Dakar Moto, Stage 5: | FormulaPassion

Quintanilla recovers

After Cornejo Florimo's success in the fourth stage, the Dakar still speaks Chilean in the motorcycle category, but this time with Pablo Quintanilla. The pilot of the Hondaafter the success in the third stage, he achieved his second stage victory in this edition, the seventh in his career, setting an excellent Adrien van Beverenonly distant 37 seconds with potential success. Only 6th Ross Branchbut the performance of the Hero driver allowed the latter to regain the leadership of the general classification after losing it momentarily to Cornejo, outside the top-10 on the way from Al Hofuf to Shubaytah.

Show in the dunes

In 527 km overall in the dunes of the Saudi desert, alone 118 they were worth it for the special timed test, not without some surprises especially in the initial phase of the test. Among the most indicative was that of the Portuguese driver of Bruno Santos' Rally2, who did well to jump to the top of the standings upon reaching the first checkpoint. However, the Portuguese driver's dream of glory ended with Quintanilla's comeback, determined to forget the previous colorless performances by also recovering time in the general classification. Once the overtaking took place, the Chilean gave his pursuers no chance, despite the brilliant performance of the Frenchman Adrien van Beveren, who thanks to his 2nd place allowed Honda to rejoice for its second consecutive double. The transalpine, indicated as one of the favorites on the eve, thus climbed onto the podium together with another 'big' like Toby Price, 3rd and in turn just over a minute behind Van Beveren. Daniel Sanders and Mason Klein also received applause, closing the top-5 of the day ahead of Ross Branch's Hero. For the latter, who yesterday had lost the lead in the general classification, 6th place still proved to be enough to get back into the lead again, also thanks to the misstep of Cornejo Florimo, only 14° and immediately behind Kevin Benavidesand the seventh position of Brabec, with the American thus maintaining third place in the general ranking. Finally, it is worth highlighting the fall of Joan Barreda. During the stage, the Spaniard lost control of his Hero when going over a dune, suffering chest and arm pain. For these reasons, the pilot was transferred to the medical center, even though his condition does not seem worrying.

Dakar 2024, Motorcycle ranking – Stage 5 (Top-10)

Dakar 2024, General motorcycle ranking after stage 5 (Top-10)