Dakar Rally 2024: Hero Motosports Riders Successfully Complete Stage Six; Feature In Top-10 Virtual Rankings
Dakar Rally 2024: Day 1 of the 2-day Stage 6 of the Dakar Rally 2024 was completed with a full adrenaline rush. The Hero MotoSports Team Rally, the motorsport team of the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters – Hero MotoCorp, successfully completed the rally. The team not only finished Stage 6 but also secured a place in the Top-10 virtual rankings. Shortly after 4pm on Thursday (day 1), both Hero MotoSports riders Ross Branch and Joan Barreda crossed the 513 km mark on the Stage in the 6th and 10th spots, respectively. In the virtual overall rankings, Ross moves to 2nd, and Joan is in 10th place.
Dakar Rally 2024: 48-hour Chrono
The 48-hour Chrono is a new format introduced at the Dakar 2024 – a significant upgrade from the erstwhile Marathon stages until last year. Stage 6 has a total of 835 kms to cover across 2 days, of which 626 kms are timed. The Empty Quarter became the playground for this interesting but extremely gruelling 2 days in an endless sea of dunes.
To start with, all competitors left for the Empty Quarter early in the morning on Thursday, leaving their crews behind at the bivouac in Shubaytah. After spending over 8 hours on the bike, conquering one dune after the other, the competitors also had extremely complex navigational challenges to solve throughout the day. As soon as the clock struck 4 pm, all competitors were ordered to halt at the next Break Point (BP) zone they came across. There are 6 BP zones spread across the course of the stage for competitors to halt and stay over for the night.
Dakar Rally 2024: The Break Point F
At the end of the first day, only 10 top Rally-GP class riders out of 128 motorbike competitors made it to Break Point F, and both Hero MotoSports riders are in this group. BP F is the second-last of 6 such zones, and no competitors have reached the last BP zone.
At the Break Point zone, the competitors have received the bare minimum camping material and just enough provisions to make it through the night. They are also cut off from all communication with the outside world – not knowing how they are doing against the competition.
Starting early on the next day, the competitors will continue on the rest of the special. From Break Point F, our riders have just about 112 kms of dune-surfing left to reach the finish line of Stage 6. Provisional rankings will be available only at the end of Stage 6.
Virtual Rankings – Stage 6 (at the end of 513 kms)
- Adrien Van Beveren Monster Energy Honda Team 06h 30m 39s
- Ricky Brabec Monster Energy Honda Team + 1m 21s
- Toby Price RedBull KTM Factory Racing + 1m 49s
- Ross Branch Hero MotoSports Team Rally + 7m 56s
- Joan Barreda Bort Hero MotoSports Team Rally + 29m 58s
Virtual Overall Rankings – at the end of 513 kms in Stage 6
- Ricky Brabec Monster Energy Honda Team 25h 40m 50s
- Ross Branch Hero MotoSports Team Rally + 2m 48s
- Ignacio Cornejo Monster Energy Honda Team + 6m 37s
- 10. Joan Barreda Bort Hero MotoSports Team Rally + 1h 4m 44s
