2024 WRC and Off Road Discussion *includes 'Dakar' *

[Everso Biggyballies]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Stage 1 extended highlights (9 mins)

Click watch on youtube to watch.


BIKES

Branch set to take Dakar lead, Sanders top 10 after dramatic Stage 1
Ross Branch is set to be credited with the Dakar lead after stopping to assist Prologue winner Tosha Schareina when the Spaniard crashed out on Stage 1.

2020 event winner Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda) is currently classified in the overall lead, four seconds up on fellow American Mason Klein (KORR Offroad Racing).

Daniel Sanders is best of the two Australians in eighth at 4:53s off the pace on his GasGas Factory Racing, while Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Toby Price is 14th at 11:58s away from top spot.

However, they are all set to be demoted a position, pending a time compensation of about 25 minutes for Branch after the Hero Motorsports rider stopped to assist Schareina. **Now Confirmed**

General classification: Bikes Top 10, Updated

Pos Num Nat Rider Team Time Gap
1 46 BOT ROSS BRANCH HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY 04H 56′ 01”
2 9 USA RICKY BRABEC MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 05H 06′ 55” + 00H 10′ 54”
3 98 USA MASON KLEIN KORR OFFROAD RACING 05H 07′ 20” + 00H 11′ 19”
4 18 RSA BRADLEY COX BAS WORLD KTM RACING TEAM 05H 08′ 55” + 00H 12′ 54”
5 11 CHI JOSE IGNACIO CORNEJO FLORIMO MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 05H 09′ 44” + 00H 13′ 43”
6 16 FRA ROMAIN DUMONTIER TEAM DUMONTIER RACING 05H 10′ 07” + 00H 14′ 06”
7 15 ESP LORENZO SANTOLINO SHERCO RALLY FACTORY 05H 10′ 12” + 00H 14′ 11”
8 47 ARG KEVIN BENAVIDES RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 05H 11′ 38” + 00H 15′ 37”
9 5 AUS DANIEL SANDERS RED BULL GASGAS FACTORY RACING 05H 12′ 55” + 00H 16′ 54”
10 23 CZE MARTIN MICHEK ORION – MOTO RACING GROUP 05H 13′ 13” + 00H 17′ 12”
16th Toby Price +0:23:20


CARS
Overdrive Toyota driver Guillaume de Mevius claimed a surprise win in the first full stage of the Dakar Rally, beating Carlos Sainz in a stage which caught out Prodrive duo Nasser Al-Attiyah and Sebastien Loeb.

Prologue winner Mattias Ekstrom had been fastest all the way to the Kilometre 225 waypoint on Stage 1 until he lost about eight minutes and gave up the lead to fellow Team Audi Sport driver Sainz.

Giniel De Villiers took third at 9:18s off the pace in his Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux, ahead of Vaidotas Zala (X-Raid Arijus JCW) and Romain Dumas (Rebellion Toyota Hilux).

Ekstrom slipped to 10th, 14:20s away from top spot, with Sebastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) next of the big names in 19th at 22:47s off the pace.

Both Loeb and Prodrive Hunter stablemate Al-Attiyah were hit by punctures, the latter of whom copped two in the first 50km and had to tread carefully thereafter in the rocky terrain.

Al-Attiyah is 22nd at 24:47s from the lead while Audi’s Stephane Peterhansel is more than half an hour back in 26th.


General classification: Cars Top 10

Pos Num Nat Driver Team Time Gap
1 221 BEL GUILLAUME DE MEVIUS OVERDRIVE RACING 04H 35′ 59”
2 204 ESP CARLOS SAINZ TEAM AUDI SPORT 04H 37′ 43” + 00H 01′ 44”
3 209 RSA GINIEL DE VILLIERS TOYOTA GAZOO RACING 04H 45′ 17” + 00H 09′ 18”
4 214 LTU VAIDOTAS ZALA X-RAID ARIJUS TEAM 04H 46′ 41” + 00H 10′ 42”
5 231 FRA ROMAIN DUMAS REBELLION RACING 04H 48′ 17” + 00H 12′ 18”
6 206 BRA LUCAS MORAES TOYOTA GAZOO RACING 04H 49′ 24” + 00H 13′ 25”
7 243 RSA GUY DAVID BOTTERILL TOYOTA GAZOO RACING 04H 49′ 38” + 00H 13′ 39”
8 201 KSA YAZEED AL RAJHI OVERDRIVE RACING 04H 49′ 38” + 00H 13′ 39”
9 212 FRA MATHIEU SERRADORI CENTURY RACING FACTORY TEAM 04H 50′ 11” + 00H 14′ 12”
10 207 SWE MATTIAS EKSTRÖM TEAM AUDI SPORT 04H 50′ 19” + 00H 14′ 20”




