Sébastien Loeb secured a second stage victory at the 2023 Dakar Rally on Sunday, but it was Nasser Al-Attiyah who had plenty of reasons to smile as he remains more than an hour ahead of his nearest rival in the car race after eight grueling stages through Saudi Arabia.
Despite hostile weather conditions throughout the week, the convoy of competitors reached Riyadh on Sunday and it was Loeb who inherited the stage win after Carlos Sainz was handed a five-minute time penalty for speeding, stripping him of first place. However, defending champion Al-Attiyah remains in pole position to win a fifth Dakar title as he sits atop the car race leaderboard.
In the bike race, Kevin Benavides of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing enjoyed a fruitful day and is now just 13 seconds off the lead, while teammates Toby Price and Matthias Walkner are both in the top 10.
“I started at the back and caught the guys at the front after the last refueling,” Benavides said. “Now we want to do our best in the second week.”
There was also a taste of the battle at the front of the T3 race in the second week of the Dakar as Guillaume De Mevius and co-driver François Cazalet maintained their overall lead in the category.
However, they know they will be under pressure – as they were during Stage Eight – from A.J. Jones and teammate Seth Quintero of Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA presented by BFGoodrich.
Now the competitors will have 24 hours to rest, recover and tune up their vehicles for the second week of the Dakar.