Quintanilla Makes It Five Wins | Stage 5

Full on Chilean flex at Dakar as Monster Energy/Honda Team’s Pablo Quintanilla nailed the fastest time in Wednesday’s Stage 5, making for back-to-back wins for Chile’s top off-road racers, including Monster Energy/Honda Team’s Jose “Nacho” Cornejo, who won yesterday’s Stage 4 race.

And completing the 1-2 podium punch again for Monster Energy/Honda Team was Adrien Van Beveren, who railed his Honda CRF450 Rally into the No. 2 position in Stage 5 – 37 seconds back of Quintanilla in the hefty 645 km race run from Al-Hofuf to Shubaytah.

Rounding out the top ten Monster Energy placers from Dakar’s Stage 5 were overall motorcycle division points leader Ross Branch (Hero Motosports) in 6th position, Ricky Brabec (Honda Team) in 7th and Skyler Howes (Honda Team) in 10th.

Overall, leader Branch, who snatched the top spot back from Cornejo following Nacho’s Stage 4 win yesterday, gained some time on the Monster/Honda racer, who placed 13th on Stage 5. Branch now leads his fellow Monster Energy-backed racer by 1:14, with Brabec in 3rd place, 3:47 back (of Branch) and Van Beveren in 4th, 18:10 back.

Stage 5 Quotes

Quintanilla: “Every day is a new opportunity. You’re for sure in the moment, feeling good, or not so good because you made a mistake or something wrong happened. But in the end this is part of the sport. You need to reset your mind and start fresh the next day, and do your 100-percent. So image for me the first day, I won the stage, then have a penalty of six minutes. I was riding with a really good pace, super good navigation, but I did that one mistake with speeding and all the hard work from the day was thrown in the trash. I say ‘OK, next day let’s go again.’ I make a mistake on the navigation and I lose again – more time. Today, the next day, it was a new opportunity. I give 100-percent and it was a good day. Feels super good to win another stage in Dakar (Quintanilla’s 7th career Dakar stage victory). To have all these nice feelings after the riding. And also, this was a key stage heading into the 48 hour Special (Chrono Stages 6a and 6b). I will have the chance to start from behind, so I will have some lines that I can use to push and try to record a better time.” 

Van Beveren: “I was nice today. I really enjoyed it. I pushed, but sometimes you take some risk, and the dune can not be as nice as you expect – and you drop (AVB hit a massive dune drop off today, and rode it out). But it is OK. I honestly did not get scared, or really scared this time. Maybe a little (laughter). But I enjoyed it so much. The bike (CRF450 Rally) is so amazing. I’ve been to Japan to test the chassis. Work on little things like where we can put the fuel to help with better times. In the conditions we’re in now I have to say that the bike is really good.”

Cornejo: “Not the best to start in front of the dunes. But I think we did a good job today, didn’t lose so much time today, honestly. Doesn’t matter. One day at a time and tomorrow we will do our best with the circumstances given.”

Brabec: “You know, today, Stage 5, definitely wasn’t that easy. We woke up at 3:30 in the morning and had 500 kilometers (310 miles) to ride before we got to play in the sandbox, which was pretty tiring. Had a short Special today, kind of like a Prologue for the Chrono stage – because it’s reverse start. I started 2nd today, which wasn’t idea. But all-in-all the day was good. I caught Nacho (Cornejo) by around kilometer 50, then from there to the finish me and him made a Big push. Trading off every couple kilometers, going side by side as fast as we could. Leaving each other, coming back to each other. … Sending it.”

Notes:

• Wednesday’s stage win for Quintanilla was crucial in that Dakar organizers will now reverse the start order, and Quintanilla will have a chance, as he said in his quote, to follow some of the riders’ lines in order to make up time (vs. being up front and having to deal more with navigation). Quintanilla said the combo Chrono Stage is “super important,” adding “but with this race you cannot relax until the last millimeter.”
   
• When asked if he had the chance to take in any of the incredible sights during Stage 5, Quintanilla said “I was so focused on the race I did not see anything strange or special. He then thought for a moment… Maybe some spectators.”
   
• Van Beveren on the new Honda CRF450 Rally bike design. “I have to say that, when the bike comes from the factory, the first test is not the best one. That’s why we make tests. That’s why we work. I am really happy with the Japanese, and the team. In a really short timeline they adapt the bike to my riding style and they did such a great job. I feel super confident. Super safe on it. I can push and the bike is safer than any rally bike I have been on before.”
   
• And his overall take on Dakar this year? “I’m just a happy kid I will say,” said Van Beveren with a smile.
   
• “I saw that. I felt the noise of the bike. Moved a little bit to the side the best I could,” said Cornejo of ripping through the dunes outside Shubaytah with Brabec, and nearly getting landed on by his teammate.
   
• The Chrono Stage explained… Run for 48-hours over back-to-back days in the Empty Quarter with marathon stage restrictions, racers are forced to pit and house with teams spread out over eight different bivouacs, with mandatory stops at the next bivouac after the clock strikes 4 p.m. . This will test the factory teams, like Monster Energy/Team Honda, the most. Bare bones camping at night, with rustic facilities and no tools or spares – other than what they carry. No cell/satellite connection, so racers won’t be award of what their opponents are doing. 600 km each day, all run through Saudi’s notorious Empty Quarter desert.
   
• Brabec on the Chrono Stage: “I don’t really know what to think about it – whatever. All I know is it’s two days, kind of like a marathon because we won’t be with the team. And marathons for me are kinda cool because it’s like one less day with the team, so it makes the time go faster. Looking forward to that. Then we have a rest day before the final week of the Dakar Rally.”

Dakar Stage 5 Motorcycle Results

Monster Energy Motorcycle Standings @ Dakar (after Stage 5)

Monster Energy Dakar SSV Class

Thursday and Friday’s Stage(s) 6a and 6b, Dakar’s 48-hour Chrono Stage, will run the racers from Shubaytah out into the Empty Quarter for two long days and nights – with very limited assistance and considerably more primitive sleeping arrangements than, especially the factory teams, are used to. Separate courses for the bikes and quads vs. the cars, which will challenge the cars as they follow the bikes’ tracks during normal stages. For more information, including “Live” timing and scoring, visit www.dakar.com