Dakar Classic Stage 1 Highlights

[Everso Biggyballies]

Stage 2:

Peterhansel scores historic win, Sainz takes overall lead
Dakar Rally legend Stephane Peterhansel scored a historic 50th career win on Sunday’s second test, as Audi team-mate Carlos Sainz moved into the overall lead in the cars category.

Bit of a fightback from the twp Prodrives of AL Attiyah and particularly Loeb, bouncing back from a disappointing stage 1. Loeb was pressuring Peterhansel for the stage wimn at one stage but Mr Dakar fought back and managed to stretch his lead in the last 100klms.


Provisional overall classification after Stage 2 (Top 10):


Position Driver. Car. Time / gap

1. Carlos Sainz Audi. 8h49m38s
2 Yazeed Al-Rajhi. Toyota. +1m51s
3. Sebastien Loeb. Prodrive +4m17s
4 Seth Quintero Toyota +7m36s
5. Guillaume de Mevius Toyota. +7m44s
6. Mattias Ekstromm Audi. +11m17s
7. Nasser Al-Attiyah. Prodrive. +12m16s
8. Lucas Moraes. Toyota. +12m17s
9. Stephane Peterhansel. Audi. +13m16s
10. Guerlian Chicherit. Toyota +14m247s




Extended Day 2 Highlights





BIKES

Spanish rider Carles Falcon is in serious but stable condition after suffering a horrifying accident on the second stage. He was involved in a crash 448km into Sunday’s 463km test between Al Henakiyah and Al Duwadimi. Falcon received immediate assistance from a crew that arrived via a medical helicopter, before he had to be airlifted to Al Duwadimi hospital for further treatment.

He was initially reported to be in a “serious condition” in a statement issued by the organiser.

Shortly afterwards, Dakar race director David Castera revealed that Falcon didn’t have a pulse when the doctor arrived at the scene of the accident. He was successfully resuscitated, but had to be taken to hospital for further treatment.

The exact scope of his injuries won’t be clear until results of all the tests are available.

Wish him all the best with the prognosis and recovery. Sounds pretty serious.


UPDATE ON FALCON's CONDITION

Falcon has been placed into an induced coma and will remain in hospital for at least a week. This is the team statement released later.

"He is in an induced coma and has cerebral oedema," the team said. "The prospects for recovery are uncertain at this stage, and the rider is expected to remain in hospital for at least a week in Riyadh".

"TwinTrail Racing Team rider Carles Falcon, who was taking part in the Dakar for the second time, suffered a serious accident at the end of the second stage.

"He was evacuated from the special stage by helicopter. Initially Carles was unconscious and without a pulse, but the doctors revived him.

"He was admitted to Al Duwadimi hospital where he underwent further tests. It has been confirmed that he has a fracture of the C2 which needs to be operated on urgently.

"He will be transferred to Riyadh Hospital this evening. Carles will be kept under sedation for the next few days to monitor the evolution of the oedema he has suffered in his head.

As for the results of Stage 2 for the bikes and overall order....

Cornejo wins Stage 2, Price into Dakar top 10

Ross Branch still leads the Dakar Rally overall, albeit by a reduced margin after Honda’s Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo won Stage 2 in the Bikes.

Stage 3, from Al Duwadimi to Al Salamiya, will be the longest of the rally so far in terms of the 733km total distance.

The 438km special includes a mixture of rocks, sand, and dunes.

