Copiapo (Chile), Aug 16 (PTI) Oriol Mena continued his good performance, securing 10th position in the second stage of the Atacama Rally, as the Hero Motosports Team Rally was also improving its position.

Mena had a particularly strong run in the second stage as he managed to catch several riders starting in front of him. He finish the stage at 10th place.

His team mate Joaquim Rodrigues who are away from the professional circuit due to back injuries continued to keep its calm and steady finish the stage in the 15th position.

After second stage, Mena and Rodrigues are strongly placed at 13th and 14th place respectively in the overall rankings. Oriol Mena was 13 minutes 13 seconds behind Honda Racing's Kevin Benavides who completed the race in three hours 44 minutes 4 seconds.

What promised to be the longest stage of the day started on a very slow note as the stage 2 of the Atacama Rally got delayed by almost 3 hours owing to foggy conditions and poor visibility in the morning.

Further it was decided to reduce the stage by about 73 km to avoid some riders arriving after the sun set.

However, unlike the weather, the intentions of the Hero MotoSports Team Rally were very clear, that is to bring another stage in the books safely. Both the riders kept their cool and rode with caution and safety to finish the stage 2 successfully.

Today's special stage ran for a total of 303 km after being reduced from an original run of 376 km and challenged the rider's with another day of a mix of hard pack and rocky mountains making it a fast but extremely technical to run.

Tomorrow, the rally will move on to the 3rd stage with another 260 kms to be done on the clock.

Oriol expressed the hope that he will be able to continue his good performance in the race important in terms of the Dakar Rally.

Oriol Mena said:"It was a really fast and good stage forward me. Especially the piste zone, and enduro style trial sections right up to the Refuel point were very fast and technical, which I like. Had a great run today but tomorrow is a new day which I am sure will give more opportunities to me to do even better."

Joaquim Rodrigues said: "It was a good stage, really fast. The trial sections in the first half of the stage with lot of rocks were not too good for my back and the second part was even faster. I still don't have that much speed in me to go full gas all the time so decided to take it easy and get myself back to the bivouac. The bike is working pretty good so overall happy with my performance so far."

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