2023 Dakar stage 2 started early this morning. The technical section from the Sea Camp to Al Ula comprised of a 430 km timed section along with 158 km of liason for a total of 588 km. Click on our Dakar 101 article to better understand the breakdown of the stage. The second stage of this year’s event included rocky terrain presenting an ever-present threat of punctures.
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On the Pace
It was Audi Sport driver Carlos Sainz who led off the field after his win on stage one. He was followed out of the blocks by Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive BRX) and local driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Overdrive Toyota). It was the latter who set the early pace as he set the quickest time through the checkpoint at 48 km.
However, that time was soon eclipsed by Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilix) who trumped the Saudi by almost a minute. The stage seemed to suit the Toyota’s as SA driver Giniel de Villiers set an even quicker time over a minute quicker than his Qatari team mate.
Click here to check out a gallery of images outlining De Villiers stellar Dakar career.
Bad Luck
Guerlain Chicherit (Prodrive Hunter) had an excellent opening stage. But his luck faded fast on day two of racing. The Frenchman ground to a halt after 99 km. He suffered two punctures in quick succession, which left him without a spare wheel. He had no teammate behind him on the stage who could help out, which meant he had to try to repair it with tools and materials on hand. Sebastien Loeb also suffered bad fortune around halfway through the special stage. He lost a chunk of time to the leaders and tumbled down the timesheets.
Click here to learn how much an entry costs for each category at the 2023 Dakar Rally.
The Toyota brigade continued to set the pace for most of the day’s competitive section. Al-Rajhi was a consistent frontrunner. Later in the stage it was Al-Attiyah and a surprise name at the top of the sheets, Eric van Loon. The Dutchman also is driving a Hilux. As the stage drew to a close there were four Toyotas in the top five. Another surprise name mixing it with the regulars was Simon Vitse in his MD Rally buggy.
Stage Winner
The 2023 Dakar Stage 2 proved a topsy turvy one in terms of the formbook. Front-running crews struggled while new names came to the fore and some struggled at the very end.
When all the top teams had made it across the finishing line, it was Al-Attiyah who recorded the quickest stage time to claim the victory. Second on the sheet for the day was Eric van Loon, deprived by 14 seconds from his first stage victory. Third place was Carlos Sainz. Lionel Baud was fourth ahead of Mathieu Serradori. Giniel de Villiers was sixth.
Time to Attack
Al-Attiyah may have won the stage, but the titleholder made even bigger strides as he regained more than five minutes over race leader Carlos Sainz and over several of his rivals in the general rankings. Notable casualty on the day was Loeb who fell to 22nd overall.
Said Al-Attiyah: “It was absolutely the time to attack and drive a good stage. It was not an easy day because I am sure a lot of problems will happen today because there were a lot of rocks and the navigation wasn’t easy. I’m really quite happy to make day two a good stage. We had one flat tyre, one puncture at the beginning, but after that we tried to be really careful in the stony places. In the sand we pushed and I’m quite happy. I was thinking the start of the race would be very easy but it was really tricky, you know – well done to the organisers”.
General classification after 2023 Dakar Stage 2
- Carlos Sainz (Audi Sport) 08 hr 34 min 26 sec
- Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +02 min 12 sec
- Mathieu Serradori (CRT) +24 min 55
- Simon Vitse (MD Rally) +25 min 40 sec
- Giniel de Villiers (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +26 min 38 sec
- Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Hilux) +27 min 59 sec
- Brian Baragwanath (CRT) +32 min 13 sec
- Martin Prokop (Orlen Benzina) +35 min 24 sec
- Stephane Peterhansel (Audi Sport) +36 min 08 sec
- Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +39 min 52 sec
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What problems did Loeb have?
Loeb’s exact words:
“It was a really bad day for us. We lost a lot of time with three punctures.
For me, there was absolutely no pleasure in the driving.
It was really bad with a lot of stones.
It was just a question of going very slow and trying to avoid a puncture.
That was the only goal of the stage and in the end we had three.
We had to try and repair one of the tyres and it took us a long time.”