January 4, 2023: Stage 4

The fourth stage of the Dakar took place at higher elevations, with an altitude that never dropped below 800 meters and sometimes climbed up to 1,300 meters. The cool weather accompanied the riders on today’s 425 km-long loop to the west of Ha’il. Tricky navigation was just one of the challenges, as was the big smorgasbord of dunes.

The win for most of stage 4 seemed to point towards Mason Klein, who has been impressive since the beginning of this 45th edition and lived up to his phenomenal potential during most of the day. Spending a long time as one of the openers, the young American rider performed the task like a battle-hardened pro, picking up the best intermediate times with authority. However, approximately 50 kilometers from the finish line, Mason was hindered by a fuel pump problem. This setback prevented the 21 year old from picking up his second stage victory, after clocking the 11th fastest time in the stage.

Mason Klein: “After about 400 km my fuel pump went out. I had to stop, take the tank off and pour it in the back. Then I couldn’t get the skid plate bolt back in. … I have a bunch of tools with me, so I basically ran out in the dunes, got my seat off, took out the tools, dropped it to the ground, undid a couple of clips, undid three bolts, then I poured it back in. It didn’t go that smoothly though, because I couldn’t make the bike stand up until I had some gas in the tank again, so the whole time I had to balance the bike while taking everything off. You can’t get the skid plate off when it’s just laying on the ground. It’s just difficult. It took too long, maybe five or something minutes, hopefully not more than ten.”

---

---

Ultimately it was Joan “Bang Bang” Barreda who even with a broken toe, snatched the 30th stage win of his career. He’s now just three short of the all-time record held by Stéphane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres. Today’s stage win also moves the Spanish rider up to 4th place in the overall standings.

Honda’s Pablo Quintanilla made the second best time of the day, just 16 seconds behind Spaniard Joan Barreda – who is also riding an Honda CRF 450 Rally. The Chilean is now in seventh place in the provisional general rankings.

Pablo Quintanilla: “It was a super tough day. A long day with a lot of tracks and camel grass. You had to spend a lot of energy trying to control the bike. The sand was very wet, so it was heavy to turn in and difficult. It was a long day: 425 km for the stage, so you can imagine that for the body it was super tough.”

Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Skyler Howes has delivered another exceptional ride at the Dakar Rally today, placing third on stage four, despite opening much of the special. A large crash in the second half of the stage knocked Skyler’s confidence a little, but the American rider was able to maintain a solid pace to the finish. After four stages, Howes’ consistency is paying off as the FR 450 Rally rider now lies second overall in the provisional standings.

Skyler Howes: “That one was tough. I caught up to Sanders around kilometer 100, and Mason (Klein) caught up as well, so the three of us were fighting at the front to open the stage. It was a super-fun day in the morning – the dunes were really wet, but then softer on the top, and I actually went over the bars a couple of times, which isn’t great. I led into the refueling and then after that I had a really big crash in a section of rocks. We were searching to find the correct way and I must have just clipped one and it sent me sideways. Thankfully Sanders was close by and helped me up. After that I found it hard to find my rhythm for a good while, I was riding like a zombie. But then towards the end I found my focus and was able to navigate well to the finish. I need a little rest now, but I’m happy with how things are going overall.”

Putting in another consistent ride on stage four, KTM’s Toby Price claimed fourth on the day to move himself up the provisional event standings to fifth, less than 10 minutes from the lead after close to 19 hours of racing. The Aussie star will enjoy a strong start position for Thursday’s stage five, where he will aim to push on the soft dunes to make up time on his rivals. 

Also riding with a strong, consistent pace, Kevin Benavides brought his KTM 450 Rally home in seventh today. But with times extremely close at the top of the leaderboard, the 2021 Dakar champion only trailed the provisional stage winner by just over three minutes. In doing so, Kevin successfully defended his current third-place position in the general standings and will have six riders starting ahead of him tomorrow to chase down.

