New Yamaha Racing signing Cyril Despres has taken second place overall in the Rally Dos Sertoes in his first South American outing with the Yamaha YZ450F Rally ahead of the 2014 Dakar. Despres was a strong contender for Rally victory over the 4,115km challenge and took victory in the fourth and eighth stages.
The five-time Dakar winner’s years of experience and strategic approach saw him take the overall lead after stage six. Despres had looked strong for his first rally win with Yamaha until an incident on the seventh stage resulted in a loss of over 22 minutes to the new leader. The Frenchman became entangled in a wire gate fence blocking a bridge that had not been marked on the road book, causing a big delay but luckily resulting in no serious injury. Despres then worked hard with his Yamaha to regain the lost time over the last stages, making a strong comeback to finish second overall. The Rally was considered a huge success for the Yamaha rider as a preparation for Dakar and an opportunity to evaluate and set up the Yamaha YZ450F to suit his riding style.
Support rider Mickael Metge also enjoyed a good result as a relative newcomer to the Rally. The fellow Frenchman was running as high as third at times in the early stages and enjoyed his share of excitement having encountered wild horses on piste as he challenged the stages. Metge secured sixth overall after the ten stages.
Cyril Despres
“Considering this was our first race aboard the Yamaha YZ450F Rally the result wasn’t too bad and clearly the bike has great potential. With a few less problems the victory could have been ours here in Brazil and now we need to go home and sort out all those small details that make the difference between a podium and a win. Our next outing will be in Peru at the beginning of October, before confronting the ultimate test of man and machine next January, and there is still plenty of work to be done. A big thank you to the team, both here and back in Europe, for all their hard work, and a special thank you to Team Yamaha Brazil who looked after us so well during the two weeks we spent in their excellent company.”
Mickael Metge
“I really learnt a lot these last couple of weeks alongside Cyril. I am still quite new to rally and while I had already realised it was a complicated sport I didn’t know you could turn it into a science! Not that I didn’t enjoy myself on the bike. The last few days in particular were great, especially the last kilometres of fantastic track, I really enjoyed myself.”