Together with his four-wheeled rally machine out of fee for the foreseeable future, Stéphane Peterhansel determined to return to his roots as soon as once more by getting into final week’s Swank Rally di Sardegna. Racing a Yamaha WRF450F, he battled with Benjamin Melot and Alessandro Botturi all through the five-leg occasion; though developing quick, he nonetheless proved he hasn’t missed a step on a motorbike with a third-place end.
Peterhansel led early when he beat Vincenzo Savoca Corona for the primary stage win by simply two seconds. He continued his benefit earlier than Melot tied it up with an similar time via three legs. Melot had raced alongside Peterhansel on the Dakar Rally in January, albeit on a motorbike (and solo), and the veteran stayed sharp as he pulled away within the last two phases to beat Botturi by a mere seven seconds. Botturi in flip edged out Peterhansel by seventeen seconds.
Past driving the identical marque, Peterhansel and Botturi additionally each knew their approach from Europe to Senegal on two wheels. Peterhansel received the Paris–Dakar Rally six occasions on a bike adopted by three extra in a automotive earlier than the race moved elsewhere, whereas Botturi is a two-time bike winner of the Africa Eco Race that took up the Dakar’s authentic route. Botturi, certainly one of Yamaha’s manufacturing unit riders, additionally completed second within the 2024 AER.
In January, Peterhansel completed thirtieth in his thirty-fifth profession Dakar, scoring his record-tying fiftieth stage win however falling out of rivalry on account of mechanical issues. He and Mattias Ekström spent the remainder of the race accompanying team-mate Carlos Sainz to his fourth Dakar victory. Though their Crew Audi Sport was purported to race for the W2RC of their last season, the staff ended up shutting down after Dakar on account of components shortages, leaving Peterhansel with loads of free time for himself.
Whereas his profession has been up within the air as he approaches his sixties, he has been retaining busy. In 2023, Peterhansel made his return to bikes when he entered the Morocco Desert Problem in a non-competition class as a part of the Tenere Spirit Expertise, a factory-backed programme for Ténéré 700 house owners led by his spouse Andréa Peterhansel. Andréa additionally entered the Swank Rally and completed nineteenth.
The 2024 Swank Rally celebrated the forty-year anniversary of the Sardegna Rally Race, a former spherical of the FIM Cross-Nation Rallies World Championship (predecessor to the present World Rally-Raid Championship). The rally is meant for all no matter background or regulation, which means sure bikes entered aren’t eligible for conventional FIM competitors. Whereas Peterhansel’s WRF450F is allowed within the W2RC, he went up in opposition to enduro and journey bikes with considerably extra energy than mandated in rally raids; a lot of his fellow Yamaha riders like Botturi used bikes that neared 700cc in engine displacement from the Ténéré line.
Different faces included Alessandro Zanichelli, who raced the Dakar on a Yamaha 600 within the Nineteen Eighties, and 2025 Dakar hopeful Romain Bouzigon.
Organised by Italian firm Journey Driving, a Swank Rally can also be held in Tunisia in late February.
