Monster Energy Yamaha Rally Team’s Ross Branch has raced to an impressive victory on stage one of Rally Kazakhstan. Completing a highly successful day for the team, Ross’ teammates Adrien Van Beveren and Andrew Short rounded out the top five, bringing home their Yamaha WR450F Rally bikes in fourth and fifth respectively.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Matthias Walkner has got his 2021 Rally Kazakhstan off to a strong start by placing second-fastest on the tough first stage of the event. Sam Sunderland claimed seventh following a small error while opening the timed special.

Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Skyler Howes has made an excellent FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship debut for the team by placing third on stage one of the 2021 Rally Kazakhstan. Fifth-fastest on the event's opening Prologue, Howes impressed further on his FR 450 Rally with a strong performance on the 280km timed special of day one. He now sits third overall in the provisional overall rally standings. Teammate Luciano Benavides completed the day in 11th place after opening much of the stage.

Making his competitive debut for GASGAS Factory Racing at Rally Kazakhstan, Daniel Sanders has safely completed stage one in ninth place overall. A little cautious through the high speed, mixed terrain special, and also suffering from a minor loss of focus after stopping for fuel, the Aussie remains optimistic of turning his race around and climbing the leaderboard in the days ahead.

With almost five months having passed since the Dakar Rally, the Monster Energy Yamaha Rally Team riders were excited to return to action with all racers completing the opening 280km special with strong rides, kickstarting the 2021 edition of Rally Kazakhstan in the best way possible.

Focusing on improving his navigational skills during the off season certainly paid off for Ross Branch, as he opened stage one and then raced to a deserving victory aboard his Yamaha WR450F Rally. Despite a minor mistake near the end of the special, the Botswana native had built up a comfortable margin over the chasing pack to maintain his lead and complete the stage with a two-minute gap over second place. The victory marks Ross’ first ever stage win in the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.

The second stage of the 2021 Rally Kazakhstanl take on a 279km special located to the south-east of the city of Aktau. Each rider will have their navigational skills put to the test as they’ll be faced with a maze of desert tracks where mistakes could prove to be costly. At the end of the stage, the team will arrive in Bay Kendirli on the coast of the Caspian Sea.

Ross Branch:"A really good first day here in Kazakhstan. It was great to open the stage and my navigation was pretty good. A few mistakes here and there but overall it was on point. It was a pretty fast stage and the bike was on the limit for most of the day, so it was a good test and it’s just great to be back racing. I can’t wait for tomorrow. I’ll open the stage again but I’m confident with my navigation, myself, and the bike, so I’m really excited to get going again."

Matthias Walkner: “It’s cool to finish the first day here in Kazakhstan with a result like this. It was really fast in the beginning and generally the navigation was quite straightforward. Over the whole day there were a few notes that were quite tricky, and you really had to pay attention to make sure you didn’t make any mistakes. It took a while after a long break from racing to find my rhythm and get back up to speed with the mixture of racing and navigating. I rode most of the day on my own and it wasn’t until right near the end that I caught the dust of some of the guys in front. I’m super happy, the pace is good, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the rally.”

Skyler Howes: “Today went really well for me. I started off eighth, so I had a lot of bikes to chase down, but actually the colour of the dirt here in Kazakhstan makes it really difficult to see the tracks, so you have to stay on your navigation really well. I made a couple of really small mistakes early on – I didn’t get lost, just blowing corners. The terrain was quite fun, even though it was open, the tracks were really twisty and with a lot of sand, you could really rail the corners, so that felt good. I had a lot of fun. The dunes today were a little weird because they had a wet layer on top, but you blew through that to the dusty layer underneath and that made it hard to keep a steady rhythm. With some big camel grass as well, it was tough to maintain a good pace there and I did lose a few minutes after getting lost. Overall, I had a really good day, had a lot of fun, and I’m excited for the rest of the week.”

Luciano Benavides: “It was a really fast day today. There were lots of tracks and some tricky dunes later on. After my result in the Prologue, I started off opening the stage, which is always a challenge. I led out for the first 125km but then made a mistake and was caught by the guys behind. Annoyingly I lost some minutes there, but after that the rest of the stage was ok, even though most of it was riding in the dust from the guys in front. I decided to just finish the stage safely and look ahead to tomorrow.”

Sam Sunderland: “I started as the fourth bike away this morning and was hoping that I wouldn’t have to open any of the stage, but the guys in front made a mistake and I found myself ahead. It was then my turn to make a mistake and I lost some time around checkpoint three. Overall, I’m feeling good and really comfortable on the bike, which is positive because we made a lot of changes on the run up to the event. It’s really nice to give the team some good feedback because everyone has been working really hard on this new direction. This first stage has been fast, the notes in the road book come up really quickly and it’s tough to stay on top of it all. There is a lot of wildlife out there too – horses and camels – but we were nice with them, and they seemed to be nice to us. All-in-all everything is good, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Adrien Van Beveren:"Today was a good start to the event for me. We have a different style of roadbook compared to the Dakar, so it took some time to get used to that. After a while I got into it and started catching the riders ahead of me, but then I had to sit in their dust for over 100km and had to slow down a little. It was frustrating but then that group made a navigational mistake and then I found myself leading the stage. It was great to be in clean air and I was then able to make up a lot of time. Overall, I’m happy with how today went and I’m looking forward to tomorrow."

Andrew Short: "A good first day. It’s been a while since the Dakar so it took a little while to get back into competing again. It was a bit crazy early on in the sand dunes with a lot of vegetation around. It made it slower and technical though and it was nice to ride on some different terrain. It was a decent day overall. Some good learnings were made and I felt great on the bike so it’s all positive."

Daniel Sanders: “It was going pretty good until the first fuel stop. After that I lost a little bit of my focus and struggled with the stage as it was quite high-speed. There were a lot of fast roads, really hardpack with ruts in so it was a little sketchy. I kept focused on my roadbook and made a few little mistakes here and there so it wasn’t my best day, but not the worst either. The sand dunes were fun, though! From here on out I’m looking to get the ball rolling and building some momentum to finish this rally strong.”

Rally Kazakhstan 2021 - Stage 1 Provisional Classification

1. Ross Branch (Yamaha) 3:14:07

2. Matthias Walkner (KTM) 3:16:15 + 0:02:08

3. Skyler Howes (Husqvarna) 3:17:44 + 0:03:37

4. Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) 3:21:23 + 0:07:16

5. Andrew Short (Yamaha) 3:21:46 + 0:07:39

6. Joaquim Rodrigues (Hero) 3:24:19 + 0:10:12

Rally Kazakhstan 2021 - Overall Provisional Classification (after stage 1)

1. Ross Branch (Yamaha) 3:19:53

2. Matthias Walkner (KTM) 3:22:04 + 0:02:11

3. Skyler Howes (Husqvarna) 3:23:36 + 0:03:43

4. Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) 3:27:20 + 0:07:27

5. Andrew Short (Yamaha) 3:27:38 + 0:07:45

6. Joaquim Rodrigues (Hero) 3:30:13 + 0:10:20