After briefly dropping to P2 overall, Hero MotoSports’ Ross Branch is back in the lead of the 2024 Dakar Rally. Indian rider Harith Noah, meanwhile, holds on to 18th place overall.
- Bort holds on to P12 overall
- Next is the 48H Chronos stage
Both Hero MotoSports riders complete Stage 5
Covering 118km, Stage 5 was the shortest stage of this year’s rally, giving competitors a bit of a breather before the 48H Chronos marathon stage starts. Branch finished sixth overall and his consistent performance sees him reclaim the overall lead – with a 1min 14secs buffer over Honda’s Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo.
It was a more challenging day for Bort, who suffered a small crash. But he bounced back and reached the finish line in 26th place. He holds on to 12th place in the general ranking. “It was not really a great day for me today. I started pushing on the dunes early on, and I got stuck in the dunes a bit, and faced issues with my cap repeater. So I had to keep looking on the GPS to navigate forward, and in the course I encountered a rather bad crash in some camel grass. I have a lot of pain in my body, but we will try our best to recover well for the next stage,” he said.
Hero MotoSports is down to two riders after Joaquim Rodrigues and Sebastian Buhler crashed out in earlier stages.
Harith Noah in top 20
Harith Noah is well on course to improve on his best Dakar finish (his 20th place result in 2021 was the best-ever ranking achieved by an Indian at the event). He overcame some technical issues to finish the stage in 20th place and holds on to 18th place in the overall order.
“[It] was a short, dunes-only stage. Felt really good on the bike today, but unfortunately [I] had some technical issues due to sand in the fuel. Very pleased to make it to the finish line today,” he said.
Yazeed Al-Rajhi in cars lead; Al-Attiyah up to P2
Reigning Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah won Stage 5; securing his first stage win of Dakar 2024 to move up to second place overall. He’s now a little over 9mins behind leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi. Carlos Sainz is 11mins 31secs off the lead in third place.
Dakar 2024: New 48H Chrono format
Up next is the 48H Chrono marathon stage, which has the potential to reshuffle the standings. At the start of Stage 6, competitors will set off to cover 600km across two days.
They have until 4pm on the first day to drive or ride as far as possible. After this, they have to reach one of six break zones, scattered along the route. Here, competitors will be provided with minimal camping equipment to spend the night in the desert. They will also be cut off from all communication with the outside world – with no idea how they’re doing against competition.
They’ll have to set off at 7am the next day to finish the rest of the route. It’s only at the finish of the 48H Chrono stage that the times will be counted. There will be two separate routes – cars and trucks will not take the same route as bikes and quads.
Suraj Viswanathan
