Ricky Brabec plan worked perfectly at the ongoing Dakar Rally. Brabec\u00a0deliberately gave up the lead in the overall rankings to\u00a0Luciano Benavides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not a crazy move but simply a strategic one, allowing\u00a0Brabec\u00a0to start six minutes behind his rival this morning, with the gap in the overall rankings limited to 23 seconds. With the American’s technical mastery, this was actually the safest way to secure a comfortable lead before the final stage, making it possible to rechristen tomorrow’s loop around Yanbu \u2018Brabec\u00a0Boulevard\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that is exactly what happened: with his 13th\u00a0<\/sup>stage victory and his second this year, the Honda rider not only swallowed up the 23 seconds in question like a shot of Monster energy drink but increased his lead to 3’43\u2019\u2019 over\u00a0Benavides, meaning a third title is in sight for\u00a0Ricky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The possibility of\u00a0Benavides\u00a0making a comeback on the final stage cannot be ruled out entirely. His brother\u00a0Kevin\u00a0achieved this feat in 2023 but at the time he was only 12 seconds behind\u00a0Toby Price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tomorrow, the Argentinean will start 3 minutes behind the new leader, but he will only have 105 kilometres available in which to catch up, a distance during which\u00a0Brabec\u00a0will pocket opener\u2019s bonuses (up to 1’23\u2019\u2019 in total). The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider would therefore need to be supersonic to overturn the overall rankings in his favour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Skyler Howes\u00a0and\u00a0Adrien Van Beveren\u00a0opened the way this morning but soon let the duellists battle it out at the front. The two Honda riders were clocked at over 24 and 13 minutes down respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The American slowing down did not prevent him from climbing one place in the rankings (to 4th<\/sup>), benefiting from\u00a0Sanders’ poor form, due to suffering from a shoulder injury, with the Australian now finding himself in 5th<\/sup>. The Frenchman is immediately behind\u00a0Sanders, in 6th<\/sup>\u00a0place, trailing by eight minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Rally 2 class,\u00a0Tony Mulec\u00a0took the overall lead yesterday and increased it further today to distance\u00a0Preston Campbell\u00a0by 6\u201912\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ricky Brabec plan worked perfectly at the ongoing Dakar Rally. Brabec\u00a0deliberately gave up the lead in the overall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[311,310],"class_list":["post-8053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-motorsports","tag-rally"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t