The Spanish pilot Carlos Sainz (Audi) won the victory this Sunday in the first stage of the 2023 Dakar Rally, a 367-kilometre special around the ‘Sea Camp’ of the Saudi test, leading the general with 10 seconds over the French Sébastian Loeb.
The man from Madrid took command of the first in what is considered the toughest ‘raid’ in the world in search of his fourth title. The champion in 2020 already in Saudi Arabia recovered from an initial puncture. «All good, except for a puncture at the start of the special. Later I preferred to go carefully, because of the stones. The rest of the special went smoothly. The car has been good. We will see tomorrow what strategy should be adopted », he said when he crossed the finish line.
Sainz and Loeb dominated the day against Mattias Ekström, third, who ended up losing in the last part of the special. The Spaniard, who achieved his 42nd stage victory on the Dakar despite losing almost three minutes, is the overall leader with 10 seconds ahead of the Frenchman and 33 seconds ahead of his teammate.
Meanwhile, in motorcycles, the victory of Daniel Sanders (GasGas) was only for a few hours since he was penalized with two minutes and Ricky Brabec (Honda) inherited his victory. Similarly, Spain’s Joan Barreda suffered a one-minute speeding penalty as he dropped from second to fourth.
Sanders had left a beautiful comeback, truncating the victory to a Mason Klein who dominated in the final stretch. On the first day at Yanbu Sea Camp, after Saturday’s prologue, he took the trump card from defending champion Sam Sunderland. The Briton suffered a fall at kilometer 52 and had to be taken to hospital.
