Monster Energy Honda rider Ricky Brabec has claimed victory at the 46th edition of the Dakar Rally, the American’s second victory at the iconic race, ahead of Hero Motorsports’ Ross Branch and caps a dominant Dakar for Honda.

Sealing what has surely been Honda’s most dominant Dakar ever, Ricky Brabec closed out the final stage 12 of this 2024 rally in eighth place and comfortably holding off the challenge from main rival Ross Branch to complete the race in a total time of 51hrs30m08s.

The die was cast in the first week where Ricky was among three riders edging away with consistent day results. By the end of the opening week when his Honda team had equally begun to boss the overall standings (they ended up winning eight of the 12 stages in total), the super-tough “48hr Chrono” stage saw Ricky looking like a potential winner barring disaster. 

As the final week unfolded Ricky started to look in control of the tactical games being played out by other riders in contention. He waited and then pulled the pin with a couple of days to go, establishing a comfortable margin between him and main rival, Hero Motorsports’ Ross Branch.

It was a margin Ricky, the 2020 Dakar winner, held through the final stage and he can now call himself a two-time winner of the toughest bike race on the planet.

“It wasn’t easy.” Said Brabec at the finish. “The course was really tough. The competition was tough. Ross and my own team kept me on my toes. It was definitely a fight to the end for everyone. I’m really happy we’re all here and all safe and we can go home.”

All too late, the final stage brought a podium for the KTM Group riders with 2023 Dakar winner Kevin Benavides claiming it ahead of Toby Price and Rally-Raid World Champion Luciano Benavides. But it was all a bit too late for the Austrian gang.

Branch takes best-ever result for Hero

Ross Branch deserves immense credit also for his ’24 Dakar. He has never been luckiest of riders at Dakar but surely one of the bravest and the ever-smiling Botswanan rider claims a very popular and deserved second place on the podium.

“I feel on top of the world.” Says Branch. “It was a really long rally, probably one of the toughest ones I’ve ever done. Hats off to Ricky, he rode an outstanding race. It was really close up until a couple of days when he made a big push and got a gap on me. It was awesome.

“I’m so happy for the team, they deserve to be happy because they’ve put a lot of work in and for such a young team, it’s a great result.”

It always looked inevitable that one of Brabec’s HRC teammates would join him on the podium and in the end it was Adrien Van Beveren who finally got the better of Jose Cornejo after his own Honda had a small but costly mechanical issue yesterday. AVB finishes just under one minute and a half behind Branch and 12:25 off his teammate.

Provisional 2024 Dakar overall top 20:

Noah claims Rally 2 showdown win 

Rally 2 class unfolded with a dramatic climax these last two days (at least). Overcoming some mechanical issues in the first week, Romain Dumontier re-established himself at the top of the second tier class only to have his worst days of the race on stages 10 and 11.

Meanwhile Harith Noah and Bradley Cox got stronger as the race unfolded to post top 10 overall results in the last stages and overcome Dumontier’s lead.

Sherco’s only remaining rider Noah therefore becomes India’s most successful Dakar competitor ever with the Rally 2 class win, and with 11th place overall. He’s a rider notable for not looking at the daily results, preferring to concentrate on each stage and not be distracted by his position.

“I tried to not have any expectations.” Said Harith at the final podium. “I just tried to ride every kilometre one at a time. I tried to navigate and not look at the results, just riding the bike. I think the most surprised I was was on stage ten, I think, when I was leading for some time and then I got fifth overall on the scratch. That really surprised me. It’s a really nice feeling to know that you have it in you. I don’t know what happened. I think on the second week I just felt better on the bike, the bike was working perfectly.”

Brad Cox and Dumontier duked it out big time on the final stage with the Frenchman pulling all the stops to better the South African finishing P6 scratch and taking second in class ahead of Cox in third. The top six in Rally 2 were 11th through to 16th in the overall classification.

Austrian Tobias Ebster dominated the Original by Motul (DIY) class all Dakar and takes the win comfortably in 20th place overall after a remarkable ride doing all the hard work each day then maintaining his own bike.

Jane Daniels concludes her maiden Dakar Rally in 48th place on the stage and 48th overall. Jane was presented with the Dakar Spirit award and also won the Women’s category: “I’m really happy to be at the finish line in one piece. It is the hardest race I have ever run: exhausting both physically and mentally.

“It is my first Dakar, I didn’t know what to really expect, but I gave my best every day. I won the women’s category, but I also wanted a good final position. We finished in the Top 50. The bike went very well. The Dakar is amazing, we will see each other again.”

The four-times EnduroGP Women World Champion raced for a total of 69h45m02s...back to eight-minute enduro tests next week Jane. 

Final classification is here: 2024 Dakar Rally final official classification for bike categories

Photo Credit: ASO Julien Delfosse DPPI