Dakar 2020
Stage One
Defending Dakar Champion Toby Price got his defence off to a great start in the deserts of Saudi Arabia today by winning the opening day of Dakar 2020. The opening stage of the 2020 event offering an immediate challenge with a 319 km timed special alongside 433 km of liason, traveling from Jeddah along the coast to Al Wahj.
Red Bull KTM mounted Price won the day with a 2min-05secs advantage over Monster Energy Honda’s Ricky Brabec. That lead would later be whittled down to just five-seconds, when Price received a penalty of two mins, with the Australian retaining the lead regardless. The American had led early on in the stage before being overhauled by Price.
Toby Price – P1
“I had a really good day today up until about 140 kilometres where my road book started to play up a bit. Something had got in there and jammed the rollers and so I was left without a road book for a while. Luckily, I caught Matthias after he lost a little time and I was able to stay with him towards the finish. My result looks good on paper, but it turned out to be quite a tricky day. I’m also opening the stage tomorrow, so hopefully that’ll go well, too.”
Ricky Brabec – P2
“The start of the Dakar Rally with the new roadbook things were looking tough. It came full of notes and was coloured already for us. My starting position wasn’t the best. I had all the KTM, Yamaha and Husky boys behind me. It was hard for me to judge how fast they were going. I tried to do my best and not make any big mistakes. I was very fortunate to have a solid day. I hope to keep the speed all the way to the end. It’s only the first day – we have eleven left. I’m hoping the pieces come together and we can have a good finish.”
KTM’s Matthias Walkner was 35-seconds further adrift in third place but the Austrian was almost two-minutes ahead of fourth placed Kevin Benavides (Honda) and fellow KTM pilot Sam Sunderland.
Matthias Walkner – P3
“It took me a while to get used to things today, maybe because so many things are different here in terms of the terrain and navigation. For the first 80 kilometres I took things quite steady, it was quite stony and easy to make a mistake. After that I found my rhythm, especially in the dunes, and was able to make up some time. I was quite surprised with third position although it doesn’t give me the best start for tomorrow, but I’m happy and we’ve got a long way to go.”
Pablo Quintanilla was sixth ahead of Joan Barreda Bort and Luciano Benavides while Andrew Short and Adrien Van Beveren rounded out the top ten.
After a few years riding with the Factory Yamaha Team in primarily a supporting role to their main starts Queensland Yamaha dealer Rod Faggotter is running his own show this year and finished an encouraging 19th place on the opening day of competition.
Dakar 2020 Results
Stage One
Pos | Rider | Team | Time/Gap/Pen |
1 | TOBY PRICE | RED BULL KTM FACTORY TEAM | 03H 21′ 33 |
2 | RICKY BRABEC | MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2020 | + 00H 00′ 05 |
3 | MATTHIAS WALKNER | RED BULL KTM FACTORY TEAM | + 00H 00′ 40 |
4 | KEVIN BENAVIDES | MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2020 | + 00H 02′ 31 |
5 | SAM SUNDERLAND | RED BULL KTM FACTORY TEAM | + 00H 03′ 15 |
6 | PABLO QUINTANILLA | ROCKSTAR ENERGY HUSQVARNA FACTORY RACING | + 00H 03′ 36 |
