Ricky Brabec and Honda win 2024 Dakar Rally

2024 Dakar Rally – Stage 12
Yanbu > Yanbu

After 4700 km of special stages and a total of 8000 km covered, the 46th running of the Dakar has ended with Ricky Brabec joined on the podium for 2024 by Ross Branch (Hero), and fellow Honda rider Adrien Van Beveren.

The short final special was dominated by Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Kevin Benavides and Toby Price however, who ended their 2024 Dakar on a high note. Benavides securing his third stage victory this year. Husqvarna’s Luciano Benavides completed the final stage podium.

Of the 132 bikes who started the event, only 96 made it to the finish line.

Harith Noah took the Rally 2 victory, after front-runners Jean-Loup Lepan and Romain Dumontier were both flagged before reaching Yanbu. The former losing time following a navigation error, the latter due to the consequences of a broken exhaust. Indian rider Noah, was the only remaining Sherco representative at the finish line.

Tobias Ebster was the best rookie and a sensation of the Dakar 2024, the young nephew of Heinz Kinigadner triumphed in the Original by Motul category for unassisted bikers and even managed to finish his first Dakar in the overall top 20 for the bikes, a remarkable feat.

How Dakar 2024 went down…

Ricky Brabec took the rally lead back in the dunes of the Empty Quarter on the formidable 48 HR Chrono stage, and held on to first place all the way to Yanbu to pick up his second triumph on the Dakar, Ross Branch pushing him all the way.

Brabec was able to count on the support of team-mates, particularly Adrien Van Beveren who often opened with the Californian. Frenchman Van Beveren also took advantage of this teamwork to finish third and climb onto the podium for the first time in nine participations.

Honda putting two of its representatives on the podium, marked the marques eighth success on the Dakar. What’s more, if it was not for a fuel pump problem towards the end of the rally, Nacho Cornejo may also have been able to join his team-mates on an entirely red podium. In order to do so, he and Van Beveren would have had to have toppled the heroic efforts of Hero rider Ross Branch.

The hard-nosed man from Botswana was a candidate for overall victory right up to the finish, even though he had been deprived of team-mates, who 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. Thanks to Ross Branch, Hero has become the first Indian constructor to feature on the Dakar podium.

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It was an edition to forget for 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.

Ricky Brabec – P1

“It’s a nice way to start the year with a victory. It wasn’t easy as the course was really tough and so was the competition. Ross and my own team kept me on my toes, but not just me, I think we were keeping everyone on each other’s toes. It was definitely a fight to the end for everyone. I’m really happy we’re all here and all safe and we can go home. This time was a little bit different as I feel like this one was more earned as it was a lot tougher. In 2020, we had a big gap from the get-go. Here, I think me and Ross spent three days with a couple of seconds difference. It was a tight race for all of us. I think between first and third there are eleven minutes or something, whatever Adrien got, but it’s been a tight race and ten minutes is not a big gap here on the rally. I had two good days, two opportunities to make a good push, but also stage 11 was a scare factor for me because I knew Ross was starting behind me, 18 minutes behind, and if he caught me it would be over. Stage 11 was hard but I stayed focused, got to the finishing line and didn’t lose too much time, so I’m really happy with this and I’m really happy for the team. I’m happy for all of us, we did an excellent job all of the two weeks. I think number 9 will be my lucky number from now on.”

Adrien Van Beveren – P3

“After the last years and the difficulties I had, the crashes, all of that, overall, to be on the podium, finally on the podium of the Dakar, it tastes really good. I’ve been fighting until the end. We’ve finished third, but we were in the fight for victory. We are closer than ever to the dream. To step onto the podium is a step towards my dream of victory.”

Ruben Faria – Monster Energy Honda Team Manager

“We had one goal today and it was to win the Dakar Rally with Ricky. We are so happy for him as he did an amazing job to take victory at this really tough Dakar. Adrien pushed as hard as he could to get second as it was still possible for him to achieve at the start of today’s stage. Although he missed out, we’re also pleased that he took that final step on the podium. Fighting for the podium three days ago, the fuel line issue for Nacho sadly stopped him from joining in the fight with Ricky and Adrien. He showed impressive speed and navigation skills which deserved a much better result than his sixth place. After Pablo ran out of fuel during the 48 Hours Chrono this lost him a lot of time and ended his chance for the podium. We’re happy that he made it to the finish and that it gave him the possibility to test the bike during this last week. Our main goal at the start of this event was to win the Dakar, we started with six bikes and managed to get four to the final Parc Fermé at Yanbu. The team did a great job and I’m so proud of them. Now we continue our work as we want to achieve the same result at the 2025 Dakar. We also have the World Rally-Raid Championship to focus on this year with the next rally in Portugal and Spain in April.”

