Dakar 2023: Sainz, Giroud and Contardo maintain leads after Stage 2
3rd January 2023Carlos Sainz Sr., Alexandre Giroud and Francisco Lopez Contardo remained rally leaders after Dakar Rally’s Stage Two while the lead changed in the Bike, Truck and T4 categories.
Stage 2 started in the early hours of Monday morning, in Saudi Arabia, as the first riders got ready to go at 5am.
The second stage course started the pack’s transition across the Saudi desert towards the Persian Gulf on the east coast. The course spanned 430km – 159km spent on road sections – which moved the event from Sea Camp, on the coast of the Red Sea, to Alula.
Bike Class
The first to go in the early hours was the bike-class leader, Ricky Brabec, who inherited the lead after Sam Sunderland was airlifted to hospital 52km into the opening stage. However, Brabec was not too pleased to be the first rider out on track as he would have to navigate to the waypoints – and the finish – first while the following riders would be able to use his tracks as a guideline.
As a result, Brabec soon lost the lead of the rally to BAS World KTM’s Mason Klein after the former leader dropped down to P15 overall in his class, five minutes and 35 seconds off the lead.
Klein stands on the top step of the overall standings in his Bike class, after Stage Two, while Toby Price and Joan Barreda Bort in P2 and P3 respectively, one minute behind.
Quads
Alexandre Giroud, Yamaha Racing – SMX – Drag’on, remained in the lead of the Quad class after stage two ahead of Argentina’s Manuel Andujar (7240 Team). The Frenchman remains in prime position to secure his second consecutive Dakar Rally title.
The two competitors, Giroud and Andujar, were found battling wheel-to-wheel across the second stage. However, Andjuar dropped back 47km away from the finish line with a problem which caused the Argentine to finish eight minutes behind Giroud, in fourth.
Giroud heads into stage three separated by 21-seconds from his closest competitor, Andujar, while third placed Marcelo Medeiros (Taguatur Racing) stands 12-minutes and 52 seconds behind the lead.
Toby Price on his KTM of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team during the Stage 2 of the Dakar 2023 between Sea Camp and Al-‘Ula, on January 2nd, 2023 in Al-‘Ula, Saudi Arabia // DPPI / Red Bull Content Pool
Car
Following Carlos Sainz Sr.’s 42nd stage win in Dakar, in Stage One, the Spaniard was the first to race out into the treacherous special.
Despite being the first driver out, the former World Rally Champion still managed to put in a respectable time to finish third across the stage, five-minutes behind Nasser Al-Attiyah / Mathieu Baumel (P1) and Erik Van Loon / Sebastien Delaunay (P2).
However, it wasn’t all fun and games for his fellow competitors. Nine-time WRC champion, Sebastien Loeb suffered a horrible time on the second stage as he lost 1 hour and 26 minutes to the complicated conditions and repairing a puncture.
The Frenchman dropped from second to 31st by the end of Stage Two.
Despite a drop from the top spot, Sainz Sr. remains on top, two minutes and 12 seconds ahead of Al-Attiyah in second place while Mathieu Serradori / Loic Minaudier round out third.
T3: Lightweight Prototype
Red Bull topped the top three positions at the end of the second stage as Mitchell Guthrie / Kellon Walch (Red Bull Off-Road JR Team) secured the fastest time on the board – one-minute faster than overall T3 leader Francisco Lopez Contardo / Juan Pablo Latrach Vinagre.
Despite the tricky conditions, Lopez Contardo remains out in front with eight minutes in hand over, second-placed, Seth Quintero / Dennis Zenz (Red Bull Off-Road Jr Team) and Guillaume De Mevius / Francois Cazalet (GRALLYTEAM) – in P3.
After a promising start in the prologue, and a tough time during stage one, Red Bull CAN-AM Cristina Guiterrez Herrero and her co-driver, Pablo Moreno Huete, have chipped away at Lopez’s lead. After they finished the first stage in ninth, a sixth place finish in stage two has promoted the duo up to sixth ahead of stage three.
Mattias Ekstrom and Emil Bergvist on their Audi RS Q e-tron E2 of the Team Audi Sport during the Stage 2 of the Dakar 2023 between Sea Camp and Al-‘Ula, on January 2nd, 2023 in Al-‘Ula, Saudi Arabia // DPPI / Red Bull Content Pool
T4: Modified Production SSV
After late drama in stage one, when Red Bull CAN-AM’s Rokas Baciuska / Oriol Vidal Montijano were given a 15-minute penalty, Eryk Goczal was promoted into the winners spot for the official opening stage to become the youngest Dakar stage winner in history.
However, during the second stage, Goczal’s father, Marek Goczal plus his co-driver, Maciej Marton, took top honours with a time of 5 hours, 45 minutes and 31 seconds.
At the end of the stage, M. Goczal topped the overall standings while his son dropped down to fourth – separated by 14 minutes and 29 seconds. South Roacing CAN-AM’s Rodrigo Luppi De Oliveira / Maykel Justo and Jeremis Gonzalez Ferioli / Pedro Gonzalo Rinaldi round out the second and third respectively.
Stage three – Tuesday, January 3
Stage three will point the convoy in the direction of Ha’il with the special stage measuring 447km. The 447km special stage will continue to include more big boulders and steep canyons for the remaining participants to navigate before they cross the finish line on the Saudi Arabian dunes.
1st place rankings after S2:
- Bike – Mason Klein, BAS World KTM Racing Team
- Quadbikes – Alexandre Giroud, Yahama Racing
- Car – Carlos Sainz Snr. / Lucas Cruz, Team Audi Sport
- Lightweight Prototype – Francisco Lopez / Juan Pablo Latrach, Red Bull CAN-AM
- Modified Production SSV – Marek Goczal / Maciej Marton, EnergyLandia Rally Team
- Truck – Ales Loprais / Petr Pokora / Jaroslav Valtr Jr., Instaforex Loprais Praga
That’s it for the article; Dakar 2023: Sainz, Giroud and Contardo maintain lead after Stage 2!
Who is your early contenders for the Dakar title ahead of Stage three? Let us know in the comments!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