7 | JOAN BARREDA BORT | MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2020 | + 00H 05′ 51 |
8 | LUCIANO BENAVIDES | RED BULL KTM FACTORY TEAM | + 00H 06′ 56 |
9 | ANDREW SHORT | ROCKSTAR ENERGY HUSQVARNA FACTORY RACING | + 00H 07′ 03 |
10 | ADRIEN VAN BEVEREN | MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA RALLY TEAM | + 00H 07′ 52 |
11 | JOSE IGNACIO CORNEJO F | MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2020 | + 00H 08′ 15 |
12 | PAULO GONÇALVES | HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY | + 00H 08′ 17 |
13 | Xavier De Soultrait | MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA RALLY TEAM | + 00H 08′ 42 |
14 | Ross Branch | BAS DAKAR KTM RACING TEAM | + 00H 08′ 58 |
15 | Adrien Metge | SHERCO TVS RALLY FACTORY | + 00H 11′ 02 |
16 | Daniel Nosiglia Jager | TEAM HONDA NOSIGLIA | + 00H 12′ 12 |
17 | Franco Caimi | MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA RALLY TEAM | + 00H 14′ 03 |
18 | Skyler Howes | KLYMCIW RACING | + 00H 17′ 49 |
19 | Rodney Faggotter | YAMAHA MOTOR AUSTRALIA | + 00H 18′ 54 |
20 | Stefan Svitko | SLOVNAFT RALLY TEAM | + 00H 20′ 07 |
21 | Laia Sanz | GAS GAS FACTORY TEAM | + 00H 21′ 45 |
22 | Johnny Aubert | SHERCO TVS RALLY FACTORY | + 00H 21′ 52 |
23 | Antonio Maio | YAMAHA FINO MOTOR RACING | + 00H 22′ 48 |
24 | Jacopo Cerutti | SOLARYS RACING | + 00H 23′ 40 |
25 | Juan Pedrero Garcia | LS2 AVENTURA TOUAREG | + 00H 23′ 42 |
26 | Lorenzo Santolino | SHERCO TVS RALLY FACTORY | + 00H 27′ 52 |
27 | Sebastien Lagut | NOMADE RACING | + 00H 31′ 46 |
28 | Milan Engel | MOTO RACING GROUP (MRG) | + 00H 31′ 55 |
29 | Maciej Giemza | ORLEN TEAM | + 00H 33′ 26 |
30 | Maurizio Gerini | SOLARYS RACING | + 00H 33′ 41 |
31 | Martin Michek | MOTO RACING GROUP (MRG) | + 00H 33′ 47 |
32 | Sebastian Bühler | HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY | + 00H 35′ 13 |
33 | Adam Tomiczek | ORLEN TEAM | + 00H 36′ 34 |
34 | Jamie Mccanney | MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA RALLY TEAM | + 00H 36′ 40 |
35 | Aaron Mare | MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2020 | + 00H 36′ 45 |
36 | Jan Brabec | BIG SHOCK RACING | + 00H 37′ 22 |
37 | Carl Johan Bjerkert | HT RALLY RAID HUSQVARNA RACING | + 00H 40′ 45 |
38 | Jaume Betriu | FN SPEED TEAM | + 00H 42′ 39 |
39 | Santosh Chunchunguppe | HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY | + 00H 43′ 57 |
40 | Arunas Gelazninkas | ARUNAS GELAZNINKAS | + 00H 46′ 46 |
41 | Mario Patrao | KTM FACTORY TEAM | + 00H 47′ 47 |
42 | Garrett Poucher | KLYMCIW RACING | + 00H 48′ 40 |
43 | Mohammed Balooshi | DUUST RALLY TEAM | + 00H 48′ 46 |
44 | Loic Minaudier | TEAM ALL TRACKS | + 00H 49′ 42 |
45 | Cesar Pardo | KTM PERU RALLY TEAM | + 00H 50′ 47 |
46 | Olivier Pain | TEAM JOG – NOMADE RACING | + 00H 52′ 53 |
47 | Ivan Jakes | JAKES DAKAR TEAM | + 00H 53′ 04 |
48 | Patricio Cabrera | KAWASAKI CHILE CIDEF | + 00H 55′ 42 |
49 | Emanuel Gyenes | AUTONET MOTORCYCLE TEAM | + 00H 57′ 09 |
50 | Abdullah Al Shatti | DUUST RALLY TEAM | + 00H 57′ 54 |
51 | Paul Spierings | HT RALLY RAID HUSQVARNA RACING | + 00H 58′ 44 |
52 | Anthony Boursaud | ANTHO MOTO SPORT – DRAG’ON RALLY TEAM | + 00H 59′ 45 |
53 | Fausto Mota | XRAIDS TEAM | + 01H 03′ 28 |
54 | Benjamin Melot | BENJAMIN MELOT | + 01H 07′ 34 |
2020 Dakar Calendar
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