Merzouga Rally: Sherco TVS maintains position, Santosh improves to P20

The first of the two marathon stages ran for 211 km - 30 km less than originally planned - and passed through soft dunes, long gravel roads and dry river canyons.

Pedrero set the eighth fastest time of the day, 15m03s slower than stage topper Joan Barreda, to maintain eighth spot in the overall rankings.

Santolino ended three minutes behind his Sherco TVS teammate in 11th, but stayed ninth in the classified order thanks to stronger showing in stages 1 and 2.

Debutant Duplessis Diego Martin dropped to 11th in the overall standings after clocking the 13th fastest time of the day, while fellow rookie Vanni Cominotto was ranked 24th.

#29 Hero: CS Santosh

Photo by: Afriquia Merzouga Rally

Meanwhile, India’s sole Dakar finisheer Santosh was 26th quickest in yesterday’s marathon stage - a result that propelled him to 20th position in the combined classifications.

“Today I decided to keep it nice and safe with an aim to get the bike to the Marathon bivouac,” he said. “My navigation was good and made no major mistakes, so a steady stage for me.”

“The dune section was quite smooth and the rest of the part had lot of ro0cks and stones so I had to be careful there. The bike is riding perfectly and I am looking forward to the second part tomorrow.”

Hero teammate and Dakar star Oriol Mena recovered from Stage 2’s electrical issues to finish 14th and improved to 16th in the standings.