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Stage report

Dakar 2018, Stage 2: Barreda grabs bikes lead with win

Honda factory rider Joan Barreda was fastest on the second day of the 2018 Dakar Rally in the bikes category, and claimed the overall lead from defending champion Sam Sunderland.

#5 Monster Energy Honda Team Honda: Joan Barreda

#5 Monster Energy Honda Team Honda: Joan Barreda

Honda Racing

#5 Monster Energy Honda Team Honda: Joan Barreda
#5 Monster Energy Honda Team Honda: Joan Barreda
#4 Yamaha Official Rally Team: Adrien van Beveren
#4 Yamaha Official Rally Team: Adrien van Beveren
#10 Husqvarna Factory Racing: Pablo Quintanilla
#10 Husqvarna Factory Racing: Pablo Quintanilla

Barreda collected his 19th career Dakar stage win in the 267km test, which had both its start and finish in Pisco.

The Spaniard took an early lead, but his advantage at the first waypoint was only a minute and Adrien van Beveren took over first place soon afterwards.

The fight for the top remained closely-fought for the majority of the stage, as the aforementioned duo, as well as Pablo Quintanilla, Matthias Walkner, Franco Caimi, Kevin Benavides and Michael Metge were all within a minute of each other.

Barreda finally built a gap of two minutes at the penultimate waypoint and eventually finished the day in first place by 2m54s.

Yamaha's van Beveren was his closest challenger to match his Day 1 result in second, as Walkner emerged as the top KTM rider in third.

The Austrian edged out the second Honda of Metge for the spot, as Benavides and Quintanilla completed the top six.

Sunderland, who set the pace on Day 1, lost ground early on as he was more than three minutes off the pace already by the first waypoint, and the deficit  to six minutes by the time he finished.

He was only seventh in the end, and fell to fourth overall behind Barreda, whose lead is two and a half minutes, van Beveren and Walkner.

Behind Sunderland, the top 10 order of the day was completed by Yamaha duo Xavier de Soultrait and Franco Caimi, and 2016 champion Toby Price.

Watch the highlights...

Casale beats Karyakin in close battle

Ignacio Casale doubled up by topping Stage 2 of the quad class with only defending champion Sergey Karyakain managing to match his pace.

The duo was less than a minute apart throughout the day, with the Chilean eventually beating the Russian by 43 seconds.

Argentinian Gaston Gonzalez was in a class of his own in third, 3m54s slower than Casale but still five minutes faster than fourth-placed Pablo Copetti.

The overall gap between Casale and Karyakin is up to 1m43s, with Copetti sitting nearly 12 minutes off the lead in third.

Standings after Stage 2 (top 10):

Pos. Rider Bike Time/Gap
1  Joan Barreda Honda 3h18m36s
2  Adrien van Beveren Yamaha 2m30s
3  Matthias Walkner KTM 4m50s
4  Sam Sunderland KTM 5m04s
5  Pablo Quintanilla Husqvarna 5m44s
6  Xavier de Soultrait Yamaha 6m22s
7  Kevin Benavides Honda 6m39s
8  Franco Caimi Yamaha 7m10s
9  Michael Metge Honda 7m33s
10  Toby Price KTM 9m04s

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