General classification: Bikes Top 10

Pos Num Nat Rider Team Time Gap
1 46 BOT ROSS BRANCH HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY 09H 49′ 54”
2 11 CHI JOSE IGNACIO CORNEJO FLORIMO MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 09H 52′ 24” + 00H 02′ 30”
3 9 USA RICKY BRABEC MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 09H 56′ 44” + 00H 06′ 50”
4 7 CHI PABLO QUINTANILLA MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 10H 05′ 25” + 00H 15′ 31”
5 1 ARG LUCIANO BENAVIDES HUSQVARNA FACTORY RACING 10H 07′ 27” + 00H 17′ 33”
6 5 AUS DANIEL SANDERS RED BULL GASGAS FACTORY RACING 10H 07′ 29” + 00H 17′ 35”
7 4 GBR SAM SUNDERLAND RED BULL GASGAS FACTORY RACING 10H 08′ 24” + 00H 18′ 30”
8 2 AUS TOBY PRICE RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 10H 09′ 44” + 00H 19′ 50”
9 42 FRA ADRIEN VAN BEVEREN MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 10H 10′ 48” + 00H 20′ 54”
10 88 ESP JOAN BARREDA BORT HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY 10H 11′ 01” + 00H 21′ 07”



CLASSIC HIGHLIGHTS STAGE 2

[Everso Biggyballies]

Seems like I am the only one following or commenting.....

Stage 4 Extended Highlights

[erwin greven]

From the earliest editions till De Rijt's crash in 1988 Paris-Dakar, i followed it as much as I could. After that I lost a huge amount of interest.

And i miss the old atmosphere. It has to evolve i know, but the start of the official Dakar Raid misses everything i loved about it. Spectators, where are they?

[DoubleFart]

Ballies - I am keeping up to date with it via your posts, but lack time to comment. Please continue to update.

[Everso Biggyballies]

OK here we go then


STAGE 5

Stage 5 covered the shortest special stage distance of this year’s Dakar Rally at 118km, to provide small respite before the two-day marathon stage begins tomorrow, which will see competitors stop on Thursday and camp overnight and resume on Friday....... no overnight assistance from crews and no updates on rivals' positions until the conclusion.


Cars

Al-Attiyah wins short stage to move up to second overall

Nasser Al-Attiyah has secured his first stage win of 2024 to move into second place overall behind leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi.
He won the stage by 1m51s from Overdrive Toyota’s Guerlain Chicherit.

Fellow Toyota driver Juan Cruz Yacopini grabbed third place on the stage, ahead of overall leader Al-Rajhi in fourth who lost exactly two minutes to Al-Attiyah. Another Toyota entrant and Stage 1 winner Guillaume De Mevius completed the top five finishers on the stage.

It was a low-key day for Audi’s Carlos Sainz as he conceded 9m02s to stage winner Al-Attiyah, putting him well outside the top 10 on the stage rankings, to duly drop down to third overall. Mattias Ekstrom profited from Stage 3 winner Lucas Moraes hitting trouble to move up to fourth overall, as the Toyota driver bled 37m16s on the stage.

Some odd strategies for the Loeb Prodrive entry...he .was hit with a 15-minute penalty for missing a waypoint on the stage, culminating in 21m13s total time lost. It seems Loeb deliberately got the penalty and the time hit, confident he would gain far more benefit from the mid pack start position he thus had..... Leading the way (especially with stage 6 being the start of the marathon session) with no tracks to follow and effectively creating the path for others to follow at greater speed was the strategy behind that call.. Of note is that for this marathon stage the four-wheelers take a different route to the bikes and hence no leading cars have tracks to follow
Loeb was 40th in the class on the day and will be the 46th car to set off for Stage 6,
He dropped to 9th overall as a result Interesting to see how that call pans out.


