2023 Dakar Rally | Stage One Highlights & Results

January 1, 2023

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2023 DAKAR RALLY | COMPLETE COVERAGE

PHOTOS | HONDA-KTM

The first leg of the 2023 Dakar Rally, a 14-stage tour through Saudi Arabia, is underway. The two-week race started with a very short Prologue run on New Year’s Eve and was followed by a few hundred kilometers on New Year’s Day, both of which began at the SeaCamp, inched into the expansive Middle Eastern desert, and returned to the bivouac by the water.

PROLOGUE

Toby Price put in the fastest run of the prologue, as the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider covered the 13 km route in just 8:22. Second place finisher Daniel Sanders was a tick off the pace, literally, as the Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing rider crossed the line with a time of 8:23. The rest of the pack was just as close on the short course and there were little to no time differences between others in the top-ten. Ross Branch, Joan Barreda, and Kevin Benavides each clocked 8:31 runs, but Hero Motosports Team Rally rider Branch was credited with third place.

STAGE ONE

A crash by Sam Sunderland 52 km into the Stage One Special has forced the defending champion to withdraw from the rest of the rally. The Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing rider was on pace early, and his time to the first checkpoint was the quickest of the bike category, but the accident occurred minutes later in a rocky section of the course and required a medical flight to nearby Yanbu, where Sunderland was diagnosed with a broken shoulder.

Penalties and adjustments played their usual role in the results. Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing’s Daniel Sanders was the fastest man on the day, but he was docked two minutes in the final times and was credited with fifth. Pablo Quintanilla also got hit with a two-minute punishment, which took the Monster Energy Honda Team from a possible second-place finish to an actual seventh-place result. A one-minute penalty to Joan Barreda dropped the Monster Energy JB rider from third to fourth. Matthias Walkner was credited with tenth place, which the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider earned through a late-day charge and time returned for his courteous wait with the injured Sunderland.

Americans Mason Klein and Ricky Brabec were among the day’s top riders. Klein took control midway through the stage and put himself in contention for a career-first win until mistakes through the final sector and dropped the BAS World KTM rider to sixth place. Brabec, who set the tempo before Klein’s overtake and has plans to keep his Monster Energy Honda Team somewhere in top-ten until the final push in the rally, was promoted to the win and first overall after the penalties were applied to others.