Dakar Rally 2023

[dimviii]

Loeb trying to change a wheel after the jack of the car was blocked and couldnt lift the car
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...ent_deeplink=1

[fiscorpun]

Go Seb! jeeez, tomorrow is going to be intense

[EstWRC]

It’s over. Loeb standing

[focus206]

Not surprising, the two weak points of this Prodrive Hunter... broken arms and punctures. What's surprising is drivers such as Loeb and Nasser driving for Prodrive...

[focus206]

The stage was won by Chicherit, in front of De Mevius and Sainz. Loeb was able to stay on the podium because Moraes lost 2 hours and dropped to 9th, which means the top 2 Hilux are from Overdrive Racing and not from the "works" Gazoo Racing.
175 Km to go for Carlos for his 4th Dakar (5th if we consider the Central Europe Rally 2008 which was ran in place of the African Dakar, but it's usually not counted).

Top 5 before the final stage:
1 - Carlos Sainz (Audi)
2 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 26m 06s
3 - Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) + 1h 36m 02s
4 - Guerlain Chicherit (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 41m 20s
5 - Martin Prokop (Ford Jipocar) + 2h 16m 47s

[NaBUru38]

Classification after stage 11:

Bikes

USA Ricky Brabec (Honda), 49:37'57
BWA Ross Branch (Hero), + 10'
FRA Adrien van Beveren (Honda), + 14'
CHI José Ignacio Cornejo (Honda) + 38'
ARG Kevin Benavides (KTM), + 42'
AUS Toby Price (KTM), + 47'
ARG Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna), + 55'
AUS Daniel Sanders (Gas Gas), + 1:12'
SVK Stefan Svitko (KTM), + 1:54'
CZE Martin Michek (KTM), + 2:43'
IND Harith Hoah (Sherco), + 2:53'
FRA Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna), + 2:59'

T1 Ultimate Cars

ESP Carlos Sainz (Audi), 46:24'47
BEL Guillaume de Mevius (Toyota), + 1:26'
FRA Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive), + 1:36'
FRA Guerlain Chicherit (Toyota), + 1:41'
CZE Martin Prokop (Ford), + 2:16'
RSA Guy David Botterill (Toyota), + 2:40'
RSA Giniel de Villiers (Toyota), + 2:50'
LTU Benediktas Vanagas (Toyota), + 3:00'
BRA Lucas Moraes (Toyota), + 3:05'
FRA Mathieu Serradori (Century), + 3:08'
KGZ Denis Krotov (Toyota), + 3:42'
FRA Stéphane Peterhansel (Audi), + 4:15'

T3 Challengers

USA Mitchell Guthrie (Taurus), 51:38'06
ESP Cristina Gutiérrez (Taurus), + 25'
LTU Rokas Baciuska (Can-Am), + 1:20'
CHI Francisco López (Can-Am), + 1:24'
USA Austin Jones (Can-Am), + 2:02'

T4 SSV

FRA Xavier de Soultrait (Polaris), 54:35'11
SUI Jerome de Sadeleer (Polaris), + 2'49
SAU Yasir Seaidan (Can-Am), 1:03'
USA Sara Price (Can-Am), + 1:07'
POR Joao Ferreira (Can-Am), + 1:19'
ECU Sebastián Guayasamin (Can-Am), + 3:32'

T5 Trucks

CZE Martin Macik (Iveco), 52:31'45
CZE Ales Loprais (Praga), + 2:01'
NED Mitchel van der Brink (Iveco), + 4:27'
NED Janus van Kasteren (Iveco), + 5:26'
NED Vick Versteejnen (Iveco), + 10 h
NED Michiel Becx (Iveco), + 11 h

Quads:

ARG Manuel Andujar (Yamaha), 62:11'24
FRA Alexandre Giroud (Yamaha), + 8'
SVK Juraj Varga (Yamaha), + 3:45'
LTU Laisvydas Kancius (Yamaha), + 6:46'
LTU Anastas Kanopkinas (CFMoto), + 48 h

[fiscorpun]

I love the ProDrive team but Loeb deserves a better team for next year.
I HOPE Dacia can help, honestly... Audi is leaving the sport and Ford will not bring biiiig money to the Msport car...
MAYBE 2025? But jeeeez, fix those arms... And theres must be something wrong on the weight to get that amount of puncters year after year... AAAhhh

[focus206]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps50c5BZ5cI

Highlights of today's stage + bits of yesterday's stage. Loeb was stranded and was rescued by Chinese private Hunter driver Yungang Zi, one of the two other remaining Hunter drivers. He might have saved the podium for Loeb, who otherwise would have waited for the Prodrive assistance truck to arrive, I imagine.
Also nice sportsmanship from Seb saluting Carlos passing by and telling him to slow down on the rocky terrain.
At minute 5:31 very angry Fabian Lurquin (I think the angry voice is him and not Seb) from yesterday's punctures.

[dimviii]

. And theres must be something wrong on the weight to get that amount of puncters year after year... AAAhhh

car tent to have so many punctures due to wrong exhaust design=overheating tyres.
Except that its obvious that suspension wise is wrong.Car jumping at rear like group A car.
Car is not only unreliable is slow too.
Dont know if prodrive can design a better car when dacia will race at 2025.
Problems with current car didnt manage to find a solution for 3 years...

[focus206]

Congratulations to Carlos, amazing that at his age he's still fast and consistent. He was also the only Audi without major issues (Peterhansel retired today with engine problems). I was hoping Loeb would get his first Dakar as he deserves it for putting up with that trash Prodrive, but if not Seb I'm glad Carlos got it.
Loeb won the last stage but it wasn't enough to get 2nd place back as De Mevius finished the stage in 2nd and so kept 2nd overall.

Final Top 10:
1 - Carlos Sainz (Audi)
2 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 20m 25s
3 - Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) + 1h 29m 12s
4 - Guerlain Chicherit (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 35m 59s
5 - Martin Prokop (Ford Jipocar) + 2h 16m 43s
6 - Guy Botterill (Toyota) + 2h 40m 33s
7 - Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) + 2h 50m 26s
8 - Benediktas Vanagas (Toyota Baltics) + 2h 57m 17s
9 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota) + 3h 03m 12s
10 - Mathieu Serradori (Century) + 3h 04m 12s