The Spanish Joan Barreda (Honda) won this Monday in the second stage of the Dakar in the motorcycle category, between Bisha and Wadi-Ad-Dawasir (Saudi Arabia), and was placed as the new leader of the general classification.
The 38-year-old pilot from Castellón covered the 457 kilometers of the special in four hours and 17 minutes, and surpassed the current champion, the American Ricky Brabec (Honda), and the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna), second in the 2020 edition. Other Chilean rider, José Ignacio Cornejo, ranked fifth at the finish line.
In the general classification Joan Barreda is the leader with more than six minutes of advantage over Ricky Brabec and Branch Ross (Yamaha) from Botswana.
«After yesterday’s hard day, with the problems I had in the first part, today I had to go out and give it my all. We knew it was dangerous and that we had to control, but we stayed calm in the most difficult situations and the final was a very good stage, “said Barreda after achieving his 25th partial victory in the Dakar.
In the car category, Carlos Sainz (Mini) lost the lead as he finished third more than nine minutes behind the day’s winner Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota) and just behind his teammate Stephane Peterhansel.
The fact of opening the track and more in a stage like this Monday was complicated in itself, but Sainz played a good special. However, it did not escape problems with losing tempo in a couple of navigation zones and an engine ignition problem. Now the Spanish rider moves to second place overall at 6:36 minutes behind the new leader, Peterhansel.
“Today we suffered a couple of navigation problems, in two places we had to turn around and we lost a lot of time in one of them. And already towards the end of the special there was also a problem with the engine ignition and we lost power, “lamented Sainz.
This Tuesday the Dakar caravan remains in the Wadi Ad Dawasir region, southeast of Riyadh. This third stage will have 630 kilometers, of which 403 will be special, with start and finish in Wadi ad Dawasir.
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