Dakar 2018: CS Santosh, Aravind KP And Stage 2 Updates

Indian rider CS Santosh started the tricky stage with a cautious approach and maintained a steady pace and finished the second stage in 29th position. Santosh's teammate Oriol Mena too stuck to a steady pace and completed the stage in 27th position.

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In the overall standings, Santosh has slipped down the order and is in 28th spot after the completion of the second stage. Mena is ahead of Santosh in 27th position after the completion of Stage 2. Joaquim Rodrigues is recovering from his injury and he will be flying back home.

Sherco TVS rider Aravind KP too had a tough stage and managed to post 40th quickest stage time. In the general classification, Aravind is in 32nd position, just 12 minutes, 4 seconds behind CS Santosh.

Aravind's teammate Juan Pedrero Garcia finished the tricky second stage in 23rd position. In the overall leaderboard, he is in 22nd position, putting Sherco TVS ahead of Hero. The bad news for the Indo-French team was Adrien Metge's retirement due to a fall in the dunes of the second stage.

In the bikes category, the stage 2 victory went to Honda factory rider Joan Barreda Bort. He also took the overall lead from Sam Sunderland. Yamaha rider Adrien Van Beveren finished the second stage in the second position and is behind Joan Barreda in the overall standings. KTM rider Matthias Walkner is in the third position in the overall standing.

In the quads class, Chilean rider Ignacio Casale topped the timesheets in the second stage and also took the overall lead. Sergey Karyakain maintained his second position in the overall leaderboard.

In the cars category, Cyril Despres was back on pace and took the second stage victory and leads the rally by 27 seconds ahead of his teammate Stephane Peterhansel. Sebastien Loeb finished the stage in the third position and climbed up the leaderboard to the fourth position.

In the trucks category, Russian driver Eduard Nikolaev driving his Kamaz truck stormed into the lead with a dominant performance in the second stage. Ales Loprais slipped to the second position in the overall standings. Local hero Federico Villagra rounded off the top three drivers after stage 2.

2018 Dakar Stage 2 Results

Motorcycles

1. Joan Barreda Bort (ESP) Honda
2. Adrien Van Beveren (FRA) Yamaha
3. Matthias Walkner (AUT) KTM

Quads

1. Ignacio Casale (CHL) Yamaha
2. Sergei Kariakin (RUS) Yamaha
3. Gaston Gonzalez (ARG) Yamaha

Cars

1. Cyril Despres (FRA) Peugeot
2. Stephane Peterhansel (FRA) Peugeot
3. Sebastien Loeb (FRA) Peugeot

Trucks

1. Eduard Nikolaev (RUS) Kamaz
2. Federico Villagra (ARG) Iveco
3. Ales Loprais (CZE) Tatra

DriveSpark Thinks!

The 2018 Dakar Rally hit the business end with the second stage with tricky conditions. The crews endured the sand dunes and canyons in the second stage. The third stage will be no different with a timed distance of 296km and liaison of 208km.