Battling his way through the pain of the injured wrist he damaged on Monday’s stage two, Matthias Walkner completed today’s special in 12th place, 12 and a half minutes down on the leader. Despite the discomfort, the former Dakar winner will try to continue with the event. Matthias lies in a highly commendable 10th overall.

Matthias Walkner: “It’s been another really hard stage today. I have a lot of pain in my wrist and I’m at my absolute limit right now. As soon as I set off this morning, I knew it would be a tough day, but I fought my way through it. I’ll keep on trying to do my best and see how I feel each day.”

But GasGas’ Daniel Sanders still leads the Dakar Rally for the second day running. Faced with the arduous task of opening today’s special after winning yesterday’s stage, the Aussie managed to keep his first place in the overall standings after clocking the eighth fastest time in today’s stage. Things are now looking pretty good for Daniel tomorrow. Set to start the 373-kilometer special from eighth and with a full day of sand surfing on the menu, Sanders can rely a little less on his navigation and a little more on staying on the gas in a bid to extend his lead at the top of the leaderboard.

A Crushing Blow

It’s the end of the road for Joaquim Rodrigues, who was taking part in his 7th consecutive Dakar. The Hero Motosports rider was forced to exit the Dakar prematurely with a fractured leg after 90 km of the day’s special, making it his third withdrawal since 2017. J-Rod was the hero of the Indian constructor, the man who ensured the brand their first victory on the Dakar on stage 3. This was not the only mishap for Hero, because Sebastian Bühler ran out of fuel before Ross Branch got bogged down with unending mechanical repairs. Only Franco Caimi managed to emerge unscathed, finishing 17th, a little less than twenty minutes behind Joan Barreda. The Argentinean is 13th in the general rankings, 48 minutes behind the race leader and the last chance for the team to shine in the overall race hierarchy.

Stage 4 Top 10 Motorcycle Rankings

Stage 4 Top 10 Overall Motorcycle Rankings

---

January 3, 2023: Stage 3

Today’s long 447-km stage offered riders a mix of challenging rocky and sandy tracks, leaving for the end some unusual showers and mud. The challenge also involved having the capacity to focus on navigation where many criss-crossing tracks made it easy to get confused. 

Stage 3 was further marked by the early exit of another former Dakar champion. Ricky Brabec, the first American to win the race in 2020, joined the list of major favorites who have exited the race prematurely after crashing at km 274. The attending medical team found him experiencing dizziness and neck pain and proceeded to transport him to the hospital, both conscious and able to move, for further medical examinations. Following Sam Sunderland (GasGas), within the space of three days, the rally has lost two of its former winners. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dakar Rally (@dakarrally)

It was much better news for GasGas’ Daniel Sanders, who posted the best intermediate times throughout the special before winning for the fourth time in his career on a stage of the Dakar, while also taking the lead in the rally. 

Daniel Sanders: “We struggled a bit at the start. It was really hard through the deep sand and rock. Then it was a case of pushing again. The goal was to get to refueling and find out where everyone was and then sort of pick up. The guys out front were doing a good job opening. I ended up as the third rider through the stage at the end, so it was still important to keep focus on the navigation, because the guys out front had been opening all day. At one moment they can make a mistake and lose focus. It ended up okay. Me and Pricey pushed all the way to the end. We broke away from the guys in the dunes. I was surprised that the big kangaroo could still follow me! It was good, because we were two Aussies pushing through at the end and to pull away from some fast guys is pretty good. I hope my strategy yesterday was a good one. I waited a long time and slowed down a lot after the last refueling. Jordi was telling us that today was going to be a tough stage. He said don’t win unless you can win by a lot. That’s what I was doing today. I thought, ok, if I go for the win, I’ll try and push the whole day and win by a lot, and now I’ll focus on tomorrow. Of course, the Aussies have the strongest spirit. We’ve got some good natural desert skills. I think me and Pricey have come from a good background, with a lot of fast racing in Australia and it’s paying off here on the Dakar”.

