Finally, the day of Argentine celebration arrived in the queen category of the Dakar, motorcycles. Luciano Benavídes He won the fifth stage, the closing of the Marathon, and thus for the first time in this great race a partial belonged to a national representative.
Although Luciano won the victory after a penalty against Frenchman Adrien Van Bereven, the truth is that The KTM rider from Salta rounded off a magnificent day, with superlative performance.
But the day seemed set for the Benavídes. Aside from sports, the Austrian team was waiting for Kevin to celebrate his 36th birthday. In the morning, Norberto, father of the Argentine drivers, had arrived at the camp from Argentina. “Kevin asked me to arrive for the day of rest, and here I am,” he explained).
Luciano, after significant wear and tear, since it was the closing of the Marathon Stage, arrived at the Ha’il camp checkpoint and when he realized that his father was there, he accelerated his pace, got off the motorcycle and hugged him as if he were I haven’t seen him for a thousand years. Norberto hugged him tightly, congratulated him and let him go so Luciano could talk to Clarín.
-The first victory has arrived Luciano, congratulations, how was the 5th stage?
-I am very happy to arrive. It was an easier stage of navigation and terrain compared to the previous one. I had lost a lot of minutes yesterday. I gave my best and did well, but it was not a stage to make many differences. But the most important thing is that I arrived in one piece, I didn’t fall and now I’m thinking about the second week.
-What is adjusted for the second week?
-The second week is coming, and I always did better. The Empty Quarter suits me well because I like sand. We will have to focus on what is coming and I will surely go out to attack. The most difficult thing about the first week was understanding the strategy of this race.
-What was the most difficult thing about this first week that, according to most of the drivers, was the hardest in recent years of the Dakar?
-If you did a bad prologue you had three days of bad results. I have failed, but the rest also failed a lot. It is a strange race because you don’t know when to be aggressive and when to be speculative.
-When you achieve your first victory it is like you unblock yourself and good results appear immediately.
-It’s true. It gets complicated for me with the first victory and then it’s like they flow. Hopefully this time it will be the same.
-Why do you think the second week favors you?
-The sand suits me well because I am a technical pilot. I train a lot of motocross and I have fun, it’s similar to my style. I like to run in the sand.
He started the KTM and went to his team’s bunker, while Norberto waited for his other son, who arrived later. So much time passed that Luciano took a bath and came back pedaling a bicycle waiting for Kevin, to greet him for his birthday.
When Kevin arrived, Norberto and Luciano rushed to greet him..
There, the two-time Dakar winner learned of his brother’s victory. “I dedicate it to you little brother, how come I dedicate it to you because I won by 47 seconds,” Luciano told him, referring to the number that Kevin uses on the motorcycle.
Meanwhile, Norberto, who was chatting in the preview with Juan Rostan, the father of the remaining Argentine motorcycle rider, Santiago Rostan, admitted to Clarín that he suffers from his children’s participation in this activity.
“We had a very hard time with Kevin, who was in a coma and, as soon as he woke up, he asked how long it was until he came to run the Dakar. I understand that for them it is a passion, but as a parent you prefer that they stop running,” he commented.
Luciano Benavides is in seventh place in the general classification24m15s behind the leader, his KTM teammate, the Australian Daniel Sanders. Kevin remains in 26th placesidelined by the arm that has not recovered after the injuries suffered in 2024, and Santiago Rostan in 49th place.
In cars, Juan Cruz Yacopini is 8th overall with the Toyota of the Puma Energy Rally Team, 1h3m behind South African Henk Lategan (Toyota), while in the Challenger category, Nicolás Cavigliasso closed the first half of the competition as the leader of overall, with a lead of 28 minutes over the Portuguese Goncalo Guerreiro.
Friday will be the rest day in Ha’il, which will allow the teams to get ready to start the sixth stage on Saturday, the first of the last week of the Dakar 2025 in Saudi Arabia.