RACE SUMMARY

Hero MotoSports Team Rally, the motorsport team of the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters - Hero MotoCorp, successfully completed the fourth of five stages at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, with two riders maintaining their top-10 overall rankings.

Continuing his solid performance, Joaquim Rodrigues continued to lead the charge for the team, finishing the stage in the fifth position. Franco Caimi and Ross Branch crossed the finish line in the eighth and thirteenth positions respectively in the Rally GP class.

The day did not start well for JRod, who found himself losing time caught in a struggle to pull his stuck bike out of sand at just around 10 kms from the start. Further ahead, a long jump off a dune made him crash head on to the ground. However, the Hero rider regained his rhythm quickly and made it to the finish in good time. His stellar performance moves JRod into the overall top-5 standings.

Still building up his physical condition from his pre-Dakar crash, Franco experienced yet another difficult day in the desert. However, his consistent improvement since the start of the rally has awarded him with a highly impressive seventh position in the overall rankings table.

Recovering from his severe crash earlier in the race, Ross took the day easy, taking risks and riding fast only where he was fully confident of the terrain. Still, his strong resolve to keep pushing to the finish lands the Rally GP class rider a thirteenth position in the overall standings.

The penultimate stage of the rally spanning over 243 kms and another 153 kms in liaisons featured equal amounts of sand and dunes, and also took the riders through some dried-up salt lakes.