Luciano Benavides achieved the Rally-Raid world title this Wednesday. To do so, he finished the Rallye du Maroc in second place, just behind the winner Toby Price (Red Bull KTM), after a fifth stage where he had to open the road.
The Argentine from Husqvarna reacted to the achievement by saying: ‘It’s a dream come true for me! It’s been a long journey to get to this point, since finishing my first rally here in Morocco in 2017. Finishing like this against Toby on the last day of the rally while opening the stage is incredible. I can’t thank the team enough for all the hard work and their confidence in me!‘.
Regarding the last stage in particular, Benavides commented: ‘Today was crazy! The navigation for this stage was complicated, I got lost at some points, but managed to get back on track quickly and recover time. I loved opening the stage in the dunes and knew I had to stay in front since the others would catch up to me’.
As for winning the title, the South American confessed that the wait was difficult to manage: ‘Finally I got my first world title! Waiting for the confirmation of the title when I finished was tense, 40 minutes felt like four hours, but I knew I had given my best today since there was no other option. It was really special to start in first because I could just look ahead and move forward, and no one caught me, so I was also the first to finish‘.
Finally, Benavides stated: ‘I want to celebrate and enjoy this feeling for some time because even though it’s amazing, it was a tough season and I trained hard, so I want to rest for a week or two! After that, full throttle again because I want to maintain the same pace for the Dakar, as it is another dream of mine to win it‘.
