It was a positive day for the Monster Energy Honda Team with all riders finishing in the top ten as José Ignacio Cornejo put in a superb ride to pick up his seventh Dakar rally stage win and move him up to second in the overall standings.
Ricky Brabec was second off the start line and immediately into the 20 km of dunes, on a day where the navigation specialists would come into their element on the off-piste sections.
Not surprisingly, Cornejo, who favours tricky navigation, would catch the lead group of Ross Branch and Brabec 90 km in to be in command during most of the stage.
Pablo Quintanilla added himself into the mix, with at one point just a second separating the Chilean riders as the Hondas impressed on the vast dirt tracks around the black stone mountains.
There’s a new bonus system coming into play for 2024, competitors within 15 seconds of the opening rider will benefit too and with 6’23” available today, Cornejo made the most of this despite a small crash, to accumulate 4’14 in bonuses sharing this with Branch and Brabec.
With Quintanilla finishing in third and Brabec putting in another impressive performance in fifth, the overall standings see the Monster Energy Honda Team piling the pressure onto overall leader Ross Branch for the podium positions as Cornejo is now just under three minutes behind, third placed Brabec is over seven minutes back and Quintanilla with a fifteen minute deficit is in fourth.
Finding his rhythm on the third day was Skyler Howes as he gained confidence on his Honda CRF450 RALLY across the 463 km special to get himself up to eighth as Adrien Van Beveren ended the day in ninth in what was a good result for the team after the retirement of Tosha Schareina yesterday.
The Dakar Rally continues unabated tomorrow with stage three serving up a 438 km test and a 295 km liaison as riders will encounter a mix of sandy sections, dunes and very rough terrain which might cause a few tyre issues as they head deep into Saudi Arabia to Al Salamiya.
Another twist for the day is that mechanics will get just two hours to work on the bikes in the evening before they are taken to Parc Fermé at the bivouac.
Ruben Faria
General Manager
After yesterday’s tough stage due to Tosha’s crash it was a good day for the team with Nacho Cornejo’s stage win and he is now second overall with Ricky in third.
Pablo was leading the stage until the halfway point when he made a navigation error and lost valuable time.
Adrien also made a couple of mistakes and Skyler is gradually feeling better which is a good thing.
They are all happy with the bike but it is still only just the beginning of the Dakar.
José Ignacio “Nacho” Cornejo
It was another tough stage, it was very long with tricky navigation and tracks everywhere so it was easy to make mistakes.
I caught the front group and then we rode together which was fun.
It’s always nice to push but I did have a crash and Ricky (Brabec) and Ross (Branch) stopped to make sure I was OK before we continued on.
Fortunately it wasn’t too bad for me or the bike so I’m happy with the result today, winning stages is always good.
RallyGP Results – Stage 2
1 CORNEJO José Ignacio “Nacho” 11 CHI Monster Energy Honda Team 04H 24′ 17″
2 BENAVIDES Luciano 77 ARG Husqvarna Factory Racing +05.59
3 QUINTANILLA Pablo 7 CHI Monster Energy Honda Team +06.12
4 BÜHLER Sebastian POR Hero Motorsports Team Rally +06.47
5 BRABEC Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda Team +07.14
6 SUNDERLAND Sam 3 GBR Gas Gas Factory Team +07.17
7 PRICE Toby 18 AUS Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team +07.40
8 HOWES Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda Team +09.39
9 VAN BEVEREN Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda Team +11.32
10 SVITKO Stefan 142 SLO Slovnaft Rally Team +11.39
Rider Standings
1 EVAN BRANCH Ross 16 BWA Hero Motorsports Team Rally 09H 50′ 05″
2 CORNEJO José Ignacio “Nacho” 11 CHI Monster Energy Honda Team +02.55
3 BRABEC Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda Team +07.15
4 QUINTANILLA Pablo 7 CHI Monster Energy Honda Team +15.20
5 BENAVIDES Luciano 77 ARG Husqvarna Factory Racing +17.22
6 SANDERS Daniel 4 AUS Gas Gas Factory Team +17.24
7 SUNDERLAND Sam 3 GBR Gas Gas Factory Team +18.19
8 PRICE Toby 18 AUS Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team +19.39
9 VAN BEVEREN Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda Team +20.43
10 MICHEK Martin 10 CZE Orion Moto Racing Group +22.58
16 HOWES Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda Team +42.06