2023 Dakar stage 9 was the first day of racing after the traditional mid-race break. Teams took a much-needed breather outside of Riyadh on Monday as their race machines received attention from the service crews. Today’s stage was 686 km long with 358 km timed. A 328 km liaison took the crews to their overnight stay in Haradh.

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Fast Starter

Sebastien Loeb will not look upon week one of the 2023 Dakar with fondness. Bad luck plagued the BRX Hunter driver. However, he is pragmatic about the remainder of the race. “We’re in the fight for the podium, which isn’t too bad,” he admitted on Sunday. “There are six stages left and anything can still happen, we’ll see”.

Loeb was the first driver to start today. He was followed by the other two podium sitters from stage eight, Nasser Al-Attityah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) and Carlos Sainz (Audi Sport). Sainz would have been aiming for a stage win. Except ‘El Matador and his co-pilot Lucas Cruz rolled their Audi five kilometres from the start. Sainz was being airlifted to hospital when he wanted to be returned to his car to return to race action. There was no further news at the time of writing.

Another Blow

Henk Lategan (TGR) ground to a halt 18 km into the stage. The South African ran into mechanical problems and was helped by teammate Yazeed Al Rajhi. As a reminder, Lategan started the day second in the overall standings, about an hour behind Al-Attiyah. The delay cost him dearly in the classification.

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New Names

While Loeb set the pace, there was plenty of action behind. Fellow Prodive Hunter pilots Guerlain Chicherit and Vaidotas Zala were in the hunt, as was Romain Dumas (Toyota Hilux). Mattias Ekström, who started the day 31st, was making a late charge for the podium. Lucas Moraes (Overdrive Racing) was another driver who set quick times late in day, aiming for a podium.

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Stage Winner

Overall race leader Al-Attiyah lost 11 minutes late in the stage. But his nearest rival in the GC, Lategan lost over 40 minutes with his early mechanical issues. Mattias Ekstrom was putting in a late charge to challenge the quicker guys ahead of him on the road.

When all the top teams crossed the line it was Sébastien Loeb  who set the best time. As a result, the Frenchman wins his third special on this edition of the Dakar. Loeb finished more than three minutes ahead of Zaidotas Zala and four minutes in front of Guerlain Chicherit. That made it a triple podium for the Prodrive team. Ekstrom was classified fourth ahead of Dumas.

Giniel de Villiers (TGR) was the fastest Toyota driver of the day, finishing sixth, ahead of his teammate Al-Attiyah. The Qatari extended his lead in the overall standings. Lategan fell down the rankings because of his mechanical woes. Moraes is now second overall with Loeb in third.

General classification after 2023 Dakar Stage 9

    1. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) 34 hr 19 min 20 sec
    2. Lucas Moraes (Overdrive Racing) +01 hr 21 min 57 sec
    3. Sebastien Loeb (BRX) +01 hr 43 min 08 sec
    4. Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +01 hr 46 min 23 sec
    5. Giniel de Villiers (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +02 hr 04 min 17 sec
    6. Romain Dumas (Rebellion Racing) +02 hr 25 min 51 sec
    7. Martin Prokop (Orlen Benzina) +02 hr 46 min 36 sec
    8. Brian Baragwanath (CRT) +02 hr 48 min 06 sec
    9. Wei Han (Hanwei Motorsport) +03 hr 32 min 15 sec
    10. Juan Cruz Yacopini (Overdrive Racing) +03 hr 52 min 52 sec