In another strong result, José Ignacio Cornejo finished second in stage 10 of Dakar 2024. He was only two seconds behind the winner, his Monster Energy Honda teammate Ricky Brabec. He is in fourth place in the overall standings, just behind teammate Adrien van Beveren and Ross Branch (Hero MotoSports) – a trio that is battling for the second position.
The Chilean rider was pleased with his performance despite it not being a mistake-free day, as he told the Dakar website: ‘A long stage. The pace was really fast, so everybody pushed hard. I caught Kevin [Benavides], I passed him, then I made a mistake, he passed me again and then I passed him back again. Overall it was a solid day. A couple of little mistakes, but nothing too big. I’m happy with the riding. I pushed pretty much by myself all day. The feeling on the bike is good; we got our confidence back after yesterday’s mistake’.
Currently in a tight fight for the second position, Cornejo assured he will do all the efforts in that battle: ‘Two more days to go, we’re gonna push until the end and finish as high as we can. The podium fight is tight, Ross, Adrien and me are lagging by two minutes and something, so I’m going to fight until the end’.