- Hero MotoSports’ Joaquim Rodrigues wins PanAfrica 2019
- CS Santosh (Hero) finishes at fifth position
- Jocopo Cerutti settled for the second position
The action-packed 2019 season of PanAfrica Rally culminated today with the riders covering 1500kms of tricky terrain of Merzouga. The competition saw commendable performances from all the teams with Hero MotoSports emerging victorious at the end.
Enduring all the challenges and maintaining a steady pace throughout the rally, Hero’s Joaquim Rodrigues clinched the winning title for this season. Closely following Joaquim was his teammate CS Santosh who had a slow start in the initial stages but managed to finish the season at a commendable fifth position. Although JRod and CS Santosh finished the final stage at fourth and tenth positions, respectively, their impressive timings in the previous stages helped them stay in the top five in the overall rider standing.
Despite sustaining major back injuries after a crash in Dakar 2018, Joaquim Rodrigues made a strong comeback and proved his mettle in PanAfrica. Meanwhile, CS Santosh also made his mark by giving the best ever performance by an Indian rider in an international rally. Both the riders now have set their eyes on the 2020 Dakar which is the world’s most extreme rally raid.
In the top five, following JRod was runner up Jocopo Cerutti of Solarys Racing in the overall rider standing, who had clocked the best timing in Stage 3. Meanwhile, clinching the third and fourth positions were Sebastian Buhler of Team Buhler and Maurizio Gerini of Solarys Racing.
