2018 Dakar Rally Stage 10 Results

Published January 17, 2018
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The rally moved to the town of Belen for stage 10, after the overnight halt at Salta due to the cancellation of stage 9

Not many would have expected stage 10 to turn into the toughest test of the 2018 Dakar. However, for Oriol Mena of Hero MotoSports Team Rally, it looked like a different ball game altogether as he dashed on to the trails from the very beginning, consistently maintaining his position throughout the day. As a result, he managed a very commendable 4th position finish. This is also his best yet, thanks to a gritty performance and flawless navigation. In an exemplary display of sportsmanship, he also stopped and called for rescue for a fellow rider who had crashed in front of him.

Overall, he stands 14th after the end of stage 10 breaking into the top 15 rankings for the first time. Commenting on his success, Oriol Mena said, “I am really happy with my today’s performance. We decided that today would be a good day to attack for me and I did that from the word go while riding safely. I also did well in the tough navigation in the 2nd part of the stage and got all the waypoints correctly. I had to stop to help Luciano Benavides, who had a really bad crash just about 20 km before the end of first part. Unfortunately, he is out of the race and my best wishes for him, but this is how the Dakar is. Fortunately for me, it was a good day today and I want to thank all my teammates who put in a lot of hard work for me. So one day more and one day less!”

Juan Pedrero of TVS Racing held strong throughout the rally and finished stage the 10th spot, taking his overall ranking to 17th. CS Santosh, on the other hand, started the stage quite well until he had a really bad crash in the second half of the stage, which knocked him out for some time. But thanks to the team’s quick response, Santosh managed to finish a 44th position finish, taking his overall standing to 40th.

On this unfortunate incident, C.S Santosh said, “I began the stage well and was enjoying the stage. But 20 km before the neutralization point, in the fast-piste section, I took a big jump, landed on some rocks and had a big crash. It was very difficult from then on and somehow I made it to the end of the first special. I met the team there and we were able to quickly fix the bike and got going again to finish the stage. It was really tough today but we got it done and now 3 more days to go to Cordoba.”

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At the end of the day though, Hero MotoSports Team Rally must have been relieved and happy to have both their riders back at the bivouac at the end of proceedings. Stage 10 of the Dakar Rally was the first full stage in Argentina with a total run of 797km, out of which 373km was allocated to the special stage with an initial long liaison of 424km.

It was meant to be a contest of navigation from the very onset. But little did we know that we were in for so many crashes, exits and riders getting lost. However, the riders will get only a few hours to shrug off today’s events and regain their composure for the 2nd marathon stage tomorrow.

Provisional Stage 10 Classifications

1. Matthias Walkner, RedBull KTM Racing, KTM, 04h 52m 26s

2. Pablo Quintanilla, Husqvarna Factory Racing, Husqvarna, +11m 35s

3. Gerard Guell Farres, RedBull KTM Racing, KTM, +16m 21s

4. Oriol Mena, Hero MotoSports Team Rally, Hero MotoSports, +20m 45s

10. Juan Pedrero, Sherco TVS, +36m 24s

44. C.S. Santosh, Hero MotoSports Team Rally, Hero MotoSports, +01h 53m 15s

Overall Provisional Classifications after Stage 10

1. Matthias Walkner, RedBull KTM Racing, KTM, 32h 21m 03s

2. Joan Bort Barreda, Honda Factory Racing, Honda, +39m 42s

3. Kevin Benavides, Honda Factory Racing, Honda, +41m 23s

14. Oriol Mena, Hero MotoSports Team Rally, Hero MotoSports, +01h 57m 08s