JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA
Hero MotoSports Team Rally reaches the half-way mark with a setback.
Sebastian Buhler, the young rider who has been nothing short of impressive so far and, was well poised to break into the Top 15 in the overall rankings today, suffered a technical issue with his bike and could not finish the stage. As a result, he too is now out of the contention for the overall results, but like his team mate Joaquim, he will opt to restart the race again in Stage 7 and still compete for the stage results and gain valuable Dakar experience.
Not all was bad today for Hero MotoSports Team Rally as Paulo Goncalves led the charge again for the team, and the Dakar legend put his vast experience to good use to finish the stage in 8th position, his third Top 10 in a row. CS Santosh continued to gain in confidence as he too made a last dash for a better ranking today to finish the stage in the 32nd place. Joaquim Rodrigues too had a steady stage as he finished 27th in the stage rankings.
“IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL STAGE WITH SCENERY FULL OF SAND AND DUNES.” -PAULO GONÇALVES
COMING UP
After the rest day tomorrow, the second half of Dakar 2020 will be kicked – off on 12th January with Stage 7, the longest stage of the rally with 546 kms to be done on the clock. It will be followed by a series of really long stages, including a Marathon stage designed to put to test the endurance and mettle of the competitors, before the grand finish at Qiddiyah on January 17th.
WOLFGANG FISCHER
PAULO GONÇALVES
Today was a really long day in the rally with 800+ kms to be ridden. It was a beautiful stage with scenery full of sand and dunes. I decided to go fast today and enjoyed the change of pace a lot. I am happy to deliver another good stage for the team. Now, we are here at Riyadh and I am looking forward to the rest day tomorrow to start afresh in the second week with good motivation.
JOAQUIM RODRIGUES
Today was a good day for me. I started the stage really well and passed a few guys until I reached the refuel point. There, I noticed some kind of a liquid dropping out of the bike and immediately decided to take it safe so I am really happy to get my Hero bike to the finish line today. We are here after finishing the tough first week and it feels good. Tomorrow, we take the rest day and try to recover for the next week of the Dakar.
CS SANTOSH
Today’s stage was very difficult for me as it was very fast and sandy, which made my bike move a lot and aggravated my hand injury. So I didn’t enjoy the fast pace of today but I am really happy to have made it through the first week of the Dakar. It has been tough and gruelling for the entire team, so I am looking forward to the rest day tomorrow to get ready for the next week.
Sebastian Buhler
The stage was quite fast and tough today. I was riding well until the second refuel point. After that, the bike developed some issues and stopped. I tried to get it started but, in the end, it didn’t start. So now, we will look into the issues and try to fix it and restart the race after the rest day.
PROVISIONAL STANDINGS - STAGE 6
| POS | NAME | TEAM | TIMING |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Ricky Brabec | Monster Energy Honda Racing | 04h 36m 28s |
| 02 | Joan Barreda Bort | Monster Energy Honda Racing | +01m 34s |
| 03 | Matthius Walkner | RedBull KTM Racing | +02m 45s |
| 08 | Paulo Goncalves | Hero MotoSports Team Rally | +08m 16s |
| 27 | Joaquim Rodrigues | Hero MotoSports Team Rally | +38m 45s |
| 32 | CS Santosh | Hero MotoSports Team Rally | +49m 43s |
OVERALL STANDINGS - STAGE 6
| POS | NAME | TEAM | TIMING |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Ricky Brabe | Monster Energy Honda Racing | 23h 43m 47s |
| 02 | Pablo Quintanilla | Rockstar Energy Husqvarna | +20m 56s |
| 03 | Toby Price | RedBull KTM Racing | +25m 39s |
| 36 | CS Santosh | Hero MotoSports Team Rally | +05h 48m 52s |
| 46 | Paulo Goncalves | Hero MotoSports Team Rally | +08h 05m 58s |
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Press contact Hero MotoSports Team Rally
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