Ricky Brabec takes victory as the Monster Energy Honda Team lockout the top three on the first stage
Desafio Ruta 40Just a second separated Ricky Brabec and his teammate Tosha Schareina after four hours of rallying at the Desafío Ruta 40 as Argentina provided the battleground for a close day on the World Rally Raid Championship.
Characterised by gravel tracks up in the mountains the 505 kms stage looped around Córdoba with less importance on sheer navigation but it still meant the riders had to keep an eye on the road book for the 381 kilometres of special stage.
With a reverse starting order following yesterday’s prologue results it was prologue winner Tosha Schareina who set off from 11th as he looked to capitalise on any mistakes from the riders ahead. However, at 241 kms in he was only eight seconds behind stage leader with the entire top ten covered by just two minutes. The Spaniard kept the pressure on though to seize the advantage and take the lead of the stage by just one second. Brabec was on the hunt for victory too and with yesterday’s prologue dominated by poor visibility, the Dakar 2024 winner utilised the better conditions today to close in on his time through the waypoints.
The lead was then taken by the American rider after 334km cementing why he is one of the favourites for the overall victory in Argentina come Friday as he took the stage victory by a single second over Schareina and to now be second overall by also a single second.
Adrien Van Beveren enjoyed the day’s stage and kept the top two within his sights throughout the day, crossing the line just 44 seconds behind Brabec which keeps him within touching distance in the overall standings.
Despite being amongst the front runners early on, Pablo Quintanilla had to settle for sixth as he got to grips with the wet conditions while Skyler Howes ended the stage in seventh after a couple of crashes and off-track excursions in the slippery conditions caught him out.
Stage two tomorrow will see the teams head out of Córdoba to the next bivouac at the Circuito San Juan Villicum as they will endure the longest day of the rally on their Honda CRF450 RALLY bikes with a 301km road section and 423km of special stage that will take them through spectacular mountainous passes and valleys that will provide stunning backdrops for the thousands of fans as they make their way through the Cuyo Region in the west of Argentina.
It's the first full stage and a really good day for the Monster Energy Honda Team with a 1-2-3. For the whole day it was a battle between Tosha and Ricky and they finished just one second apart, which is amazing after three hours and fifty nine minutes. With Hondas in the top three it's a fantastic start for us.
Pablo and Skyler are in the top ten and not so far behind, which is also good, but tomorrow is a really big day with more than 400km and I think they can both push a little bit and join the other three at the front. However, we need to be cool and take it day by day as overall the stages are really fast and with this weather making it so slippery, it's easy to crash.
It was a long stage with us all the time on the pistes that were tricky with narrow turns but I felt good and enjoyed the day even though the terrain is not my speciality. Come the finish I had a good pace so am happy with how the stage went.
Today was mostly tracks and dirt roads and even we had 10km of a sand wash with a little bit of navigation, but otherwise it was all good. There were a lot of fast pistes so we did 380km that were fairly quick so all in all it was a fast day. After the refuelling I decided to make a push as I had lost a bit of time in the first part of the stage, so in the second half I put my head down and really made sure I could enter and exit the corners without sliding too much. The roads out here are slick but we did a good job, so I’m looking forward to the next four days.
Today wasn’t my best day but it wasn’t my worst either. I definitely look forward to getting out into more open desert terrain as the slippery roads get a little sketchy at times especially as you might slide off a cliff. I feel more comfortable when wide open out in the desert with the rocks and off-track stuff, so if we can get a little more open desert in the next couple of days then I’ll look forward to that.
It was a good day, I really enjoyed the riding here in Córdoba as the tracks are very ‘WRC style’ with many of corners but you have to be really careful as it was so slippery. It was a lot of fun using a lot of riding skills and the bike was amazing on this terrain, so it’s good for the team that we got a one-two-three.
It was a hard day at the office as it was super sketchy and very slippery too. I tried to push the first 100km but with that huge amount of mud and also with the cold conditions it wasn’t easy at all. I’ll keep the pressure on heading into tomorrow’s stage.
RallyGP Provisional Standings after Stage 1
Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | SCHAREINA Tosha | 68 | SPA | Monster Energy Honda Team | Honda | 04:16:23 |
2 | BRABEC Ricky | 9 | USA | Monster Energy Honda Team | Honda | + 00:01 |
3 | VAN BEVEREN Adrien | 42 | FRA | Monster Energy Honda Team | Honda | + 01:29 |
4 | BÜHLER Sebastian | POR | Hero Motorsports Team Rally | Hero | + 02:54 | |
5 | EVAN BRANCH Ross | 16 | BWA | Hero Motorsports Team Rally | Hero | + 02:56 |
6 | QUINTANILLA Pablo | 7 | CHI | Monster Energy Honda Team | Honda | + 03:51 |
7 | HOWES Skyler | 10 | USA | Monster Energy Honda Team | Honda | + 05:17 |
