- No major injuries reported for Lorenzo (TVS)
- Husqvarna’s Pablo Quintanilla tops the stage and overall ranking
- Sam Sunderland (KTM) went down from second to seventh position
Spanned across 502km with 336km of timed section, the stage 6 of Dakar Rally 2019 took the riders from Arequipa to San Juan de Marcona. The riders hopped back on their saddles after a day’s rest while their motorcycles were given the necessary nip and tuck after the first five days of toiling.
Sherco TVS team had a tough stage 6 owing to their rider Lorenzo Santolino crashing and making his way out of the rally. He tumbled after riding for 33km in the special section, after which he was taken to Lima for a comprehensive checkup. No major injury has been reported. Lorenzo was consistently in the top 20 since stage 2. The Metge brothers faced a considerable dip in their rankings as Adrien went down from 16th to 33rd while Michael slipped from 24th to 36th. However, TVS’ Indian competitor Aravind KP had been consistently seen pushing harder and ended 48th, up from 53rd in stage 5.
Hero MotoSports also faced a setback in stage 5 after CS Santosh crashed out. However, the other two riders tried hard to maintain their pace. Oriol Mena, at the 13th spot in the chart, continues to be in the top 20 while Joaquim Rodrigues promoted his position from 28th to 25th in the stage 6.
The top three positions went through a shuffle as the Husqvarna rider Pablo Quintanilla not only recorded the best stage timing but also topped the overall ranking chart. This pushed Honda’s Ricky Brabec down to the second position who finished the stage sixth. Replacing Pablo at the third rank was KTM rider Toby Price while his team mate Sam Sunderland went down from second to seventh position in this stage.
The stage 7 will take place within San Juan de Marcona with 64km of Liaison and 323km special section.
