- Oriol was highest finishing Hero rider in 20th.
- Sherco-TVS Racing’s Michael Metge in 31st was their highest finisher on the day.
- Aravind impresses greatly, ends day 42nd.
- Pablo Quintanilla wins stage and takes Moto class lead
- Loeb notches up another stage win.
Another one bites the dust as top flying rookie rider Lorenzo Santolino bowed out of the Dakar, 33km into the stage. The Sherco-TVS rider was one of the breakout stars of the Dakar so far, with his best ever finish to the day coming just two days prior on stage 5. He had to be airlifted to Lima where further assessment of his injuries is to take place.
The team had a day to forget with just a glimmer of hope coming from KP Aravind. Aravind rode extremely well to finish the day 42nd, which helps him climb up a whole lot of spots in the overall rankings. He is currently 48th and should aim to climb a few more spots. Michael was the better of the two Metge brothers as he was 31st on the day. That did bump him down a number of positions in the overall standings, to 36th in fact, but not as much as his brother Adrien who had a miserable day in the office. Adrien ended the day a lowly 77th, which has seen him plummet down the overall standings to 36th.
Hero MotoSports had no casualties to report but their riders too were slightly hampered in their overall stage progression. Since Lorenzo’s crash, Oriol Mena has taken over as the top rider from an Indian team. He was 20th over the course of the day which has seen him slide down a spot in the overall rankings, to 13th. The day started off strongly for his teammate Joaquim Rodrigues but he too had some issues in the latter half and thus ending the day in 30th. He is 25th in the overall tally. Hero hopes both their riders will challenge for better results in the days to come.
Husqvarna’s Pablo Quintanilla was unstoppable on stage 6, taking over the rally lead from the Hondas. Quintanilla’s advantage over Honda’s Kevin Benavides was close to two minutes at the end of the stage. It was quite tight between KTM’s Matthias Walkner and Toby Price as the hunting KTM pack were over four minutes down on Quintanilla. Yamaha’s Adrien van Beveren was fifth.
Quintanilla now holds a healthy lead of four and a half minutes over Honda’s Ricky Brabec. Just 30 seconds further behind is Price who is not going to make it easy for any other team to snatch victory away from KTM. Benavides’ strong day propels him up to fourth with van Beveren and Walkner not far behind.
Although it still looks like a Herculean task, Sebastien Loeb continues to make inroads into Nasser Al-Attiyah’s lead in the cars category by winning the stage. Nasser was leading the day for most parts but Loeb’s late charge saw the WRC champ ease to victory by a margin of 2 minutes 17 seconds. They were closely trailed by the Mini of Carlos Sainz. However, Stephane Peterhansel could not close up to Nasser for the win, ending the day nearly 19 minutes off Loeb.
Despite ending the day second, it is the Qatari Al-Attiyah who has a commanding lead of 37 minutes 43 seconds over Loeb who has climbed up the order since day 5. Peterhansel has slipped down to third, as he is three and a half minutes behind Loeb. Nani Roma and Cyril Despres complete the top five.
Dakar 2019 Stage 5: Report
Dakar 2019 Stage 4: Report
Dakar 2019 Stage 3: Report
Dakar 2019 Stage 2: Report
Dakar 2019 Stage 1: Report
from ZigWheels http://bit.ly/2VTfwQD
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