Honda rider Joan Barreda led Ricky Brabec in Stage 10 of the Dakar Rally which was shortened due to weather conditions.
The route from Haradh to Shubaytah was going to be 534 kilometres, but the competitive part of the stage ended at 345km due to strong wind, and the rest of the stage was neutralised.
As a result, Barreda was gifted the stage win, the Spaniard fastest at every waypoint of the day.
Barreda became the seventh different stage winner in the bike class – the fourth for Honda.
The Japanese brand also took a big step towards the overall title as Brabec was a close second in the stage and added close to another five minutes to his lead as Pablo Quintanilla finished only seventh.
The latter opened the road, having won the previous stage, and is now 25m44s behind Brabec in the general standings, just ahead of Barreda, who took third from KTM’s Toby Price.
Behind Barreda and Brabec, Kevin Benavides completed a Honda 1-2-3 in the stage, followed by KTM trio Price, Luciano Benavides and Matthias Walkner.
Price remains KTM’s best hope to continue the manufacturer’s title run it started in 2001, but the reigning champion is 28m33s behind with two days remaining.
Wisniewski tops quads, drama for Casale
Polish rider Kamil Wisniewski topped the quad category which also ended prematurely, but not before leader Ignacio Casale lost significant time.
Casale lost 44m59s between the 174km and 223km checkpoints and ended the stage 17th out of 19 competitors.
The Chilean had a dominant lead of 44m57s coming into the stage but he was able to keep 16m18s as Simon Vitse also struggled and lost over 16 minutes.
In the stage, Wisniewski was followed by Czech rider Zdenek Tuma and fellow Pole Rafal Sonik, who is back to within an hour of Casale in the general standings as the third-placed rider.
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