However, the stage had different ideas. Sebastian Buhler, who has been impressive so far and was well poised to break into the Top 15 in the overall rankings today suffered a technical issue with his bike and could not finish the stage. As a result he too is now out of the contention for the overall results, but like his team mate Joaquim, he will opt to restart the race again in stage 7, and still compete for the stage results and gain valuable Dakar experience.

Not all was bad today for Hero MotoSports Team Rally as Paulo Goncalves led the charge again for the team, and the Dakar legend put his vast experience to good use to finish the stage in 8th position, his third Top 10 in a row.

C S Santosh continued to gain in confidence as he too made a last dash for a better ranking today to finish the stage in the 32nd place. Joaquim Rodrigues too had a steady stage as he finished 27th in the stage rankings.

In the overall rankings, now with only two riders in the contention for the overall results, C S Santosh leads the team’s rankings at 36th position overall while Paulo made further gains in the rankings and climbed up to the 46th place. Joaquim and Sebastian will continue to contend for the day results and also support their team mates.

It has been tough first week of the Dakar Rally for Hero MotoSports Team Rally with some really good starts and impressive stage performances being undermined by a series of unfortunate technical snags. The team is looking forward to the rest day tomorrow at Riyadh, as it will give everyone a chance to recover mentally and physically, and also to re-organise their strategy for the even longer second week of the Dakar 2020.

The stage 6 of the rally was the longest stage yet of the Dakar 2020 with a total of 830 kms to be done, including the 478 kms of the special. From Ha’il to Riyadh, the change of scenery was dramatic as the special stage was 100% sand and entirely off-road. After a relatively fast first section, the competitors met with the dunes challenge.

The second half of the Dakar 2020 will be kicked – off on the 12th January with the stage 7, the longest stage of the rally with 546 kms to be done on the clock. It will be followed by a series of really long stages, including a Marathon stage, designed to put to test, the endurance and mettle of the competitors before the grand finish at Qiddiyah on January 17th.

Paulo Goncalves commented “Today was a really long day in the rally with 800+ kms to be ridden. It was a beautiful stage with scenery full of sand and the dunes. I decided to go fast today and enjoyed the change of pace a lot. I am happy to deliver another good stage for the team. Now we are here at Riyadh and the half way mark in the rally and I am looking forward to the rest day tomorrow to start afresh in the second week with good motivation.”