AREQUIPA: Rookie rider Lorenzo Santolino of Sherco TVS suffered a miserable crash in Stage 6 forcing the paramedics to airlift him to Lima that brought to an end his breakout heroics of Stage 5, in which he finished a creditable fourth and catapulted into the overall standings.
Santolino was 33-km into the stage when he bowed out as Sherco-TVS had a day to forget. The only solace was KP Aravind, who finished the day on 42nd, climbing up a few spots in the overall rankings to 48th. Among the two Metge brothers, Michael was the better as he finished the day in 31st but dropped positions in the overall standings, to 36th. Adrien, however, had a miserable day as he ended 77th, which saw him plummet down the overall standings to 33rd.
MENA STAYS ON COURSE
Hero MotoSports rider Oriol Mena finished in 20th, highest among Hero riders, who avoided any casualties even though their standings were affected in the overall stage progression.
Since Lorenzo’s crash, Oriol Mena has taken over as the top rider from an Indian team. He was 20th over the course of the day which has seen him slide down a spot in the overall rankings, to 13th. The day started off strongly for his teammate Joaquim Rodrigues but he stopped to help Oriol out as the latter ran his fuel tank dry. He had to rebuild the aux tank and thus finished the day in 30th. He is 25th in the overall tally now.
SHUFFLE AT THE TOP
The top three positions went through a shuffle as the Husqvarna rider Pablo Quintanilla not only recorded the best stage timing but also topped the overall ranking chart.
This pushed Honda’s Ricky Brabec down to second position who finished the stage sixth. Replacing Pablo at the third rank was KTM rider Toby Price while his team mate Sam Sunderland went down from second to seventh position in this stage.
RESULTS:
(Overall after Stage 6): 1. Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) 20h 45m 13s; 2. Ricky Brabec (Honda) 20:49:51; 3. Toby Price (KTM) 20:50:30; 4. Kevin Benavides (Honda) 20:53:14; 5. Adrien van Beveren (Yamaha) 20: 54:28… 13. Oriol Mena (Hero MotoSports) 22:10:50…25. Joaquim Rodrigues (Hero MotoSports) 24:50:36…33. Adrian Metge (Sherco TVS) 24:36:03…36. Michael Metge (Sherco TVS) 27:54:30…48. KP Aravind (Sherco TVS) 30:40:24.
