Panafrica Stage 4: C.S. Santosh cements his place in the Top 5

Joaquim Rodrigues © DR

The penultimate stage of the Pan Africa Rally was concluded today, offering one last big test of 280 kms to the competitors to improve their final standings.

For Hero MotoSports Team Rally, the stage 4 provided, probably the last opportunity to go for the win through Joaquim Rodrigues, and for C S Santosh to cement his place further in the Top 5 of the overall standings.

Both the riders grabbed this opportunity by the horns and delivered gritty performances when it mattered the most, in this high pressure stage.

JRod, who finished just 6 seconds shy of the top spot yesterday, attacked from the beginning and kept pushing hard to take the lead back in the rally. With today’s result, he managed to gain a comfortable lead of 11m 28s over his closest competitor, which could very well prove to be decisive in this battle for supremacy in the Pan Africa Rally 2019, with just one more stage to go. C S Santosh too put up a strong show on display today, to bring in the penultimate stage home as he crossed the finish line in the 7th position. Today’s fantastic effort, further cements his 5th place in the overall standings.

The final 70 kms of the stage 5 of the Pan Africa Rally hold much promise for Hero MotoSports Team Rally as both the riders will be looking to bring the rally to a grand close with their best results of the season, including the imminent win.

Joaquim Rodrigues, Rider, Hero MotoSports Team Rally said, « I knew that I had to gain a bit of time today so I pushed hard from the beginning. I managed to catch up the riders that started in front of me and end up riding ahead of the pack alone for some time. In the end, I got my bike to the safety and also my overall lead back so I am very happy to go into the final stage in this position. »

C S Santosh, Rider, Hero MotoSports Team Rally said, « It’s been a couple of good days for me and I keep getting better with every day. Today as well I rode well, navigated well, without any major mistakes, so I am quite happy with myself. Tomorrow is the last stage of the rally and I am very excited to bring my bike and another rally home for the team. »

Provisional Results of the Stage 4
1. Jacopo Cerutti, Solarys Racing Team, 03h 54m 44s
2. Maurizio Gerini, Solarys Racing Team, +03m 07s
3. Sebastian Buhler, Team Buhler, +05m 53s
5. Joaquim Rodrigues, Hero MotoSports, +08m 09s…
7. C S Santosh, Hero MotoSports, +19m 06s…

Provisional Overall Results at the end of Stage 4
1. Joaquim Rodrigues, Hero MotoSports, 15h 22m 14s
2. Jacopo Cerutti, Solarys Racing Team, +11m 28s
3. Sebastian Buhler, Team Buhler, +31m 23s
4. Maurizio Gerini, Solarys Racing, +01h 15m 08s
5. C S Santosh, Hero MotoSports, +01h 20m 51s…

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