Merzouga Rally, Stage 2: Sherco TVS stays ahead of Hero, Santosh drops to 21st
The Sherco TVS riders had a solid run, while Hero teammates had to help each other.
The Stage 2 on Tuesday saw the riders cover 205km in the 2018 Afriquia Merzouga Rally, as Sherco TVS' Joan Pedrero maintain the Indo-French outfit's advantage over the Indo-German collaboration of Hero MotoSports Rally Team.
Overall though, the Spaniard dropped couple of places to be eighth both in the stage as well as general standings with a total time of 6hr29m29s on the #4 RTR 450 bike, but is only 17m02s behind rally leader Honda's Joan Barreda.
Behind Pedrero is teammate Lorenzo Santolino, who finished 10th in the stange but kept his overall position of ninth from Stage 1 with the overall time of 6hr41m35s. The young Spaniard heads the 'Road to Dakar' sequence comfortably by an hour's advantage.
Newest entry in Sherco TVS, Martin Diego Duplessis made inroads after he was ninth in the stage which helped him to improve by two places to 10th overall. The Argentine's total time is 6hr48m37s - just 1m31s between him and KTM's Stefan Svitko in 12th.
The Enduro category rider Vanni Cominotto finished 24th in stage and improved by one place to be 26th overall after an overall time of 8hr40m37s. He is fifth in 'Road to Dakar' standings. Meanwhile, Oriol Mena leads the Hero line-up.
The Spaniard had to take help from teammate CS Santosh during the stage. Mena finished 28th in the stage to Santosh's 25th. The former has dropped eight places to 19th overall with a time of 7hr44m14s on the Speedbrain 450cc bike.
The Indian though has dropped to 21st with an overall time of 8hr07m49s with added two minutes of penalty time which lost him the place to Husqvarna's Agustin Juan Rojo, who is 0.9s ahead of the Bangalorean.
At the front, Barreda has 3m36s lead over the other Honda of Kevin Benavides, with Husqvarna's Pablo Quintanilla maintaining third, but Yamaha's Franco Caimi has dropped from second to fourth in the order.
CS Santosh [Copyright: Hero MotoSports Rally Team]
[Note: This story was first written by me on: sportsflashes.com/en/news/merzouga-rally-sherco-tvs-stays-ahead-of-hero-santosh-21st/194394.html]
[Image courtesy: Sherco Racing & Hero MotoSports Rally] #Motorsport #ShercoTVS #HeroSpeedbrain #Bike #Hero #TVS #Sherco #Rally #Merzouga2018 #TVSRacing #ShercoRacing #Speedbrain #RTR450 #Speedbrain450 #Morocco #Africa #MerzougaRally #CrossCountryRally #smalltribesrule
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