- All six riders from the two Indian teams completed the rally
- Pedrero finished in top 10
- Santosh finished in top 20
The 2018 Merzouga Rally has concluded and the two Indian teams, Hero MotoSports Team Rally and Sherco TVS Factory Rally Team, have successfully completed the challenge. Both the Hero riders scored top 20 rankings, while TVS even managed a top 10.
TVS had fielded four riders in the 2018 Merzouga rally. Of these, Pedrero Garcia Joan scored the best result with his seventh place finish. Duplessis Diego Martin finished 11th while Vanni Cominotto, the rookie, came in 21st. Lorenzo Santolino finished 31st. Hero meanwhile, had fielded two riders, including the only Indian in the rally, CS Santosh. Santosh finished in the 19th position, while Oriol Mena scored the 15th position.
Hero rider Oriol Mena finished 15th
The Merzouga Rally is a five-stage rally that takes the competitors though the Atlas mountains and the Sahara desert. It is a part of Dakar Challenge series, which makes it one of the toughest rallies in the calendar. Honda riders Joan Barreda and Kevin Benavides scored the first and second position in this year’s Merzouga Rally, while Husqvarna rider Pablo Quintanilla completed the podium.
Both the Hero riders have dropped a couple of places as compared to their previous year’s campaign at the Merzouga rally. Even TVS, which was aiming for a top-five finish, fell short of its expectations. Nevertheless, both the teams take back important learning from this ‘mini-Dakar’ rally, which is sure to help them through the rest of the year.
