Just a second separated Ricky Brabec and his teammate Tosha Schareina after four hours of rallying at the Desafío Ruta 40 as Argentina provided the battleground for a close day on the World Rally Raid Championship.
Characterised by gravel tracks up in the mountains the 505 km stage looped around Córdoba with less importance on sheer navigation but it still meant the riders had to keep an eye on the road book for the 381 kilometres of special stage.
With a reverse starting order following yesterday’s prologue results, it was prologue winner Tosha Schareina who set off from 11th as he looked to capitalise on any mistakes from the riders ahead. However, at 241 km in he was only eight seconds behind the stage leader with the entire top ten covered by just two minutes. The Spaniard kept the pressure on though to seize the advantage and take the lead of the stage by just one second. Ricky Brabec was on the hunt for victory too and with yesterday’s prologue dominated by poor visibility, the Dakar 2024 winner utilised the better conditions today to close in on his time through the waypoints.
The lead was then taken by the American rider after 334km cementing why he is one of the favourites for the overall victory in Argentina come Friday as he took the stage victory by a single second over Schareina and to now be second overall by also a single second.
“Today was mostly tracks and dirt roads and even we had 10km of a sand wash with a little bit of navigation, but otherwise it was all good,” Brabec explained. “There were a lot of fast pistes so we did 380km that were fairly quick so all in all it was a fast day. After the refuelling, I decided to make a push as I had lost a bit of time in the first part of the stage, so in the second half, I put my head down and really made sure I could enter and exit the corners without sliding too much. The roads out here are slick but we did a good job, so I’m looking forward to the next four days.”
Schareina admitted it was tough going but is happy with his position.
“It was a hard day at the office as it was super sketchy and very slippery too. I tried to push the first 100km but with that huge amount of mud and also with the cold conditions it wasn’t easy at all. I’ll keep the pressure on heading into tomorrow’s stage,” the Spaniard said.
Adrien Van Beveren enjoyed the day’s stage and kept the top two within his sights throughout the day, crossing the line just 44 seconds behind Brabec which keeps him within touching distance in the overall standings.
“It was a good day, I really enjoyed the riding here in Córdoba as the tracks are very ‘WRC style’ with many of corners but you have to be really careful as it was so slippery,” the Frenchman said. “It was a lot of fun using a lot of riding skills and the bike was amazing on this terrain, so it’s good for the team that we got a one-two-three.”
Hero Motorsports Team Rally riders Sebastian Buhler and Ross Branch rounded out the top five.
“We finished Stage 1 successfully. It was a long, hard day out there; while navigation was not very tough, the route in itself was quite demanding,” Branch said. “It was quite slippery but we managed to keep it upright, and I’m happy with how it went. Looking forward to the rest of the week!”
Despite being amongst the front runners early on, Pablo Quintanilla had to settle for sixth as he got to grips with the wet conditions while Skyler Howes ended the stage in seventh after a couple of crashes and off-track excursions in the slippery conditions caught him out.
Daniel Sanders came home in ninth place, just behind teammate Sam Sunderland and just under seven minutes adrift of the stage winner. The Australian now sits in eighth overall, but he certainly has his eyes on the prize and will be looking to take advantage of his mid-pack start position tomorrow.
“Today was alright, unfortunately, I got stuck in Sam’s dust all day and I couldn’t pass him, so it wasn’t the most comfortable to say the least,” Sanders lamented. “The roads were really slippery too and there were so many turns. I couldn’t even keep count! Today was really hard on the tyres, so it got pretty loose by the last few tracks and I had to cruise to the end. Hopefully, the terrain tomorrow will be a bit different and we’ll see how it goes!”
Australian privateer Toby Hederics finished eighteenth, 32 minutes behind Brabac, and now sits in the same position in the overall standings.
“Was a challenging day on winding stoney tracks spending most of the time in heavy dust causing us to lose some time. Hopefully tomorrow we have some clear air so we can keep pushing,” Hederics said.
Stage two tomorrow will see the teams head out of Córdoba to the next bivouac at the Circuito San Juan Villicum as they will endure the longest day of the rally with a 301km road section and 423km of special stage that will take them through spectacular mountainous passes and valleys that will provide stunning backdrops for the thousands of fans as they make their way through the Cuyo Region in the west of Argentina.
STAGE REPORTS:
Prologue Report:
Full Overall Results Can Be Found Here
