Dakar day 11, and the hunt is on
An epic effort and fourth-stage win from Sebastien Loeb, but can he catch Nasser Al-Attiyah?
Dakar day 11 presented competitors with a 274km run in no-man’s land conditions as it was a no-service stage, and though this brought more caution to the driving, the race for the top spot did not slow down.
Cars:
Loeb and Fabian Lurquin pushed relentlessly flat-out up front in their Prodrive Factory Hunter. Loeb took six minutes off rookie Lucas Moraes and Timo Gottschalk, who came home in fourth.
Overall leaders Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel consolidated their handy one-hour-and-21-minute overall lead, finishing in fifth on the day in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux DKR T1+. They were followed by two more GR Toyota Hiluxes, SA teammates Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings, and Yazeed Al-Rajhi, and best of the 4x2s, Mathieu Serradori’s SA-built Century CR6-T.
There’s no change in the top five cars overall as Al-Attiyah continues to lead Moraes, Loeb, Lategan and SA legend Giniel de Villiers. Martin Prokop is up to sixth in his Ford Raptor, from former Le Mans winner Romain Dumas in another GR Hilux. SA duo Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer still lead T1.2 4x2s in their Century CR6-T.
Bikes
Overall leaders Skyler Howes’ Husqvarna and KTM duo Toby Price and Kevin Benavides are duking it out for the Dakar 2023 win. Price was fourth on the day from Howes in fifth, with Benavides five minutes behind in 11th. That was enough to see Howes back into a 28-second lead from Price with overnight leader Benavides third, two minutes and 44 seconds adrift.
Adrien van Beveren languished in 17th and Wednesday’s winner, Botswana’s Ross Branch, also struggled to 19th. Rookie bike leader Michael Docherty rode home 16th overall and second in amateur R2 on his FK Husqvarna. Charan Moore finished in 48th as he slipped to second in no-service Malle Moto overall. The SA trio, Stuart Gregory was 68th to move up to eighth in Malle Moto, Rookie Stevan Wilken was 81st and Iron Lady Kirsten Landman 86th.
SA duo Geoff Minnitt and Gerhard Snyman’s HBE Can Am sat 14th, while rookie leaders Eben Basson and Leander Pienaar were 22nd in their GR Rally.
There are three days to go in the Dakar 2023, to cement its reputation as the toughest race on the planet.
Source: MotorsportMedia
