Dakar 2019: Stage 2 brings technical challenges

The second-longest stage of the 2019 Dakar Rally, Stage 2’s combination of sand dunes, hard pistes and portions of beaches offered some unique challenges for both man and machine. But despite suffering a number of technical glitches, all Hero MotoSports and Sherco TVS riders managed to complete the stage.

At Sherco TVS, Lorenzo Santolino had a strong run and completed the stage in 14th place. The strong result has helped him make a big leap in the overall standings, pushing him up to 15th place. Adrien Metge and Aravind KP also made steady progress to climb up to 17th and 61st in the general rankings, after completing Stage 2 in 15th and 60th place, respectively.

“I feel better on the bike. The stage was difficult, with lot of dunes and different grounds. I’ll do my best to keep myself and the bike safe until the end of this Dakar,” said Aravind.

Sherco TVS’ fourth rider, Michael Metge, made a good start but then suffered a fuel outage and found himself at the halfway point with a delay of one and a half hour. However, he managed to salvage a 69th-place stage finish and is now 62nd overall.

Hero MotoSports also suffered its fair share of technical issues en route – Joaquim Rodrigues was forced to stop and attend to a fuel issue and ultimately completed the stage in 34th place, dropping him 32nd in the overall rankings.

CS Santosh, meanwhile, had to take a more cautious approach to the second-half of the stage after sensing an issue with his clutch. A 37th place stage finish drops the Indian rider to 33rd overall. “Day 2 for me started really well and I had a good rhythm going for the first 80-90km. Then on, I started sensing some trouble with my clutch, and decided to ease off to make it to the finish line safely. Had a good stage today and now we fix the glitch and go racing again tomorrow,” he said.

Oriol Mena continued his good run, completing the stage in 16th place, helping him hold on to 14th place in the overall standings.

Overall standings after Stage 2

Sherco TVS

15. Lorenzo Santolino

17. Adrien Metge

61. Aravind KP

62. Michael Metge

Hero MotoSports

14. Oriol Mena

32. Joaquim Rodrigues

33. CS Santosh

Overall standings

1. Joan Barreda Bort

2. Matthias Walkner

3. Ricky Brabec