The Dakar motorcycle category has been drawn, at least in recent years, as a great direct duel between KTM and Honda. No matter what the shaker shakes, the driver changes that may occur in both structures and the efforts of other brands to stick their heads in this battle. At the end each triumph is written in orange ink or red ink and savored with Red Bull or Monster Energy., according to ‘the wind blows’. A rivalry that has Honda as a benchmark in this case after winning the last two editions of the Dakar, the two held in Saudi Arabia, even if Kevin Benavides has decided to bring Honda’s # 1 number to KTM.
Kevin Benavides has become the spearhead of the KTM project and not only for wearing the # 1 numberBut because of the breath of fresh air it offers the team. With Marc Coma as the new sports advisor, the Austrian firm incorporates Benavides to strengthen its hard core now that Sam Sunderland will compete in the colors of GasGas. Toby Price and Matthias Walkner do continue with the orange brand. For its part, Honda has bet on the Chilean Pablo Quintanillia to fill the void of Kevin Benavides. Former Husqvarna racer teams up with Ricky Brabec, Joan Barredea and Nacho Cornejo.
Sam Sunderland’s move to GasGas draws a new reality for the Spanish firm, with a totally renewed project now that Laia Sanz is racing by car. Daniel Sanders will compete with the British rider. Similarly, Husqvarna It has also been forced to go on the market after the departure of Pablo Quintanilla and has moved quickly to build a multi-karat lineup with Luciano Benavides, Skyler Howes and Xavier de Soultrait, although the latter will compete as ‘private’. For its part, Sherco’s bet is made up of Rui Gonçalves and the Spanish Lorenzo Santolino. Along with them will compete the Indian Harith Noah Koitha Veettil.
The other great structure that should be able to compete with Honda and KTM is Yamaha., but the truth is that the background is not the best. The fingerboard firm has not been competitive enough to keep up with its rivals for several years. If to that you add a certain dose of bad luck with falls and injuries and the mechanical disaster of 2021It is difficult to know how far Yamaha can go in the 44th edition of the Dakar. Adrien Van Beveren remains faithful to the brand after being runner-up in the FIM World Championship. Andrew Short and Ross Branch are the other two drivers of the manufacturer.
Although Franco Caimi competes with Joaquim Rodrigues in the Hero team, both have very difficult to fight for the podium and given the size and budget of the team, they can almost be the first two members of the list of ‘outsiders’, pilots away from large official projects that can give more than one surprise. A list in which there are two highly experienced pilots like Joan Pedrero or Stefan Svitko, but also talents like Martin Michek or the debutante Danilo petrucci. The Italian disembarks from MotoGP to the Dakar directly and will compete with an injury after suffering a fall. However, it would not be unusual to see him stand out at some specific stage.
Quads deserve a separate chapter, even when the list of entries each year is reduced in relation to the previous edition. 21 quads will start in Jeddah if there are no last minute changes. Argentine Manuel Andujar is the rival to beat as defending champion of a class in which a battle is drawn between the Latin pilots and those of Eastern Europe. In the first group we find Giovanni Enrico, Pablo Copetti, Nelson Augusto Sanabria or Carlos Alejandro Verza. On the other ‘side’, Kamil Wisniewski, Czech Tomas Kubiena and Lithuanian Laisvydas Kancius. And between these two worlds, the French school has Alexandre Giroud and Sébastien Souday, while Spain will be represented by Toni Vingut and Álex Feliu.