Honda riders Kevin Benavides and Joan Barreda took the first two positions , closely followed by the Sherco of local favourite , Lorenzo Santolino . Astonishingly , the KTMs were well down the order , Price finished 17th , Sanders 19th . Matthias Walkner , who started the stage fourth managed to get his bike slightly ahead in 12th place . Their British teammate , Sam Sunderland , who started 20th demonstrated that the dust was not a problem finished 5th .
“ It is never good option to start first ,” said Price . “ But it is always good to navigate alone up front and spend time on the bike .”
Sadly , Laia Sanz was forced to pull out before the start , she ’ d suffered an injured arm after an accident on the previous days prologue . Her GasGas sat idle as the rally started in earnest .
Husqvarna also suffered a blow when new recruit Luciano Benavides suffered a serious accident just 5km from the end of the first stage . The Argentinian damaged his thorax requiring medical treatment .
At days end it was Santolino who surprised most , including himself , “ It was a good day and finally the dust wasn ’ t too bad , as
Barreda , who started in front of me , set a good pace . I was never on the limit and was surprised by my final finishing position .”
The Andalucía Rally continued to surprise as competitors took on the second stage . Starting in 13th place , the Kalahari Ferrari , Ross Branch set about fighting for the lead with overall leader , Benavides . The two traded times and for a while it looked like Benavides would win from the front , a feat of epic proportions in any rally .
It wasn ’ t to be as the Honda rider crashed , hurting his arm , this slowed him , yet it was a two-minute penalty for missing a waypoint that put pay to the stage victory . Branch claimed the stage just 42 seconds ahead of the Argentinian .
Price took the fight to the leaders , riding in third place for most of the stage but after the 243 kilometres of competitive riding he had dropped to 5th over 3 minutes behind Branch .
Another impressive ride by Santolino saw the Spaniard hold onto his third place , the Sherco rider confident that he could shake things up at the front .
“ I just had some fun today ,” grinned Branch . The Botswana said he had been pushing too hard the previous day , learning the new bike and team for Dakar was his main goal .
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