Kevin Benavides – P4

“It’s been a really tough Dakar. They all are of course, but this year had some very, very long days of riding, especially with the 48-hour stage. It’s been good, I have been able to take three stage wins, so we can take some positives away from the event. Both Toby and I finished inside the top five as well, which shows good consistency. It’s frustrating not to finish on the podium after all the hard work that the whole team put in. But we’ll go away now, get some rest, and then we have a few things we know we need to work on to come back stronger next time.”

Toby Price – P5

“For us, it’s definitely been a really tough event this year. Thankfully, it’s always a good result when you can get to the finish line in one piece at the Dakar, and here we are, happy and healthy. Looking back over the week, we were never far off the pace, just made a few too many mistakes out there and as you know that can cost some serious time at Dakar. The whole Red Bull KTM team have been incredible over the two weeks and have worked so hard. It’s a shame we’ve not been able to reward them with a podium. Big credit to the top guys as well, they got it done this year, so congratulations to them.”

Andreas Hölzl – KTM Rally Team Manager

“It’s great to see both of our riders complete the event safely, especially with such strong results on the final stage. After a couple of mistakes early on, both Kevin and Toby fought back as hard as they could, putting in some excellent rides on some very tough stages. For Kevin, who came into the race less than 100% fit following an injury at the end of last year, I’m really happy that he was able to complete the rally and take a few stage wins in the process. Toby also delivered some impressive rides throughout the whole event, and neither of our riders gave up – that much is clear with their results on the final stage. It is disappointing not to have finished on the podium, and we know we have some work to do to increase our pace in some of the different terrains, but fourth and fifth after such a demanding race are both excellent results. I’m proud of the riders and the whole team.”

José Ignacio “Nacho” Cornejo – P6

“I’ve finished another Dakar Rally that’s been a rollercoaster of emotions, from the excitement of doing really well during the two weeks and then the issue yesterday. But that’s racing and I’m happy for Ricky that he won and for Adrien that he got onto the podium too. I think we did really well as a team, we won a lot of the stages, we opened a lot of them and we showed that a lot of the hard work we’ve been doing paid off.”

Luciano Benavides – P7

“That was one of the toughest Dakars I have ever done, with so many hours on the bike every day and such technical stages, but I loved it. It’s been really positive though, of course we know what we need to work on now, but I’m happy with how I have performed and how hard the team has worked. I’m really happy to have finished in the top three on a few stages as it shows I do have the speed and pace. I pushed hard and gave it my all every day, so I’m looking forward to relaxing now and preparing for the rest of the year.”

Daniel Sanders – P8

“Coming in I didn’t have much preparation at all. I broke my femur really badly eight months ago and I only had December on the bike to prepare, so all I could really do was spend as much time on the bike as possible. But we were able to get the bike good and here we are at the finish line. My last surgery was only three months ago, and the bone still isn’t fully healed. I didn’t expect to be here back in November so I’m really happy to finish another Dakar. It’s certainly been a challenge this year and I’ve missed a lot of racing during the last two years, so my goal now is to stay healthy, then return bigger and better next year. I’ll be doing everything I can to make that happen.”

Andreas Hölzl – GASGAS Rally Team Manager

“It was a really big challenge for Daniel to even line-up at this year’s Dakar and I have a lot of respect for him. He’s basically had a year out of racing with different injuries which meant that he had lot of time off the bike. He’s just come back from a really difficult injury with his femur break, so to finish the Dakar after very little preparation shows how strong he is, mentally and physically.”

Pablo Quintanilla – P11

“I’m happy to finish the rally, it was super tough and long this year. It wasn’t the result I was expecting, but I’m happy that I was able to manage all the issues I had during the rally and to finish my twelfth Dakar. I go home with a good feeling that I got to the end.”

Harith Noah – Rally2 Winner

“I’m here and very happy to have finished. It’s great to have won the Rally 2 category but I wasn’t sure until the end. I had no expectations when I arrived, I wanted to just ride my bike without really looking at the results. I started to be very surprised by my position during stage 10, when I did the 5th best time of the special. I don’t really know what happened during that week, I felt good and the bike ran perfectly. I hope that my victory will convince many young people to join the rally. I didn’t imagine when I was a child that I would come to the Dakar, that I would first finish 20th, and now 11th.”

2024 Dakar Rally Final Standings (after Stage 12)

2024 Dakar Rally Stage 12 Results

Dakar Rally 2024 Route Map

2024 Dakar Rally Schedule