Overal Ranking

m Nat Driver Team Time Gap
1 201 KSA YAZEED AL RAJHI OVERDRIVE RACING 17H 24′ 04”
2 200 QAT NASSER AL-ATTIYAH NASSER RACING 17H 33′ 07” + 00H 09′ 03”
3 204 ESP CARLOS SAINZ TEAM AUDI SPORT 17H 35′ 35” + 00H 11′ 31”
4 207 SWE MATTIAS EKSTRÖM TEAM AUDI SPORT 17H 47′ 02” + 00H 22′ 58”
5 212 FRA MATHIEU SERRADORI CENTURY RACING FACTORY TEAM 17H 55′ 04” + 00H 31′ 00”
6 202 FRA STÉPHANE PETERHANSEL TEAM AUDI SPORT 17H 58′ 16” + 00H 34′ 12”
7 214 LTU VAIDOTAS ZALA X-RAID ARIJUS TEAM 18H 01′ 11” + 00H 37′ 07”
8 221 BEL GUILLAUME DE MEVIUS OVERDRIVE RACING 18H 05′ 55” + 00H 41′ 51”
9 203 FRA SEBASTIEN LOEB BAHRAIN RAID XTREME 18H 07′ 07” + 00H 43′ 03”
10 206 BRA LUCAS MORAES TOYOTA GAZOO RACING 18H 18′ 51” + 00H 54′ 47”

EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS STAGE 5




BIKES

Quintanilla wins Dakar Stage 5, Price third

Pablo Quintanilla has won Stage 5 of the Dakar Rally while Toby Price scored a first stage podium of 2024
There was also change at the very top of the general classification with Hero Motosports' Ross Branch reclaiming the lead from Honda's Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo.

Branch's advantage is 1:14s, after he had trailed Cornejo by 1:15s at the start of the day, with Ricky Brabec 3:47s off the pace in third on another factory Honda entry.

Further back Price remains eighth overall but has crept slightly closer to top spot, which he now trails by 31:36s, and it was a similar story for fellow AussieDaniel Sanders. He climbed from 11th back to 9th in the general classification, albeit 37:44s off the pace, after setting the fourth-quickest stage time of the day.

As with the cars Stage 6 is the '48-hour stage', A few oddities and random lets call them NASCAR calls from the organisers...
The special stage component totals 626km over two days, with navigation said to be even more difficult than usual, and as with the cars, riders will not have any information about stage classification at the overnight stop, let alone assistance from crews.

Now the NASCAR bit....on top of chains of dunes await, the starting order has been flipped on its head. Instead of the previous day's pace-setters opening the road, the slowest RallyGP rider of Stage 5 will go first, then the next-slowest, and so on until all 17 have departed.

The rider with the dubious honour of being the first to tackle the inaugural 48-hour stage is therefore Joan Barreda Bort (Hero Motosports), who was 27th-quickest in outright after at least two falls today.

General classification: Bikes Top 10

Pos Num Nat Rider Team Time Gap
1 46 BOT ROSS BRANCH HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY 19H 05′ 03”
2 11 CHI JOSE IGNACIO CORNEJO FLORIMO MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 19H 06′ 17” + 00H 01′ 14”
3 9 USA RICKY BRABEC MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 19H 08′ 50” + 00H 03′ 47”
4 42 FRA ADRIEN VAN BEVEREN MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 19H 23′ 13” + 00H 18′ 10”
5 47 ARG KEVIN BENAVIDES RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 19H 26′ 20” + 00H 21′ 17”
6 7 CHI PABLO QUINTANILLA MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 19H 31′ 50” + 00H 26′ 47”
7 2 AUS TOBY PRICE RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 19H 36′ 39” + 00H 31′ 36”
8 5 AUS DANIEL SANDERS RED BULL GASGAS FACTORY RACING 19H 42′ 47” + 00H 37′ 44”
9 16 FRA ROMAIN DUMONTIER TEAM DUMONTIER RACING 19H 43′ 55” + 00H 38′ 52”
10 23 CZE MARTIN MICHEK ORION – MOTO RACING GROUP 19H 44′ 55” + 00H 39′ 52”


I havent mentioned trucks much to date mainly because its a bit average.... the big Russians aare obviously out of it which is good for Team de Rooy who have picked up the gap they left.

