AL QAISUMAH (Saudi Arabia): Monster Energy Honda Team's Joan Barreda won the second stage of the 44th Dakar Rally, while Hero MotoSports Team Rally's riders finished in the top 10 here.
Barreda now holds a tally of 28 Dakar Rally stage wins. His teammate Pablo Quintanilla finished 23rd.
“I'm happy with today, especially after yesterday's hard day, where several riders got lost. To make up time in the general standings is good, and we have to be aware that there are ten days ahead and that anything can happen,” Barreda said.
Hero MotoSports' Joaquim Rodrigues and Aaron Mare delivered an impressive run in the long stage 2 with the former finishing in sixth place and Mare in the 10th in the Rally GP class.
After a difficult stage 1B where he lost considerable time, Rodrigues managed to push his way back to the top on Monday.
Astride the Hero Rally 450, his much more confident run helped him move up to the 18th position in the overall rankings.
Mare, on the other hand, continued to grow in confidence, and delivered yet another solid stage to strengthen his position in the overall rankings table, moving one place up to the 9th position.
Stage 2 of the race was an exceptionally long one, starting at Ha'il and traversing over 791 kms to reach the bivouac at Al Qaisumah. With more than a quarter of the 339 km special section lined with chains of dunes, this stage presented the competitors with a taste of what the rest of the race will look like.
Navigating through the day's winding and undulating sandy tracks, dune ridges, and ridge crossings was quite a task.
In Stage 3, the rally will present an equally difficult 368 km special section with complicated navigation around numerous intersections across the long sand and soil mixed terrain.
