After Toyota Hiluxes finished 1–2 in the Prologue and Stage #1 of the Sonora Rally, the Prodrive Hunters responded with a vengeance on Tuesday as all four occupied the top five in T1.
Guerlain Chicherit led much of the stage before Sébastien Loeb went on to set the fastest time of at 1:28:28. The Hilux of Stage #1 winner Nasser Al-Attiyah was the lone non-Hunter in the top five as he finished second and 2:45 back of Loeb, consequently losing the overall lead to him though the margin is only three seconds.
Brothers Marcos and Cristian Baumgart, W2RC newcomers who are racing Hunters for the first time, dramatically improved from their eighth and ninth in Stage #1 to respectively finish third and fourth. The duo chased down Yazeed Al-Rajhi before the latter’s brake problems forced him to stop and make repairs, upon which the Baumgarts capitalised before getting by Chicherit in the closing sector. Despite dropping so many positions, Chicherit was able to muster a fifth.
The top level of FIM also saw a shakeup as Daniel Sanders dominated RallyGP to take the overall lead from Stage #1 winner Tosha Schareina. The latter now trails by 1:15.
However, Sanders will be on his own for the rest of the rally as GasGas team-mate Sam Sunderland crashed after hitting a series of deep ruts and erosions along a thirty-kilometre straight road and hurt his knee and nose. Sunderland’s W2RC title defence has been plagued by miserable fortune that included breaking his shoulder just one stage into the Dakar Rally and his ankle days before the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
Skyler Howes also wrecked on the same straightaway and suffered a shoulder injury, ending his hopes of a second consecutive Sonora Rally victory. Both riders were subsequently airlifted together back to the bivouac for treatment. While not the vegetation-filled leg of Monday, the margin for error remained low and Howes’ Husqvarna partner Luciano Benavides, who finished eighth, described Tuesday’s route as “a crazy stage with a lot of broken pistes, which made it really tricky to judge in places.”
Conversely, Rally3 rider Massimo Camurri was one of the victims as well but managed to recover and remain the only winner of his class so far. On the other hand, the margins between the category’s three riders were much closer than in Stage #1 as Camurri beat Ardit Kurtaj by 4:22 and Alexander Chepurkó by 7:53 compared to the double-digit minutes the day before.
According to Sanders, the deformities along the road were not mentioned as danger marks in the roadbook. He was able to avoid being claimed as well since “I slammed my brakes on as the road disappeared and luckily washed off enough speed.”
In T3, Stage #1 winner Mattias Ekström lost the lead in the closing stretch to a pair of Red Bulls as Francisco López Contardo and Mitch Guthrie got by him, though Ekström remains atop the overall. López, back in the W2RC pursuit after skipping Abu Dhabi, completes a Red Bull sweep of the two UTV classes as Rokas Baciuška strengthens his grip on T4.
In the two-man Quad battle between Laisvydas Kancius and Rodolfo Guillioli, the latter trailed by nearly ten minutes as they hit the final checkpoint before finding his stride to beat his rival by thirty-seven seconds. Kancius still leads him in the overall by 16:31.
“It was a tough stage. Very unpredictable and dangerous,” Guillioli said of the course. “Just in the first 30 km (very fast and with some super rough gullies on the sides), there were three accidents, one of them probably the best motorcycle rider in the race. Very hard to see them at the side of the track all broken but one has to move on.
“The rest of the day was between sand, rivers, cacti (many of them), walking through the mountains, fast and winding tracks. In total 500 km but when you reach the bivouac (finish line) you forget everything in absolute happiness.”
Among the National entries, Ultimate Ironman Challenge competitor Matt Sutherland topped Malle Moto while defending Cars/UTV champion Daniel Gonzalez Reina scored the win in his class. The Stage #1 winners of both categories struggled, with Erick Pucilek (four-wheelers) bowing out due to a clutch failure while Brendan Crow (bikes) was still able to hold on to his since-narrowed overall lead.
The stage was shortened from its original 286-km Special Stage distance to 161 km due to safety concerns. Such a predicament had also forced the start of Stage #1 to be delayed.
Stage #2 winners
| Class | Number | Competitor | Team | Time |
| T1 | 200 | Sébastien Loeb | Bahrain Raid Xtreme | 1:28:28 |
| T3 | 303 | Francisco López Contardo | Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing | 1:33:25 |
| T4 | 400 | Rokas Baciuška | Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing | 1:38:32 |
| RallyGP | 18 | Daniel Sanders | Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing | 1:28:08 |
| Rally2 | 17 | Romain Dumontier | HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing | 1:34:31 |
| Rally3 | 57 | Massimo Camurri | Freedom Rally Racing | 2:10:00 |
| Quad | 165 | Rodolfo Guillioli | Pepitas Racing Team | 2:09:40 |
| National Car/UTV | 104 | Daniel Gonzalez Reina* | Baja-Son Motorsports/GR UTV Powersports | 2:18:42 |
| National Enduro | 527 | Jorge Escobedo* | Freedom Rally Racing | 2:18:24 |
| National Malle Moto | 501 | Matt Sutherland* | Matt Sutherland | 2:21:26 |
Leaders after Stage #2
| Class | Number | Competitor | Team | Time |
| T1 | 200 | Sébastien Loeb | Bahrain Raid Xtreme | 3:03:16 |
| T3 | 308 | Mattias Ekström | South Racing Can-Am | 3:15:17 |
| T4 | 400 | Rokas Baciuška | Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing | 3:23:22 |
| RallyGP | 18 | Daniel Sanders | Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing | 3:46:59 |
| Rally2 | 17 | Romain Dumontier | HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing | 4:01:59 |
| Rally3 | 57 | Massimo Camurri | Freedom Rally Racing | 5:15:17 |
| Quad | 162 | Laisvydas Kancius | AG Dakar School | 5:04:44 |