Truck Highlights from Stage 5




Finally the DAKAR CLASSIC Stage 5 Highlights

[Everso Biggyballies]

BREAKING NEWS..... LEADER OF THE CARS CATEGORY CRASHES OUT OF CONTENTION

Dakar Rally overall leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi's hopes of winning this year's car race at home have been crushed after an accident in Thursday's sixth stage around Shubaytah,
"The car did a barrel roll and now is damaged," explained Al-Rajhi, who finished third in last year's race.

Yazeed Al-Rajhi' was unable to repair his Hilux after an accident which occurred 51km into the stage, organisers said in statement.

"The crew is safe and sound, but are currently returning to the start of the special," the statement read.

"His hopes of winning the Dakar 2024 have been crushed, but the Saudi driver will be able to start stage 7 the day after the rest day, as long as his 4x4 has been repaired and complies with all the safety rules stipulated by the FIA."

Al-Rajhi was leading Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Prodrive) by 9min 3sec before the start of the stage with Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Audi) third overall at 11min 31sec.


UPDATE[/b
Al-Rajhi's troubles worked a treat for Sainz, who had already jumped Nasser Al-Attiyah in the early hours of the day, to reclaim the lead in the overall standings on an exceptionally strong day for Audi as Ekstrom was 2nd on the stage when they stopped at the Bivouac. Peterhansel had a troubled day in the 3rd Audi though


Provisional overall classification after Stage 6A (Biouvac D):

Position. Driver Car Time / gap

1. Carlos Sainz Audi. 22h57m35s

2 Mattias Ekstrom Audi. +15m58s

3. Nasser Al-Attiyah. Prodrive. +21m41s

4 Sebastien Loeb. Prodrive. +36m51s

5 Lucas Moraes Toyota +1hr02m31s

6 Guillaume de MeviusToyota. +1hr02m45s

7 Mathieu Serradori. Century +1hr11m55s

8. Giniel de Villiers Toyota. +1h23m49s

9. Martin Prokop Ford. +1h31m55s

10. Guy Botterill. Toyota. +1h43m11s

[Everso Biggyballies]

Pretty much covered the cars above, but here are the extended highlights of stage 6 pt 1.. the second part to be run today.

A bit more on Peterhansels issues mentioned above....he only made it to Bivouac C after a litany of dramas for his Audi RS Q e-tron which has caused him to haemorrhage two-and-a-half hours relative to Sainz already.

‘Mr Dakar' said, while stopped to repair a puncture,

“We had a puncture and the hydraulic jack system started playing up.

“We don't have a hand jack so we don't know how we're going to change the wheel.

“With the damage to the hydraulic system, I've lost the power steering and I don't know how we're going to manage to pull through.

In this marathon 2 day stage the car crews are only allowed to do work on the cars themselves with equipment they have with them.... no external help from their serice crews allowed makes it a major problem Mr Dakar is facing.

The other restriction they face is that for now, they have no access to timing and hence do not know exactly where they stand in the competition.

There will be some minor adjustments to the times tomorrow as there are half a dozen or so overnight bivouac areas.... all the crews had to stop at the next one on their route when 16:00 local time had arrived. A couple of the early runners made it to a further along the route bivouac so technically have a shorter distance to travel. The benefits wwill be minor though.


EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS STAGE 6A




Moving on to the bikes, which are also on a marathon stage and doing the bivouac thing with the same restrictions. They however were on a different route to the cars.

BIKES

Van Beveren fastest, Price third at midway point of 48hr stage

Adrien van Beveren is the Bikes pace-setter while Toby Price is third-quickest at the overnight stop in the Dakar Rally’s inaugural ’48-hour stage’.

Thus far, 10 riders in the top, RallyGP class have made it to Bivouac F, which is located 513km into the special, with Monster Energy Honda's Van Beveren fastest to that point.

His team-mate Ricky Brabec is currently second on stage, 1:21s behind the Frenchman but currently quick enough to be back in the lead of the ‘virtual' (ie as-live) general classification.

As it stands, Brabec has overtaken Hero Motorsports' Ross Branch at the top of the general classification, which he would lead by 2:48s if margins stay the same for the remaining 113km of the special on Friday (local time).

