Irish Motor Sports News – Honda’s Benavides in podium position as Atacama Rally hits midway point

Honda’s Benavides in podium position as Atacama Rally hits midway point

Aug 17, 2018

Atacama Rally 2018-

Cross-Country Rallies 2018 Round FIM-3 , Stage 3

After the dispute of the third stage of the Atacama Rally, featuring a 259.27-kilometre timed special, Monster Energy Honda Team rider Kevin Benavides, remains firmly in the podium zone with good prospects of an overall win.

The Atacama Rally has reached its halfway point with the dispute of the third stage. Today, despite an hour and a half delay due to the morning fog, participants finally got away and had to tackle a total of 335.17 kilometres on the looping Copiapó route, which took riders to Ojos del Salado during the 259.27-kilometre special. The terrain covered several kilometres of dunes plus faster track and dry river beds.

The riders of the Monster Energy Honda Team earned satisfactory results, with Kevin Benavides taking third place in the special leaving the Argentinean in second overall spot on the race leader board, 4’56” behind the leader, with two days still to run. Kevin again opened the track from the start to the finish of the special.

Paulo Gonçalves has improved from the previous days and finished one minute behind his team-mate, in fourth position. The sixth best time of the day was for José Ignacio Cornejo and Ricky Brabec posted ninth on the day.

Tomorrow sees the fourth stage of this Atacama Rally. After starting out in Copiapó, pilots will make a loop through Chañaral and Caldera before heading back to Copiapó. The total course will be 371.39 kilometres including 253.54 kilometres against the clock.

Kevin Benavides ²

STAGE: 3rd OVERALL: 2nd

I felt very good today. I opened the track from the beginning to the end, which is now over 550 kilometres opening the Atacama Rally. It has been a great experience and the sensations have been very positive. I pushed hard and tried to avoid getting time deducted in the general. Now I’ll have to try to make up some time in the general and stay focused over these next two stages.

Paulo Goncalves ⁴

STAGE: 4th OVERALL: 7th

It was a stage with lots of sand and dunes. I did a lot better despite getting lost at kilometre 75 which meant that I dropped quite a bit of time. I keep on improving and managed to keep up a similar pace to the front-runners. The bike is going well and I hope to continue attacking over the next two days.

Ricky Brabec ¹⁵

STAGE: 9th OVERALL: 8th

We’ve finished stage three. Today was another fast day, not so much for the navigation but the only part that was tricky was going over tracks that we’d been over in the last few days. Unfortunately ten kilometres from the finish I got turned around and had trouble finding a waypoint which I thought was over to one side. Kind of a bad for me but I feel good riding and hopefully over the next two days we can get some time back and stay healthy for the Ruta 40.

José Ignacio Cornejo ¹⁰

STAGE: 6th OVERALL: 11th

The third stage is out of the way and with better sensations on the bike. I finished sixth and I’m still eleventh overall, close to the riders in front of me. Tomorrow I will go out there looking for the same sensations that I have had today, with a positive attitude.

Results Stage 3

Pos.	Rider	Num	Nation	Team	Time/Gap
1	Quintanilla Pablo	1	CHI	Husqvarna Factory Rally Team	2:57’40
2	Sunderland Sam	5	GBR	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	+3’46
3	Benavides Kevin	2	ARG	Monster Energy Honda Team	+6’49
4	Goncalves Paulo	4	POR	Monster Energy Honda Team	+7’47
5	Price Toby	11	AUS	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	+7’55
6	Cornejo José Ignacio	10	CHI	Monster Energy Honda Team	+9’37
7	Caimi Franco	8	ARG	Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team	+11’15
8	Van Beveren Adrien	6	FRA	Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team	+12’33
9	Brabec Ricky	15	USA	Monster Energy Honda Team	+13’08
10	Walkner Matthias	3	AUT	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	+16’08
11	de Soultrait Xavier	9	FRA	Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team	+16’35
12	Short Andrew	12	USA	Husqvarna Factory Rally Team	+18’35
13	Mena Oriol	14	SPA	Hero Motorsports Team Rally	+18’51
14	De Gavardo Tomás	20	CHI	De Gavardo Team	+30’12
15	Giemza Maciej	19	POL	KTM Orlen Rally Team	+31’53

Rider Standings

Provisional standings after Stage 3

Pos.	Rider	Num	Nation	Team	Time/Gap
1	Quintanilla Pablo	1	CHI	Husqvarna Factory Rally Team	9:32’12
2	Benavides Kevin	2	ARG	Monster Energy Honda Team	+4’56
3	Price Toby	11	AUS	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	+12’06
4	Sunderland Sam	5	GBR	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	+21’45
5	Walkner Matthias	3	AUT	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	+21’57
6	Caimi Franco	8	ARG	Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team	+22’02
7	Goncalves Paulo	4	POR	Monster Energy Honda Team	+25’00
8	Brabec Ricky	15	USA	Monster Energy Honda Team	+28’35
9	Van Beveren Adrien	6	FRA	Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team	+34’26
10	de Soultrait Xavier	9	FRA	Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team	+40’52
11	Cornejo José Ignacio	10	CHI	Monster Energy Honda Team	+43’48

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