Dakar Rally 2023

Mattias Ekstrom won the prologue of the 2023 Dakar Rally as the Team Audi RS Q e-tron took three of the top six positions in the endurance race.

Janus Van Kasteren (NLD), Boss Machinery Team De Rooy, 9:49. Mitchel Van Den Brink (NLD), Eurol Team De Rooy, 9:48; 3. Gerard Farres Guell (ESP), Can-Am Factory South Racing, 9:14. Rokas Baciuska (LTU), Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing, 9:06; 2. Seth Quintero (USA), Red Bull Off-Road Junior team, 8:51; 3. Marcelo Medeiros (BRA), Taguatur Racing, 8:51; 3. Alexandre Giroud (FRA), Yamaha Racing, 8:50; 2. Stephane Peterhansel (FRA), Team Audi Sport, 8:11. Mattias Ekstrom (SWE), Team Audi Sport, 8:00; 2. I’m not used to coming up with strategies, but I’ll be in a good position to pick my starting order for tomorrow.” Dakar” with 14 championships (six on a bike, eight in a car). “It’s always nice to start in a good way, but, of course, the day is long and the rally is even longer,” said Ekstrom, who finished ninth with a stage victory last year in his Dakar Rally debut.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing's Toby Price took first blood on the 2023 Dakar Rally, claiming victory on the 13km Prologue Stage over compatriot Daniel ...

Early pre-race favorite Nacho Cornejo (Monster Energy Honda) had a shocker, crashing on the very first turn of the stage to finish 79th, 1m15sec off Price. Defending champion, Sam Sunderland (Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing) had a steady start to the Rally in 10th, 13sec off Price. Fourth place Joan Barreda (Monster Energy JB Team) and Price’s teammate Kevin Benavides clocked the same time as Branch but were classified fourth and fifth, respectively.

Toby Price wins the Dakar 2023 Prologue for KTM, with GASGAS's Daniel Sanders second, with the next stage to cover 368 timed km out of Yanbu, starting and ...

375 km 669 km 431 km 590 km 368 km 603 km

The opening stage of the 2023 Dakar Rally came down to the slimmest of margins like Mattias Ekström beating Sébastien Loeb in the Cars by a second.

led Team de Rooy‘s [Mitchel van den Brink](https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2022/07/van-den-brinks-receive-eurol-backing-set-for-dakar-run-with-team-de-rooy/) and Janus van Kasteren. [KAMAZ-master](https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2022/09/kamaz-master-formally-kills-dakar-2023-plans/)‘s absence, the trucks of T5 instead saw a Prologue podium sweep by IVECO as Martin Macík Jr. 18-year-old [Eryk Goczał](https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2022/10/eryk-goczal-receives-licences-ahead-of-dakar-2023/) was fourth in his maiden Dakar start ahead of his uncle Michal and father Marek. [new factory partnership](https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2022/12/red-bull-can-am-factory-team-created-ahead-of-2023-dakar-rally/) with Can-Am quickly bore fruit as Cristina Gutiérrez and team newcomer Rokas Baciuška respectively topped the T3 and T4 classes, both by two minutes. Fellow Australian Daniel Sanders was right behind by a minute, also returning from injury as he broke his left elbow at the 2022 Dakar Rally. Alexandre Giroud‘s Quad title defence began well as he beat Marcelo Medeiros by a second, with over ten seconds on third-place rider Daniel Vila Vaques. T1 driver Erik van Loon rolled his Toyota Hilux Overdrive after hitting a rut, while Rally2 rider Eduardo Sánchez crashed but did not suffer serious injuries. [Audi RS Q e-tron E2](https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2022/09/audi-reveals-rs-q-e-tron-e2/), now eligible for the World Rally-Raid Championship, began its T1 title quest strong as Mattias Ekström edged out 2022 W2RC runner-up Sébastien Loeb for the Prologue win by just one second. “Today is only the start and we have fourteen long stages ahead of us.” The only other competitor, privateer Ibrahim Almuhna in a Nissan Patrol, finished nearly two minutes behind Miura. “A good end to 2022, but tomorrow is the real start.” With the stage being what Quad rider Pablo Copetti called a “very fast and technical” thirteen kilometres, the margins between each competitor were mere seconds for many but it provided an early glimpse into who will have momentum entering the first main, 600-km stage.

British rider Sam Sunderland eyes a Dakar Rally hat-trick as he prepares for a fight in the Saudi Arabian dunes in one of motorsport's most gruelling test.

After watching GasGas steal the limelight in 2022, Husqvarna will be looking to make its own bit of history this time in 2023. The Australian-Austro duo are joined by Kevin Benavides, winner with Honda in 2021, the Argentine bidding for a better result in his second outing with KTM. They will be supported by Jose Ignacio Cornejo, who is eyeing a first Dakar podium, and new signing Adrien Van Beveren. Indeed, French company Sherco [above] put up a strong fight for long stretches of the 2022 Dakar Rally as more established rivals fell foul in the desert. Moreover, there remains a strong chance the title will remain within the group in 2023 with the combination of KTM, GasGas and Husqvarna dominating the entry list numbers. as we look ahead to the 2023 Dakar Rally, will Sunderland be kicking sand in the faces of his rivals once again?

The 2023 Dakar Rally stormed into action last night and Aussies are already stealing the show, with two stars topping the bike Prologue.

“We get to pick the starting position for tomorrow in the top 30 and we will probably go for somewhere between 20th and 30th in between the fast guys. “Now we get to start in the top 28, so we get to pick our position for the start of the race. “Ease into the navigation day 1 and try not to lose too much time, after a year off the bike it will be really important to take it easy and ease into it. “We ran off the track a couple of times and it was not the cleanest run, but we got through with a good time, only one second behind first position. “Prologue done and dusted and had a really good start to the rally, we have come out with a prologue win,” Price said on social media. The KTM factory rider’s time of 8:22s was the best in the bikes category, but he had another Australian for company.