Price is third on the day on his Red Bull KTM, 1:49s behind Van Beveren, and fellow Australian Daniel Sanders is fourth on his Red Bull GasGas at another 1:43s in arrears.

Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna Factory Racing) is fifth as at Bivouac F and Branch sixth.

Fuel was a problem to many on the endurance leg....Pablo Quintanilla, who won the previous stage and thus had the benefit of starting last of the 17 RallyGP riders today...... his Honda simply ran dry around 184km into the special.

Quintanilla, who lost more than an hour due to the drama, said when he finally reached the first refuel point,

“It's a sad moment.
“I was being careful with my fuel but 10km before the refuelling point, I ran out of petrol.
“It's tough when you've worked so hard and so long for this race. I always try to do my best, but that's life. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn't.”

Sanders is, of course, another beneficiary of Quintanilla's fuel mishap.

Provisional top 10 overall classification after stage 6 (part A):

1 R. BRABEC 25:40:50
2 R. BRANCH 25:43:38
3 J. CORNEJO 25:47:27
4 A. VAN BEVEREN 25:53:52
5 T. PRICE 26:09:07
6 K. BENAVIDES 26:09:18
7 D. SANDERS 26:16:58
8 L. BENAVIDES 26:27:13
9 S. SVITKO 26:44:03
10 J. BARREDA BORT 26:45:34




UPDATE: News on the live feed I just got is that It is all over for Joan Barreda. He encountered a mechanical problem after 529 km and has been forced to throw in the towel.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Big delays for Al Attiyah ....

Nasser Al Attiyah broke a steering arm on a hub carrier in his vehicle.
He had to wait for his assistance truck to repair. He has lost more than 2 hours 40 minutes, but says that his objective is the W2RC championship and he will try to pick up as many points as possible.
Also mentioning that he will be ready to help Sébastien Loeb if necessary. I take it that means he will carry additional spares for Sainz and take the weight hit that goes with being a parts truck.. Plus be on hand to stop and assist for any repairs or if required to tow out of sand dunes if Loeb gets bogged

As it happens Loeb is leading Sainz on the Stage, although Sainz still leads the event overall from Ekstrom with Loeb now 3rd overall.

After yesterdays crash, former overall leader Al Rahji has now officially withdrawn from the Dakar.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Stage 6 B now completed.... the marathon stage is over and it was the end for the leader at the time and in part 2 effectively took another outright contender out of play.

Dakar 2024, Stage 6B: Loeb wins 48-hour test

Loeb continued with his pace to win the second part of Stage 6, whilst as mentioned previously disaster struck Prodrive stablemate Nasser Al-Attiyah.

Somewhat ironic the man who predicted all the Audis would be out of contention by day 3 and on their way home was himself the first tall, whilst Audi hold a 1-2 lead with Sainz 20 minutes clear of 2nd placed Ekstom. Loeb may have won todays stage, his second stage victory of 2024 and the 25th of his career, (making him the sixth most stage winning driver in the history of the Dakar), but he trails in 3rd overall.
Ekstrom lost touch with Loeb and Sainz as the stage progressed, conceding 10 minutes in the run to the finish line, but still finished well clear of Lucas Moraes in the best of the Toyotas.

Eryk Goczal put in a solid effort and rounded off the stage in fifth.

Overall, Sainz heads into the rest day in Riyadh 20m21s clear of team-mate Ekstrom. Loeb is now the closest challenger to the Audi duo in third, but 29m31s off the lead with six stages to run in the second week

Overdrive’s Guillaume de Mevius heads the Toyota challenge in fourth ahead of factory duo Lucas Moraes and Giniel de Villiers, with all three having already dropped an hour on Sainz.

MP Sports Ford driver Martin Prokop, Century’s Mathieu Serradori, Toyota newcomer Guy Botterill and Goczal round off the top 10.

