Brabec doubles up in Argentina as Honda take a 1-2-3

It’s another good day for us with Ricky on really strong form. This stage was very similar to the area of Barstow in California where Ricky and Skyler have had many training days and tests, so they were feeling really confident and the results reflect this with their first and second place finishes. It was also another good day for Tosha with his third place and Adrien did really well despite the tough job of opening the stage, he is third overall but still in the fight for victory. In the last part of the stage Pablo lost a bit of time and was seventh at the end of the day. All our five riders are in the top seven overall so we’re in a strong position and confident for the next two days. Tomorrow will be another long day, more than 400km, so the riders need to be focussed as we get ever closer to the finish at Córdoba.

It was a tough one, the terrain was very broken, there was a good mix of terrain through river beds, broken pistes and some dunes. The navigation was tricky between the vegetation and the small rivers but I rode well even though I followed some others’ dust. The last part was particularly difficult for the navigation, I tried to find the correct way without any mistakes and I got safely to the finish.

It feels good to get another stage win, although in rally-raid you don’t always want to win because some days you want to open the stage and others you don’t. I started out a little bit slow today because I was freezing but after refuelling I realised I needed to step up a bit and put the gas on. I made a good push and it worked so it was a good day to take my second stage win but tomorrow I get to open again but I’m wary the last day will be a maximum attack day for hopefully a podium.

Today was a lot like riding at home because we had a lot of similar terrain that I’m used to so I felt much more comfortable in this open desert and the dry river beds, rather than the first couple of stages. I enjoyed today a lot as the navigation was quite tricky but Adrien opened the whole stage before I caught him, but I made a little error and he stayed ahead. I just pushed and did the best I could, I came in second again and Ricky smoked us all. So far it’s my favourite stage of the rally.

It was a super tough stage but I’m really happy about my riding today, even more than my win yesterday. It doesn’t matter about the result because to open all day like this was really tough. We had a lot of vegetation, riverbeds, that were really tricky because you couldn’t see the tracks. The navigation was difficult all day but I enjoyed it a lot on the bike for the whole stage and I’m proud of what I’ve done.

Today was hard again as it was like the desert. Honestly, it was good for me as I tried to push during the stage, but I made a couple of navigation mistakes as it was a bit confusing at some places, but I have another good starting position for tomorrow. The landscapes have completely changed today, there’s more desert, so more like the Dakar. I’m second overall with two days to go so I will push all I can to win this rally.