The Australian’s lead in the general rankings was limited by the efforts of young privateer Mason Klein, who won yesterday’s stage and benefited from the new rules awarding bonuses to the openers. Mason’s third fastest finish in today’s stage places him only 4 minutes behind Sanders in the general rankings.

Likewise, with the regulations awarding bonus time to the first three riders through the special (from the start to the refueling point), Husqvarna’s Skyler Howes earned three minutes and 14 seconds for his work in opening the stage. Initially completing the day as third fastest, the American then moved up to second after one of his rivals was docked two minutes for speeding. The result for the stage moves Skyler from seventh up to fourth in the general rankings.

As the eighth rider into the stage, KTM’s Kevin Benavides was well-placed to chase down the seven riders ahead of him. Even with times being tight at the top of the leaderboard, the Argentinian put in a consistent ride to move quickly inside the top three and remain there for the majority of the stage. Despite incurring a two-minute penalty, Benavides’ fourth-place result moves the 2021 Dakar champion up to provisional third in the overall rankings, less than seven minutes down on the leader.

Meanwhile, Joan Barreda, who broke his toe during yesterday’s stage keeps pushing through the pain, finishing the stage in a respectable 4th place and keeping his 3rd position in the general rankings in spite of the injury.

In the end, the worsening weather conditions forced the organizers to shorten the special in order to preserve the emergency intervention capacities. The stage was stopped at CP2/CP3 after 43 bikes had reached the finish line. In order to assign a time to the remaining riders, a calculation will be made for each of them according to the average achieved over the first part of the stage.

Stat Of The Day: 5’52’’

After winning the first special of his career on the Dakar at the age of 21 years, Mason Klein never ceases to amaze his elders. By opening the way, he set off on a 2WD version of Pacman until the refueling point, gobbling up all the bonuses available for the first time to reward the riders opening the way for their colleagues. Out in front alone, Mason was first through all the way points and collected all the 5’52’’ of bonuses on offer until refueling after 240 km, after which there were no more points. At this phase of the race, Mason had gained more bonus points than the time he had lost to Daniel Sanders. A positive points balance of 7’’ allowed him to limit the damage. 

Skyler Howes, his friend and mentor, who was the third rider to set off this morning, accomplished a similar feat. At the finish of the stage after approximately 450 km, Klein was still opening the special and had managed to navigate faultlessly. Finishing only 6’59’’ behind the day’s winner, he declared: I like opening. I love it, I don’t know why. I prefer it. I feel I make less mistakes.” This contrasts with the opinions of his peers, for whom it resembles a punishment. Mason is quite unlike the other riders. This evening, he lost the lead in the general rankings to Sanders but remains 2nd on the Dakar, scarcely more than 4 minutes behind.

Stage 3 Top 10 Motorcycle Rankings

Stage 3 Top 10 Overall Motorcycle Rankings

---

January 2, 2023: Stage 2

Today’s weather conditions modified the expected nature of the ground under the wheels, making it stonier and trickier. Yet, in what riders are calling one of the toughest Dakar stages in recent years, young rider Mason Klein won in the bike category. The American kept his cool despite a 2-minute speed penalty and at the rather tender age of 21 years claimed his first victory on the event, even though he has only recently joined the Rally GP category.

Mason Klein: “Today I felt really good apart from the speed penalty I got, again. But other than that, it was super nice. Most of the day I was just following the other guys and then at the last part they were making jokes about me leading out or not leading out and letting them all do the work. So, I said, fine, I’ll take my turn and I just left them and it was good. The terrain was super good. The navigation was nice. The roadbook was good. The thing is, with the speed, like the top speeds in the speed zones, it’s all so much for me. It’s so much for my brain. Sometimes I just blank. Like, I’ll be paying attention to the speed zone and it will say go, no turns, all you have to do is stay straight and follow this course. I have to almost stop, and I forget what I’m doing. I don’t know if it’s about experience. It’s pretty tough”.

