby Price (AUT), KTM, 42:01:27 +27:45 
    4. Antoine Meo (FRA), KTM, 42:23:59 +50:17 
    5. Gerard Farres (ESP), KTM, 42:35:01 +1:01:19 
    Other KTM
    9. Daniel Oliveras Carreras (ESP), KTM, 44:13:15 +2:39:33
    12. Laia Sanz (ESP), KTM, 44:24:19 +2:50:37

    www.dakar.com
  • Santosh falls twice, but holds on after a tough marathon run at 42nd overall position

    Santosh falls twice, but holds on after a tough marathon run at 42nd overall position

    CS Santosh during Dakar 2018 Stage 8 of Leg2 on Jan 14, 2018. A Hero MotoSports Image

    Bolivia, 14 Jan 2018: CS Santosh, the only Indian remaining in the Dakar Rally this year, continued his exploits and made a steady progress overcoming a challenging marathon run to end the first stage of Leg 2, Stage 8 in 38th position, which places him at an overall 42nd position. The other Indian KP Aravind ended his campaign after a nasty fall.

    Having spent a night at Uyuni without assistance, the competitors started the leg 2 of the Marathon stage from Uyuni to Tupiza on Sunday, the 14th morning for the longest stage of the Dakar Rally.

    Santosh of Hero MotoSports Team Rally, too has been gaining good ground lately and continued his steady run today as well. His teammater, Oriol Mena has been consistently delivering under top 20 performances for the past few stages and today was no different as finished today’s special at 12th position. Today’s performance helped Mena in defending his top 20 ranking and grabbing up the 18th spot overall.

    The riders had to make a total run of 498 km on Sunday’s special stage followed by an 87-km liaison section. This stage offers the challenge of a tough high altitude riding in the mountain sand dunes at 3500 m above sea level.

    Stage 9 of the Dakar Rally has been cancelled due to excessive rains the region has witnessed over the last few days. Overflowing rivers are expected to pose grave dangers to the competitors and hence the organizers decided to call off the stage.

    However the riders and the rally will still need to cross the borders to move into Argentina on to their next bivouac at Salta, while covering the longest liaison section of the Dakar.

    C.S Santosh, who rides with a competition Number 49, said: “I think this Marathon stage was the hardest I have ever done. It was incredibly difficult as we did 80 km off-piste and the camel grass. I was physically drained with the high altitude riding and also crashed a couple of times. By the time I reached the marathon bivouac I had nothing left in me. This morning we had the longest stage of the Dakar which was tough again. Happy to be back here with the team, I missed these guys. Now we got a lucky break tomorrow and then we go racing all the way to Cordoba”

    Provisional Stage 8 Classifications: 1. Antoine Meo, RedBull KTM Racing, KTM, 5h 24m 01s 2. Ricky Brabec, Honda Factory Racing, Honda, +01m 08s 3. Toby Price, RedBull KTM Racing, KTM, +02m 45s 12. Oriol Mena, Hero MotoSports Team Rally, Hero MotoSports, +16m 57s 38. C.S. Santosh, Hero MotoSports Team Rally, Hero MotoSports, +06h 31m 43s

    Overall Provisional Classifications after Stage 8: 1. Adrien Van Beveren, Yamaha Factory Racing,Yamaha,27h 22m 03s 2. Kevin Benavides, Honda Factory Racing, Honda, +00m 22s 3. Mathias Walkner, Redbull KTM Racing, KTM, +06m 34s 18. Oriol Mena, Hero MotoSports Team Rally, Hero MotoSports, +01h 42m 57s 42. C.S. Santosh, Hero MotoSports Team Rally, Hero MotoSports, +07h 19m 21s.

    eom/Hero MotoSports press release