Jean-Loup Lepan left the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge second in the World Rally-Raid Championship Rally2 standings, but will be stepping back from the bike for now as he intends to skip the Sonora Rally on 23–28 April. His next W2RC race will be the Desafío Ruta 40 on 28 August through 1 September.
“It is three weeks after my return from Abu Dhabi,” began a social media post from Lepan. “I’m taking a little break and I’ll soon be back in sport to prepare for the rest. I won’t be present for the 3rd round of the @officialw2rc, I’m preparing for the 4th round in Argentina.”
After finishing fourth in class at the season-opening Dakar Rally, Lepan was among the top Rally2 riders in Abu Dhabi as he battled with Paolo Lucci for the points lead. Although Lucci won more stages, Lepan claimed Stage #4 and beat Lucci—who was nursing a wrist injury—in the fifth and final leg to finish ahead of him in the overall by nearly nine minutes. Lepan and Lucci respectively finished second and third, with non-championship rider Tobias Ebster claiming the overall.
Nonetheless, Lucci’s stage wins and runner-up in Dakar make him the current championship leader with fifty points to Lepan’s forty-five.
Since Rally2 is a class for amateur and aspiring riders, they are allowed to skip one round without it impacting their standing. Dakar winner Romain Dumontier applied this caveat when he elected to skip Abu Dhabi, which dropped him from first in points to third, seven back of Lepan.
The Desafío Ruta 40 in Argentina is the penultimate round of the 2023 W2RC calendar. The season ends with the Rallye du Maroc on 12–18 October. Lepan qualified for his maiden Dakar in 2022 via the previous year’s Rallye du Maroc.