Hero’s Sebastian Buhler snatched 2nd place, bagging the first-ever stage podium of his Dakar career. Behind his dust was Husqvarna’s Skyler Howes, who set off into the long 430 km stage and was able to take 3rd place. Following closely behind was Hero’s Ross Branch who is still recovering from his crashes in Stage 1 and made every effort to ride steadily which earned him the 4th position.

As the fifth rider to enter the stage, Toby Price made a steady start to the timed special, taking his time to adjust to the intense terrain seen over the first few hundred kilometers. The result moves Toby up to second in the provisional overall standings.

Joining Price inside the top 10, Kevin Benavides placed eighth despite incurring a one-minute speeding penalty, while Matthias Walkner posted the 10th quickest time after crashing hard during the stage.

Ticking off stage two at the Dakar Rally with the ninth-fastest time, GASGAS Factory Racing’s Daniel Sanders maintains his fifth overall placing in the provisional standings. Knowing the importance of posting consistent stage results every single day, Sanders upped his pace when he needed to today, then backed off near the end to bring his RX 450F home safe and sound in ninth. Daniel now lies just under three minutes adrift of the overall leader with plenty of racing still to go.

A Crushing Blow

It seems like it will be a short Dakar Rally for Matthias Walkner. At around 150 kilometers from the finish line, the KTM factory rider missed a rock and crashed while going over 110 km/h. He still managed to finish but a medical evaluation has found a fracture in his wrist.

Matthias Walkner: “What should I say … It was a very, very long and demanding day that started in a casual canyon. It was really fun and the scenery was also very impressive today. Out of 430 kilometers we drove 400 kilometers between football sized stones, here you have to be on alert all the time. This is extremely challenging and today’s stage was probably the most dangerous I’ve ever driven in a Dakar. Over almost six hours you have to maintain full concentration and must not overlook a stone, otherwise it really hurts. 150 miles to the finish line, this is exactly what happened to me, according to the evaluated airbag data, I was going 110 km/h when I missed a rock. I fell pretty hard into a rock pile and hurt my wrist. Luckily we drive with airbag, it probably prevented much worse. All the guardian angels and lucky charms were on my page today. Since the wrist hurt very badly, I immediately drove to the hospital for an X-ray at the finish line. Besides all the abrasions, hematomas and flesh wounds, this is also what really worries me. I got a slight fracture on my wrist The last 130 kilometers of stages to the finish line were very painful, I partly could not hold the steering wheel anymore and somehow I still “rescued” myself to the finish line. Due to the severe pain currently not sure if I’ll be able to drive anymore. I’m going to sleep it through the night and decide in the morning if I’m at it early tomorrow. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t give up that easily, I prepared myself too hard for that. But I’m not going to risk stupidity either. I’m going to do everything I can to keep going, even though the gut feeling isn’t so great right now. Best wishes, Hiasi”

Stat Of The Day: 21

It has been six years since a privateer had last won a stage on the Dakar. It is necessary to go back to 2016 and veteran Stefan Svitko to find such a performance. Today, it was Mason Klein at the rather tender age of 21 years for his third day of racing in the Rally GP category who achieved such a feat and took control of the general rankings ahead of the factory riders. KTM have been wrapping their protégé in cotton wool in their satellite team since his emergence on the Rally du Maroc in 2021. Winning a special and taking the lead in the Dakar general rankings at such a young age is unprecedented!

Stage 2 Top 10 Motorcycle Rankings

Stage 2 Top 10 Overall Motorcycle Rankings

---

January 1, 2023: Stage 1

Special stage number one brought 369 kilometers of action throughout sandy and stony tracks, with start point and arrival at the Sea Camp bivouac – close to Yanbu (South Arabia).

The reigning world champion and Dakar title holder, Sam Sunderland, was once again the victim of the unforgiving nature of the event after he crashed out of the race 52 km into the special. The British rider started the stage in 22nd place and posted the fastest time at the first checkpoint, 37 kilometers into the race, only to take a tumble another 15 kilometers down the road. Conscious and mobile, but suffering from back pain, he was flown to Yanbu, where he was found to have a broken shoulder blade.