Provisional classification after Stage 6 (Top 10):

Position. Driver. Car Time / gap

1 Carlos Sainz Audi 24h49m32s
2. Mattias Ekstrom Audi. +20m21s
3. Sebastien Loeb. Prodrive. +29m31s
4. Guillaume de Mevius. Toyota. +1h02m47s
5. Lucas Moraes. Toyota. +1hr04m00s
6. Giniel de Villiers. Toyota. +1hr25m16s
7. Martin Prokop Ford. +1hr35m04s
8. Mathieu Serradori. Century. +1h37m20s
9. Guy Botterill. Toyota. +1h48m31s
10. Eryk Goczal. Taurus. +1h52m30s



BIKES

Van Beveren beats Price to 48hr stage win

Adrien Van Beveren has won the Dakar Rally’s inaugural 48-hour stage while KTM’s Toby Price took second on the 626km special.

Price moved ahead of Monster Energy Honda's Ricky Brabec in the second part of Stage which remained for themtoday Friday

However, it is Brabec, third on the Shubaytah stage, who is now in the lead of the rally overall, by a 51-second margin to Hero Motosports' Ross Branch.

Brabec's team-mate Van Beveren, who beat Price by 4:13s on Stage 6, is third overall at 9:21s off the pace, from Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo on another factory Honda.

Price sits fifth, exactly 27 minutes away from top spot, and his Red Bull KTM team-mate Kevin Benavides is another 1:33s behind in sixth.

Red Bull GasGas's Daniel Sanders sits seventh, from Husqvarna Factory Racing's Luciano Benavides, Slonaft KTM rider Stefan Svitko, and Duust KTM pilot Jeanloup Lepan, the latter of who holds sway in the Rally2 class.

There were two notable withdrawals on Stage 6, with Skyler Howes Honda) going out on the opening day due to mechanical problems before a similar fate befell Joan Barreda Bort the next morning.

General classification: Bikes Top 10

Pos Num Nat Rider Team Time Gap
1 9 USA RICKY BRABEC MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 27H 11′ 21”
2 46 BOT ROSS BRANCH HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY 27H 12′ 12” + 00H 00′ 51”
3 42 FRA ADRIEN VAN BEVEREN MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 27H 20′ 42” + 00H 09′ 21”
4 11 CHI JOSE IGNACIO CORNEJO FLORIMO MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 27H 25′ 35” + 00H 14′ 14”
5 2 AUS TOBY PRICE RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 27H 38′ 21” + 00H 27′ 00”
6 47 ARG KEVIN BENAVIDES RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 27H 39′ 54” + 00H 28′ 33”
7 5 AUS DANIEL SANDERS RED BULL GASGAS FACTORY RACING 27H 47′ 11” + 00H 35′ 50”
8 1 ARG LUCIANO BENAVIDES HUSQVARNA FACTORY RACING 27H 58′ 47” + 00H 47′ 26”
9 142 SVK STEFAN SVITKO SLONAFT RALLY TEAM 28H 19′ 03” + 01H 07′ 42”
10 76 FRA JEANLOUP LEPAN DUUST RALLY TEAM

Rest Day for everyone on Saturday before the action resumes with a mammoth 873km stage taking them to Al Duwadimi on Sunday.

Highlight videos are not up yet but will post thm later.



In the meantime I have not really mentioned the mighty trucks much so here is the Trucks top moments from Stage 6.




A short video of stage 6 car moments as well.

[puck7]

Impressive first week for Audi. I didn't expect that!!

[Everso Biggyballies]

Extended Highlights from Stage 6 B now available so as promised here they are

As usual, click the watch on youtube button to view.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Impressive first week for Audi. I didn't expect that!!

Al Attiya didnt either!
Go El Matador!
Log a win for the over sixties

(I believe the oldest category winner overall at Dakar was Josef Macháček at 63, 10 months, 2 days (2021). He won the Quad category in 2021. Sainz is 'only' 61, a couple of months off being 62)

[erwin greven]

[Everso Biggyballies]

WEEK 1 HIGHLIGHTS


Classic




General

[Everso Biggyballies]

It seems black and white..... they had a carbon fibre composite clutch plate, .... carbon fibre composites are on the listed forbidden component materials for that part, along with titanium and other exotic materials. The team say there is no performance gain. Why use it then, if it adds no performance and is on a list of no-nos.??
There has to be a reason, maybe one of additional reliability. Doesnt escape the fact it is listed as illegal.