RALLY DAKAR 2024

Ricky Brabec wins the tenth stage and takes another step towards winning the Dakar 2024

The American Ricky Brabec has taken the penultimate step to take the final victory in the Dakar 2024 by winning the tenth stage, thanks to the bonuses, by just two seconds over the Chilean Nacho Cornejo, with the Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren completing the triplet of the Monster Energy Honda.

This victory, in addition to bringing Brabec closer to his second Dakar, brings his tally of stage victories to ten and allows him to equal the Chilean 'Chaleco' López and the Argentine Kevin Benavides as the Americans with the most partial victories. Additionally, he becomes the second rider to win ten stages with Honda, surpassing Nacho Cornejo's nine and only behind Joan Barreda's 24.

Van Beveren was in charge of opening the track after winning yesterday's stage, with Brabec starting three minutes after his teammate. Once again, facing the unknown did not seem to represent a great handicap, since both the Frenchman and the American - who reached his partner before refueling - were compensating for the minimal loss of time with the bonuses obtained.

The times were in a handkerchief: the Czech Martin Michek surprised by being the fastest in the first 'waypoint' of the day, the Botswana Ross Branch took command in the next two and from refueling it was Brabec himself who took the lead. front... even without the calculation of bonuses.

It seemed that they were slacking in the final stretch of the stage, which left Indian Harith Noah as the virtual leader of the stage at the last point before the finish line. However, thanks to a 2:25 bonus, Ricky Brabec took victory in the stage starting and finishing in Al Ula by recording a time of 3 hours, 51 minutes and 39 seconds in the 371 kilometers of special.

Nacho Cornejo was two seconds away from victory(image above)

The point is that it may not be great news for Brabec, since tomorrow he will have to open the track in the decisive stage despite beating Nacho Cornejo by just two seconds and Adrien Van Beveren by 20, who completed the Honda triplet and who are closing in on Ross Branch's second position overall.

Australian Daniel Sanders finished fourth at 47 seconds, with Indian Harith Noah finally fifth and repeating victory in Rally2, where he is just four minutes behind the category leader, Frenchman Romain Dumontier. Sixth position in the stage went to Luciano Benavides at two and a half minutes.

3:45 Ross Branch finally left, who is almost eleven minutes behind Brabec in the general classification and with less than one advantage over Van Beveren. However, tomorrow he will have a privileged starting position to attack and even look for the chance to take the final victory. After him, the Argentine Kevin Benavides, the Frenchman Mathieu Doveze and the Australian Toby Price completed the top 10.

DAKAR 2024 GENERAL CLASSIFICATION:

1 Ricky BRABEC-Honda 44h45'28''

2 Ross BRANCH-Hero +10'54''

3 Adrien VAN BEVEREN-Honda +11'46''

4 Nacho CORNEJO-Honda +13'48''

5 Kevin BENAVIDES-KTM +32'43''

6 Toby PRICE-KTM +42'00''

7 Luciano BENAVIDES-Husqvarna +51'42''

8 Daniel SANDERS-GasGas +1h00'34''

9 Stefan SVITKO-KTM +1h39'03''

10 Martin MICHEK-KTM +2h29'45''

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