Sam Sunderland: “Thank you for all the kind messages, I am more or less ok, a broken shoulder blade, big hematoma on my back and a concussion, I feel quite embarrassed to be laid here typing this out, being out of dakar on day one is a tough pill to swallow, I want to first express my disappointment for my team who have worked so hard to give me the tools to defend this number 1 and deserve much more, also to my partners that support me. These moments are what make the victories so special, I felt really good this morning and was leading for the short part of the stage I rode then I have missed a stone under the sand in a river bed and had a pretty violent crash. Thank you @matthias_walkner for stopping to help me and to the @dakarrally medical crew for making sure I was safe. I will try to learn from this and I hope my teammates can bring home the result the team deserve. Thank you.”

A new pecking order soon emerged in which the young American Mason Klein came close to victory in his first stage as a RallyGP biker. However, a penalty for speeding meant his maiden win will have to wait just a bit longer, and in the end it was Ricky Brabec (Honda) who claimed his ninth career special and topped the overall standings. KTM riders, Kevin Benavides and Toby Price, round off the provisional podium ahead of Honda’s Joan Barreda, who also let a potential victory slip away due to a penalty.

Toby Price: “Stage one has gone ok for me. I saw Sam (Sunderland) had crashed out at around kilometer 70, and it’s never good to see one of your mates go down like that. After that I just focused on my road book and made sure I didn’t make any big mistakes on the way to the finish. It’s a long race and we have a very long way to go. My goal right now is to stay safe and consistent.”

Tomorrow the second stage from this year’s Dakar Rally will leave the Sea Camp in the direction of Al-Ula. This special stage will have 430 kilometers of closed tracks demanding great handling skills, so riders will get mainly dirt tracks (59%), stones (26%) and just a little taste of sand (14% sand tracks and one percent of dunes). Besides this competitive section, there is also another 159 kilometers of liaison. Navigation will be key as participants reach the splendid canyons and beautiful landscapes near the finish. According to the ASO organization, the stage will be decided on the dunes, with some of the majestic Nabataean temples visible on the landscape.

Stage 1 Top 10 Motorcycle Rankings

Stage 1 Top 10 Overall Motorcycle Rankings

---

December 31, 2022: Prologue

A short, sharp 13km Saturday prologue track on the shores of the Red Sea determined the starting positions for Sunday’s more challenging 368km timed special stage.

Former bike champion Toby Price won the prologue for the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team, bouncing back after two painful exits from rallies, one due to a car fire in the Baja 1000 and another due to a crash in the Rallye du Maroc. The Australian scored his sixteenth Dakar stage win by a single second over his compatriot Daniel Sanders (GasGas), while Botswana’s Ross Branch (Hero) took the bottom step of the podium behind the two men from Oz. Joaquim Rodrigues (sixth) and Sebastian Bühler (eighth) also placed high and proved that Hero is a force to be reckoned with.

Dakar winner Ricky Brabec was the strongest Honda rider, with a 10th place, followed by Pablo Quintanilla (12th place). But HRC teammate Nacho Cornejo was not so lucky. The Chilean received a devastating blow in 2021, when he crashed out of the lead with two days to go. Today, Cornejo got his seventh Dakar off to an inauspicious start with a crash on the first turn of the prologue. No broken bones, no serious injuries, but the time loss will leave him as salty as the breeze on the shores of the Red Sea. He finished 79th on the day and his actual deficit of 1′15″ to Toby Price was turned into a difference of 6′15″ by the coefficient of 5 applied to the prologue to dissuade competitors from sandbagging. Nacho, the second-last ranked biker in the Rally GP category is likely to start in second place tomorrow.

Entrants in the Rally GP category will open the first stage in reverse order of their times today. To make matters worse, the new rules entitle the top 10 riders in the prologue to pick their starting positions from among the 28 available slots in the Rally GP category. The fastest bikers in the prologue are likely to cluster at the back of the field to benefit from the tracks left by the early starters.

Prologue Top 10 Rankings