Dakar 2023: Come Ha’il or high water as extreme weather hits
5th January 2023A handful of Dakar Rally’s Truck-classed teams put their competitive nature to one side to help two Lightweight Prototype cars who were stranded out following an extreme weather event.
Bike
While Mason Klein topped the standings after Stage Two, Monster Energy Honda’s Ricky Brabec still remained a favourite to challenge for the title. However, Brabec was met with an abrupt end to his Dakar 2023 ambition, at the 274 km mark, with a painful cervical vertebrae. While the American rider remained conscious and was able to move, the Honda rider was airlifted to hospital for further medical examinations.
Following his stage two win, Klein led the class out from Alula to Ha’il. While he was forced to make the tracks for the remaining riders, the American powered through and still finished third on the stage. This finish dropped the BAS World rider down to second place in the overall standings, four minutes behind new Dakar Bike leader, Daniel Sanders (Red Bull GASGAS).
Sanders now leads the pack with 14 hours, five minutes and 38 seconds to his name, ahead of Klein and Kevin Benavides (Red Bull KTM) respectively.
Quad
Yahama Racing – SMX – Drag’On’s Alexandre Giroud seemed to be untroubled by whatever Dakar threw his way as he established a healthy gap over his main rival, 7240 Team’s Manuel Andujar at the end of stage three. The Yahama rider remains in the lead, with 16 hours, 57 minutes and 18 seconds to his name – 35 minutes in hand over his closest rival Dragon’s Francisco Moreno Flores.
Misfortunes pained the Argentine’s stage and Andujar fell down to 11th place in the stage rankings, 54 minutes behind his rival. As a result, the Argentinian dropped from second place – in close contention with Giroud – to fourth, one hour, three minutes and 26 behind.
Car
Despite a good run in the opening few stages of the Dakar Rally, Team Audi Sport’s Carlos Sainz met trouble on stage three. The Spaniard bled time after he, and his co-driver Luiz Cruz, were forced to make repairs on their rear tyre – followed by a puncture. Sainz dropped to P44 in the stage rankings and fell to eighth, 33 minutes behind the leading pace.
Following Nasser Al-Attiyah’s win in stage two, and a P13 finish in stage three, Sainz’s issues meant the Qatari jumped to the top of the overall timing board. Yazeed Al Rajhi / Dirk Von Zitzewitz (Overdrive Racing) and Stephane Peterhansel / Edouard Boulanger (Team Audi Sport) rounded out the top three respectively.
However, it was GCK Motorsport’s Guerlain Chicherit – plus co-driver, Alex Winocq – who secured the stage win. The French duo cleared through the 669.15km within three hours, 22 minutes and 57 seconds, three minutes ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Henk Lategan / Brett Cummings.
Truck and Lightweight Prototypes
Following a downpour of rain in the desert, two T3 cars were stranded in a fast flowing river created by the rain.
The extreme weather event caused local flooding on the stage and added an additional challenge for the competitors. Unfortunately, two Red Bull Can-Am cars were stranded in the fast flowing river; Francisco Lopez Contardo/Juan Pablo Latrach Vinagre and Cristina Guiterrez Herrero/Pablo Moreno Huete.
As a result, two truck teams – who soon showed up – put aside their competitive nature to one side to help the stranded vehicles.
The number 501 truck (MM Technology) – of Martin Macik, Frantisek Tomasek and David Svanada – helped Contardo / Vinagre, while the 505 truck (Tatra Buggyra ZM) – of Jaroslav Valtr, Rene Kilian and Tomas Sikola – aided Herrero / Huete for an amount of time.
While Contardo and Vinagre managed to somewhat recover from their position, Herrero and Huete remained stuck in the flooded river. The Red Bull car which remained stuck in the flooding was soon helped by Eurol Team’s Martin Vandenbrink, Rijk Mouw and Erik Kofman and Instaforex Loprais Praga’s Ales Loprais, Petr Pokora and Jaroslav Valtr Jr.
The latter finally got Herrero out of the water.
Despite the help, the lead remained unchanged across the Truck category as Loprais, Pokora and Valtr Jr. remained in the lead. However, Seth Quintero / Dennis Zenz (Red Bull Off-Road Jr.) topped the T3 class as Contardo and Vinagre dropped down to sixth – one hour and 10 minutes behind.
That’s it for the article; Dakar 2023: Come Ha’il or high water as extreme weather hits!
What has been your favourite moment so far from Dakar 2023? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Rally Raid here:
- Dakar 2023: Sainz, Giroud and Contardo maintain leads after Stage 2
- Dakar Rally 2023: Sainz tops Stage 1 as Sunderland is airlifted to hospital
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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.
