Hero MotoSports Team Rally brought home a tough stage 2 of Dakar Rally 2020 on Monday as Paulo Goncalves rode steadily with the aim to get his bike to the finish without any damage or technical issues. He finished the stage in the 12th position and 14th in the overall standings at the end of stage 2. It was the super marathon stage for Paulo, being an elite rider. This meant that he got only 10 minutes to work on his bike before depositing it in the Parc Ferme for the second part of the Super Marathon stage.
Sebastian Buhler also brought home a solid stage fighting through the dust and technical rocky sections to finish the stage in 21st and overall in 25th place. C.S. Santosh, nursing a hand injury from Sunday's crash, had to bear the brunt of the rocky sections impacting his ability to ride fast on Monday. Battling through the pain and his impaired ability to hold the bike, he managed a gritty 53rd place finish in the stage rankings and 48th place in the overall rankings.
Joaquim Rodrigues, re-started on Monday at the end of the entire starting line. As a result, he rode in the dust for the entire stage, but managed to bring the bike home in 48th position. His overall results will not be counted under the wild card regulations.
In the stage 3 scheduled for Tuesday, the rally will do one more loop around the city of Neom covering 404 kms as a part of the special stage, including the highest section of the Dakar 2020 at an altitude of 1400m.
( With inputs from IANS )