Stage 2
W2RC 2023
Round 4

Ricky Brabec Fights Back

ar Desafio Ruta 40

Dakar winner Ricky Brabec was the fastest Monster Energy Honda Team rider on the third day and the second stage from the Desafio Ruta YPF in Argentina.

Ricky Brabec Fights Back

The american finished the 265 km of Special Stage between the cities of La Rioja and Belén in third place, 7’39 seconds behind another Honda CRF 450 Rally – the one from Tosha Schareina, who remains in the leadership of the race.  José Ignacio Cornejo was 5th today and was followed by teammates Adrien Van Beveren (6th) and Pablo Quintanilla (8th).

The first part of today’s stage was really fast with gravel tracks and then navigation was more important in the second part with demanding terrains: chott, fesh-fesh, dunes and sand. It was a truly argentinian classic, demanding a lot from riders and machines, testing their shape and reliability.

In the overall standings, Van Beveren remains in third place (13’20 gap), Brabec goes up to the 5th place, Quintanilla keeps the 6th place and Cornejo jumps one position to 7’th place.

Tomorrow the race will repeat the circuit scheme with start and arrival in Belén. There will be 197 km of liaison and 265 km of Special Stage. This third stage will mix once again gravel, sand tracks and dunes.


Ruben Faria
Ruben Faria -
Monster Energy Honda HRC
“This was a hard day for the team and things went well. We expected navigation to be more demanding, but it was not so much. Tomorrow we are waiting for a more challenging stage where navigation can play a central role. Ricky lost time yesterday and recovered some positions today. Adrien lost some time today due to a navigation mistake but he is still fighting for the lead. Nacho was going fast but faced some technical issues at the end of the stage. Pablo was second at the beginning of the stage but then did not feel so comfortable at the end of the stage.”

Ricky Brabec
Ricky Brabec 2
Monster Energy Honda HRC
“Stage 2 was good, so with three days left we will see what we can do. After this third place I will be risking everything I have. I know I’m just further off the overall classification now, so I’m not quite sure what to do at this point. One thing is sure, the next few days we will be just riding around.”

José Ignacio Cornejo
José Ignacio Cornejo 11
Monster Energy Honda HRC
“This was a good stage for me, I was feeling really competitive, very comfortable with the bike. Then in the last part of the stage I had to slow a little bit because of the rear of the bike. Safety always comes first so I had to make sure I reached the end of the special section. The outcome was not bad, so I’m determined to continue to fight and do my best.”

Adrien Van Beveren
Adrien Van Beveren 42
Monster Energy Honda HRC
“This was a hard day, I tried to save the tires at the beginning. The rhythm was not high for that reason, then luckily there was sand and I continued to push. I made a mistake, confused a note from the road-book and went really bad for five or six kilometers. Then I came back and pushed on the dunes. Overall it is not so bad, I have a good position to push tomorrow."

Pablo Quintanilla
Pablo Quintanilla 7
Monster Energy Honda HRC
“Well this was not a good day since I was quite limited with a mechanical problem. I had to slow down along the stage, so now we just want to find what is going on and fix it. Tomorrow we will start again to return to the race rhythm and try to climb in the overall standings.”

PROVISIONAL STANDINGS AFTER STAGE 2

Pos.

Rider

Num

Nation

Team

Time/Gap 

1

SCHAREINA Tosha

68

SPA

Honda Team

07:22:40

2

BENAVIDES Luciano

77

ARG

Husqvarna Factory Racing

07:27:23

3

VAN BEVEREN Adrien

42

FRA

Monster Energy Honda Team

07:36:00

4

EVAN BRANCH Ross

16

BWA

Hero Motorsports Team Rally

07:37:18

5

BRABEC Ricky

2

USA

Monster Energy Honda Team

07:42:51

6

QUINTANILLA Pablo

7

CHI

Monster Energy Honda Team

07:43:15

7

CORNEJO José Ignacio

11

CHI

Monster Energy Honda Team

07:43:32

8

BÜHLER Sebastian

110

GER

Bühler Racing Team

07:48:17

9

SUNDERLAND Sam

3

GBR

Gas Gas Factory Team

07:48:25

10

COX Bradley

49

RSA

BAS DAKAR KTM RACING TEAM

07:58:07


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