Sebastien Loeb’s ruthless pressure paid off as his fifth straight stage win on Friday moved him up to second overall, albeit an hour and a half behind overall leader Nasser Al-Attiyah’s Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux.
In a busy day among the cars, the bike race remains on tenterhooks as they set off early on what again proved to be a fast sandy, desert pan and dune-filled day back to service at Shaybah with the cars also away relatively early.
And as it has been ever since racing resumed on Tuesday, it was Loeb and Fabian Lurquin who stormed to their fifth stage win on the trot, and their seventh of twelve 2023 day wins in the Factory Prodrive Hunter.
Cars: Loeb is second but well behind 2023 Dakar leader Al Attiyah
Nine-time World Rally Champion Loeb’s relentless pressure saw him move up to second overall behind runaway leaders, Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel, who were third on the day behind Mattias Ekstrom’s surviving Audi. Loeb had languished in 31st after day 2, but his meteoric pace saw him finally pluck second from rookie sensation Lucas Moraes and Timo Gottschalk’s Hilux, when they stopped briefly late on Friday.
There was more of a shake-up behind, as South Africans Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux lost 25 minutes at a standstill early in the stage. They slipped to fifth overall behind teammates and SA compatriots, ninth on the day Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy. Consistent Polish crew Martin Prokop and Viktor Chytk Ford Raptor also moved up a place to sixth.
Second in T1.2, Wi Han and Wei Li’s SMG in eighth overall is under pressure from sixth on Friday, Mathieu Serradori and Loic Minaudier’s second SA-built Factory Century, with Juan Yacopini and Daniel Oliveira’s Hilux tenth. Daniel Schröder and navigator Ryan Bland’s Red-Lined VK50 leads the T1.1 amateur class ahead of sand master Thomas Bell and SA man Gerhard Schutte’s similar car.
Bikes: Very tight at the top
All eyes were on the overall top three factory riders contesting the Dakar lead: American Skyler Howes’ Husqvarna and KTM duo, former winners, Aussie Toby Price, and Argentine Kevin Benavides. Price led Benavides with Howes down in eleventh. Honda rider Ignacio Cornejo however led Benavides and Price, with Howes up to fifth at the final waypoint, but there was a bit of a shake-up in the final sector.
While Cornejo held on for the day win, Daniel Sanders’ GasGas appeared out of nowhere to end second ahead of Price, his KTM teammate Matthias Walkner who also came from outside the top ten, Benavides, and Howes. Which saw Price into a mere 28-second overall lead from Howes, with Benavides 2 minutes 40 adrift in third. Honda duo Pablo Quintanilla and Adrien Benavides are 15 minutes behind.
Ignacio Casale beat Guillaume de Mevius and overall leader Austin Jones to Friday’s T3 side-by-side prototype win. SA rookie leaders Eben Basson and Abertus Pienaar were seventh on the day and seventh overall. 12th overall, SA lads Geoff Minnitt and Gerhard Snyman were in 20th on Friday. Michal Goczal beat overall leader Rokas Baciuska, Marek, and second overall, Eryk Goczal to the T4 side-by-side win.
Runaway overall quad leader Alexandre Giroud lost 26 minutes as Marcelo Medeiros beat Juraj Varga and Giovanni Enrico to the Day 12 win. And overall leaders Janus van Kasteren, Darek Rodewald, and Marcel Snijder’s Iveco took the Friday win from third overall and second man Martin Macik’s similar trucks.
Just 290 kilometers and two days remain of Dakar 2023, with 154 of those through the dunes from Shaybah to Al Hofuf on Saturday. (Report by Reuters; additional reporting Motorsport Media courtesy of Toyota Gazoo Racing)