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dropped out one after another due to falls or mechanical problems .
Branch led during the first week before being overtaken by Brabec who was coming into top form . Nevertheless , the native of Botswana has offered the African continent a podium finish for the first time since Alfie Cox took third place in 2005 . Furthermore , thanks to Ross Branch , Hero has become the first Indian constructor to feature on the Dakar podium . It was an edition to forget for all the KTMs , broadly speaking . The Benavides brothers , Toby Price and Daniel Sanders were never able to contest the domination exerted by the Honda riders . Since 2020 , KTM has always put one of its riders on the podium , which means this year ’ s performance is a blow for the constructor . What ’ s more , it is the first time since 1993 that no European constructors are on the final podium .
The Rally 2 class was also full of surprises and new names . After having shone during the first week , Jean- Loup Lepan and Romain Dumontier flagged before reaching Yanbu . The former lost time following a navigation error and the latter did likewise due to the consequences of a broken exhaust .
The two Frenchmen ’ s misfortune smiled , however , on Harith Noah . The Indian rider , who was the only remaining Sherco representative at the finishing line , gathered momentum throughout the second week to take the lead in the category just before the finish to score a
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