Dakar Rally 2023

[NaBUru38]

The 2024 Dakar Rally will be held on January 5-19 in Saudi Arabia.

The main race will feature 12 stages connecting Al-'Ula, Shaybah and Yanbu, with 4,727 km timed and 7,891 km total. The entries comprise 137 motorcycles, 10 quads, 72 Ultimate cars (T1 / T2), 42 Challengers (T3), 36 SSV (T4), 3 stocks, 46 trucks (T5).

Meanwhile, the Dakar Classic regularity race will be held over 3,586 km timed and 7,366 km total, with 66 cars and 14 trucks.

In addition there's 10 entries for the Mission 1000, a 1000 km non-competitive event for alternative energy vehicles.

[NaBUru38]

Motorcycle entries include:

* Honda: #7 CHI Pablo Quintanilla, #9 USA Ricky Brabec, #10 USA Skyler Howes, #11 CHI José Ignacio Cornejo, #42 FRA Adrien van Beveren, #68 ESP Tosha Schareina.
* Gas Gas: #4 GBR Sam Sunderland, AUS Daniel Sanders.
* Husqvarna: #1 ARG Luciano Benavides.
* KTM: #2 AUS Toby Price, #47 ARG Kevin Benavides, #52 AUT Matthias Walkner.
* Hero: #14 GER Sebastian Bühler, #27 POR Joaquim Rodrigues, #46 BWA Ross Branch, #88 ESP Joan Barreda Bort.
* Sherco: #15 ESP Lorenzo Santolino, #19 POR Rui Gonçalves, #20 IND Harith Noah Koitha Veettil.

Ultimate T1 cars include:

* Prodrive: #200 QAT Nasser Al-Attiyah, #203 FRA Sebastien Loeb.
* Audi: #202 FRA Stéphane Peterhansel, #204 ESP Carlos Sainz #207 SWE Mattias Ekström.
* Ford: #208 CZE Martin Prokop, #210 ESP Nani Roma, #225 RSA Gareth Woolridge.
* Mini: #214 LTU Vaidotas Zala, #217 POL Krzysztof Holowczyc, #230 ESP Pau Navarro.
* Toyota Gazoo: #206 BRA Lucas Moraes, #209 RSA Giniel De Villiers, #216 USA Seth Quintero, #226 RSA Saood Variawa.
* Toyota Overdrive: #201 SAU Yazeed Al Rajhi, #205 ARG Juan Cruz Yacopini, #211 FRA Guerlain Chicherit.
* Toyota Baltics: #223 LTU Benediktas Vanagas.
* Toyota Rebellion: #231 FRA Romain Dumas.
* BAIC: #224 CHN Zhang Guoyu, CHN Yunliang Zi.
* Astara: #238 ESP Laia Sanz, #262 Patricia Pita

[NaBUru38]

Matthias Walkner got multiple fractures while testing in California, and will miss the Dakar Rally.

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Dakar started with the short prologue, won by Ekstrom (Audi), in front of Seth Quintero (Toyota, +23s), Loeb and Marcos Baumgart (both Prodrive, both +38s).

[dimviii]

not a good day for Loeb and Nasser with brx from prodrive.18th for Loeb and 22th for Nasser.
to be honest when i read that Nasser will switch from Toyota to Prodrive was afraid if his choice was correct.
Lets see, if he knows something more.

https://www.dakar.com/en/rankings

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Loeb wrote on his Facebook page that the time loss was because of puncture + mechanical trouble.
In my opinion Nasser wanted a new challenge, with a worse car... he was dominating almost every raid with Toyota. And he'll remain with Prodrive for the Dacia project.

Top 5 after stage 1:
1 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive)
2 - Carlos Sainz (Audi) + 1m 44s
3 - Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) + 9m 18s
4 - Vaidotas Zala (Mini) + 10m 42s
5 - Romain Dumas (Toyota Rebellion Racing) +12m 18s

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Loeb

"Slaloming among stones at 30 km/h is not our idea of fun. We knew it wouldn't be a great stage in terms of driving, but we had to do it. We overcame it, but not without problems. We had a flat tyre once and we also had to change a tong link. All that cost us a quarter of an hour, but we're here... It was hell, we were just hoping to avoid any more punctures. We made it, that's all that matters now."


Nasser
"We punctured twice in the first fifty kilometers, so after that we couldn't really attack any more and we just tried to reach the finish. Even so, I'm happy because it was really difficult and we had to take it really easy in the last 150 kilometres."

[focus206]

Today stage victory for Peterhansel, in front of Loeb and Seth Quintero. The Prodrive Hunter seems much better on sand, such was today's surface, but way too fragile on rocky terrain.

Top 5:
1 - Carlos Sainz (Audi)
2 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) + 1m 51s
3 - Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) + 4m 17s
4 - Seth Quintero (Toyota) + 7m 36s
5 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive) +7m 44s

Ekstrom is 6th, Nasser 7th, Peterhansel 9th.

[dimviii]

Nasser Al Attiyah


"It was good, very fast. We pushed from the beginning, but we broke a rear arm and we stopped for more than ten minutes to repair. I think it's a weak point of this car because Séb' broke the same arm yesterday. We'll try to speak with the team to fix the problems. I enjoy the car a lot, even with all the problems we had today and yesterday, we're still in the game, it's only twelve minutes in the overall."


Loeb
"Today was a nice special. Unlike yesterday, there was something for us to do apart from keeping our car and tyres in one piece. Driving skills were front and centre in this special, with a bit of everything: dunes, tracks, off-track sections, tough navigation with hidden pitfalls… A bit of everything. We made a couple of navigation mistakes, but we soon found our way back. I hope to see Stéphane Peterhansel at the front… to open the road tomorrow!"

[dimviii]

Loeb
Today, Loeb et Lurquin suffered three punctures and so had to repair their tyre, losing 23 minutes to the stage winner. In the general rankings, the Prodrive crew occupy 9th place, almost 25 minutes behind the leader.
“It was a complicated day with three punctures, so after the third one we had to repair. We lost a lot of time repairing the tyre and inflating it again. Then we had to stop every twenty kilometres because it was losing air, so we lost a lot of time with this. It’s a bit of bad luck, because the punctures were all on the tread of the tyre, so it wasn’t like we were pushing very hard in the stones. Sometimes you have punctures driving slowly, sometimes you go fast and you have no punctures. It’s difficult to understand really how we can manage that and everybody is struggling with that. That’s how it is”.