Ross Branch had a nerve-fraying experience today, but the consummate airline pilot scrupulously followed the emergency checklist to get out of a tight spot and keep his Hero in one piece.
No-one was able to match his pace in the first part of the special, but strange noises coming from his engine forced the Botswanan to ease up before the halfway point. In the end, he limped across the finish line with a deficit of more than 28 minutes to the stage winner. Once in the bivouac, Hero decided to change his engine despite knowing that it would add a 15-minute penalty to his woes.
The Dakar runner-up can still recover from this, but he has no more room for error in the fight for the title. Michael Docherty pounced on the opportunity to seize the stage and the overall lead after stage 1, echoing his last appearance in the ADDC, back in 2022. Aaron Mare finished a shade under 3 minutes behind his compatriot to cap a South African one-two.
The junior driver Konrad Dąbrowski (Duust Rally) dropped almost 8 minutes to the leader, one less than Tobias Ebster (SRG Motorsports). Jean-Loup Lepan (Duust Rally) is now a tad over 15 minutes from the leader after a tentative start. Ross Branch is sixth overall at 28′18″.