Santosh stands 51st after Stage 5
Santosh decided to play it safe as the rally neared the half way mark to finish the stage 52nd, at Arequipa in Peru
Hero MotoSports Team’s C. S. Santosh gained five places to be 51st overall after the fifth stage of the Dakar Rally, which will now move to Bolivia.
Santosh decided to play it safe as the rally neared the half way mark to finish the stage 52nd, at Arequipa in Peru.
Said Santosh, “It was a really hard day. I was feeling a bit tired in the morning as I didn’t have a good sleep, so it took me a little time to get going in the stage. The stage was tough, especially the last 50km or so.
“The dunes were really churned up and the sand was incredibly soft. It took everything that I had and the machine had to make it through today. One more day to go before the much deserved rest day,” he added.
Dakar debutant Oriol Mena, also competing for Hero MotoSports Team, finished 11th — his second top- 15 stage finish. Overall, Mena now stands at 21st at the end of Stage Five.
In the fifth stage, the organisers separated the route for quads/ bikes and cars/ trucks. The trucks and the cars were the first to discover the stage even before their riders as they made their way through to Tanaka, traversing 30km or so of mountain dunes.
The next stage will see the rally enter Bolivia and making its first halt at La Paz — the world’s highest capital city.