Ricky Brabec arrives at the rest day overall leader

American Ricky Brabec arrives at the rest day of the Dakar in Arequipa, as race leader. Today the Monster Energy Honda Team rider handled the stage with intelligence after having taken command at the top of the general rankings yesterday. The second half of the 2-day marathon stage featured a mass start, motocross style line up in rows of 10 racers. Each wave, or row, of racers left the start in 5 minute gaps. The top 10 racers from yesterday started the race, including overall leader Ricky Brabec and the top seeds from KTM Toby Price, Sam Sunderland and Matthias Walkner.

In the second row at 8:05 Rockstar Husqvarna Factory teammates Pablo Quintanilla along with American rookie Skyler Howes had an advantage by following the tracks of the first wave, allowing these 3 to ignore navigation and use their natural speed to jump into the time adjusted lead by WP1.Ricky Brabec holds the first position of the rally, with 16:51’34 and Kevin Benavides is nine minutes behind in the sixth place.
Nacho Cornejo finished in seventeenth place, 13’10 seconds adrift of the leader. The Chilean rider stopped to attend Paulo Gonçalves, who had fallen at the kilometre 155 of the special sustaining a damaged right wrist. Gonçalves, with twelve Dakar participations under his belt, was forced to retire from the race. Tomorrow in Arequipa, the riders can savour a well-earned day of rest. The action restarts on Sunday with a stage that takes the entourage back to San Juan de Marcona.