Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website A prudent start as Monster Energy Honda Team get first contact with the dunes of Abu Dhabi
marzo 31, 2019 - Honda Racing

A prudent start as Monster Energy Honda Team get first contact with the dunes of Abu Dhabi

Comunicato Stampa disponibile solo in lingua originale. 

Press release available only in original language. 

Good positions for Nacho Cornejo in third, and #kevinbenavides, fifth, at the end of the first day of the #abudhabi Desert Challenge. #joanbarreda will set off from behind tomorrow after suffering a mechanical setback today.

Prudence prevails on returning, two months after finish the Dakar Rally, to a competition as tough as the #abudhabi Desert Challenge with its treacherous cut dunes capable of ruining a rally on day one. Nevertheless, today Chilean rider Nacho Cornejo finished top of the Monster Energy Honda Team riders, posting third position on the day. 

It was a scorching day, but also one with plenty of wind, on a route which ended in midst of the Liwa desert. The first day of the #abudhabi Desert Challenge featured 262 kilometres of special stage out of a 329-kilometre total. As usual the first round of the #fimcrosscountryralliesworldchampionship served up a fair dosage of navigation and dunes as competitors left the Yas Marina circuit behind to enter into the ante-chamber of the desert – a sea of dunes which dominates the Liwa region in the south of the country.

José Ignacio Cornejo set off at a cracking pace over the early stretches of the race and made it safely back to the bivouac in Qsar Al Sarab, on an error-free ride, to finish on the day’s podium, 6’46” adrift of the stage winner. Argentine team-mate #kevinbenavides, went in pursuit of the riders who preceded him, but after getting bogged down in a dune, lost the trail that would have allowed him to reach his rivals and would have permitted easier progress without such a physical drain. Benavides ended in fifth place on the day.

Further information in the press release to download