Dakar Stage 2 - Stage win to Fretigne, Casteu leads overall

Yamaha WR 450 rider David Fretigne won the second stage of the Argentina Chile Dakar Rally to move up to third in the overall standings. Fretigne sits just 2m 14s off the overall lead and is making the most of  the opportunity of racing on a level playing field against the air restricted KTM 690’s.

Fretigne who has been racing his smaller 450 Yamaha since 2004 said:
“There was a lot of overnight rain and fog so at the start I had to take a lot of care. As the day progressed the conditions got easier. The new rules for this year mean that once again we have a chance of overall victory and from the two stages so far they have both been won by the 450’s – one for Sherco and one for Yamaha.”

Day ones surprise package David Casteu riding the 450 Sherco ended the day in second position just 43 seconds behind Fretigne meaning that he continues to lead the overall standings by 2m.10s.

Fourth on the stage and second in the standings is Cyril Despres onboard his Red Bull sponsored air restricted KTM 690. The 2007 winner is well in contention, but will have o wait and see how his heavier 690 KTM compares to the lighter 450’s of his rivals as the rally gets more technical.

2009 Dakar winner Marc Coma was able to match the pace of the leader finishing in fourth just 1m 8s seconds behind Fretigne but has been relegated to 14th overall having suffered a 22 minute time penalty for speeding through a village.

Brit, Craig Bounds had an excellent day to finish the stage 18th fastest to propel himself up the leader board to an impressive 26th place overall. The KTM rider now sits 35m 33s off the lead.

Phillip Noone holds 105th overall with Tamsin Jones having a good day to move herself up to 122nd ahead of Andrew Neri in 129th. Paul Carlye is in 131st with Duncan Tweedy 137th.

Stage 2 Results
Sunday 3rd January

Cordoba to La Rioja
Connection 56KM
Special 355KM
Connection 276KM

Pos. N° Name Make Time Variation Penalty
1 CASTEU (FRA)  SHERCO 05:50:45 00:00:00 
2 DESPRES (FRA)  KTM 05:52:55 00:02:10 
3 FRETIGNE (FRA)  YAMAHA 05:52:59 00:02:14 
4 MANCA (ITA)  KTM 05:59:28 00:08:43 
5 VILADOMS (ESP)  KTM 05:59:33 00:08:48 
6 RODRIGUES (PRT)  YAMAHA 06:00:12 00:09:27 
7 FARIA (PRT)  KTM 06:04:36 00:13:51 
8 FARRES GUELL (ESP)  APRILIA 06:05:39 00:14:54 
9 DUCLOS (FRA)  KTM 06:06:08 00:15:23 
10 STREET (USA)  KTM 06:07:29 00:16:44 

18 BOUNDS (GBR)  KTM 064:26:181 00:35:33
105 NOONE (IRL)  KTM 07:44:12 01:53:27
122 JONES (GBR)  YAMAHA 08:07:38 02:16:53
129 NERI (GBR)  KTM 08:22:16 02:31:31 04:00
131 CARLYLE (GBR)  KTM 08:34:03 02:43:10
137 TWEEDY (GBR)  KTM 08:49:12 02:58:27 20:00