Honda going from strength to strength

Pablo Quintanilla and his teammate Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda), the fastest men in yesterday's prologue, were untouchable again today.

The Chilean bagged the special with two minutes to spare over the Frenchman, with Ross Branch (Hero MotoSports) in third place at 3′14″ down. Another Honda rider, "Nacho" Cornejo, posted the fourth fastest time at 4′16″.

Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) came in fifth at 4′37″. In the general standings following stage 1, adding the times in today's special to those in the prologue, which were multiplied by a coefficient of 8 in accordance with the championship rules, Quintanilla is 2′16″ ahead of "VBA" and 5′17″ clear of Price. Branch is fourth, a meagre 3 seconds behind the factory KTM rider. In the Rally2 competition, Paolo Lucci (BAS World KTM Racing) took over the reins of the race from Konrad Dąbrowski (Duust Diverse Racing), 5 minutes back today.

The Pole is still within 2 minutes of the Italian in the rankings. Jean-Loup Lepan (Duust Diverse Racing) is third in the provisional W2RC standings at 8′35″. Toni Mulec (BAS World KTM Racing) also ran out of petrol before the refuelling station and is now fourth, 35 minutes behind the leader.

Abdulaziz Ahli hit the ground running in the quad race, putting over twenty minutes into Rodolfo Guillioli in both the stage and the overall. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian Laisvydas Kancius is almost 45 minutes down on the Emirati after screeching to a halt.

Standings - After stage 1
1-QUINTANILLA Pablo (Monster Energy Honda Team)  3:40:15
2-VAN BEVEREN Adrien (Monster Energy Honda Team)  3:42:31
3-PRICE Toby (Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team)  3:45:32
4-EVAN BRANCH Ross (Hero Motorsports Team Rally)  3:45:35
5-CORNEJO José Ignacio (Monster Energy Honda Team)  3:47:51
6-BRABEC Ricky (Monster Energy Honda Team)  3:48:29
7-BENAVIDES Luciano (Husqvarna Factory Racing)  3:49:07
8-HOWES Skyler (Husqvarna Factory Racing)  3:49:45
9-KLEIN Mason (BAS DAKAR KTM RACING TEAM)  3:53:49
10-LUCCI Paolo (Solarys Racing)  4:03:19

A.S.O