2023 Dakar stage 12 took place from the overnight stop in the Empty Quarter back to the previous day’s start point of Shaybah. Racers had to contend with a 185 km special, most of which consisted of dunes.

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Flying Frenchman

Sebastien Loeb (BRX Hunter) has been in fine form of late. The former WRC champion claimed four stage wins in row. As a result he was, once again, the first car to set off today. Overall race leader, and the man expected to do well in the sandy conditions of the Empty Quarter Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) said before the stage: “We don’t need to attack for nothing, we have a big enough lead. We just need to control. For the moment, everything is okay.”

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Lone Wolf

Loeb was setting a searing pace through all today’s checkpoints. Opening up a lead on his rivals with each passing kilometre. Mattias Ekstrom, in the sole remaining Audi, was keen to show the inherent speed of his steed and tried to keep pace with Loeb ahead of him on the road. Al-Attiyah may not have been in attack mode but, he too, was quick.

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Al-Attiyah’s team-mate Henk Lategan stopped early in the stage. The South African, who has been enjoying a good run this year was at a standstill for more than 20 minutes. A similar fate befell Lucas Moraes (Overdrive Racing) who was ahead of Loeb in the overall classification at the start of the day.

Stage Winner

Try as they may, no one could match the pace set by Loeb today. He claimed his fifth stage win in a row, the first time such a feat has happened since Ari Vatanen in 1989, and his sixth of this year’s event. Ekstrom was second quickest on stage 12 ahead of race leader Al-Attiyah. Guerlain Chicherit (Prodrive Hunter) and Jakob Przygonski (X-Raid Mini) rounded out the top five. South African Giniel de Villiers was ninth today.

There’s been a slight reshuffle in the overall standings. Loeb has now overtaken Lucas Moraes, relegating the Brazilian rookie into third by a narrow margin. Lategan’s troubles have allowed De Villier’s to slide into fourth. The 2009 winner lies about an hour behind Moraes, which is a tad far back to make a challenge for the podium.

General classification after 2023 Dakar Stage 12

    1. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) 41 hr 16 min 25 sec
    2. Sebastien Loeb (BRX) +01 hr 27 min 10 sec
    3. Lucas Moraes (Overdrive Racing) +01 hr 29 min 11 sec
    4. Giniel de Villiers (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +02 hr 22 min 21 sec
    5. Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +02 hr 34 min 21 sec
    6. Martin Prokop (Orlen Benzina) +03 hr 00 min 26 sec
    7. Brian Baragwanath (CRT) +03 hr 34 min 23 sec
    8. Wei Han (Hanwei Motorsport) +04 hr 11 min 38 sec
    9. Mathieu Serradori (CRT) +04 hr 17 min 38 sec
    10. Juan Cruz Yacopini (Overdrive Racing) +04 hr 17 min 53 sec