Sébastien Loeb climbs one place in the general classification after his sixth stage victory in the 2023 Dakar.
Sébastien Loeb, adds and continues with the victory in Stage 12 of the Dakar Rally. The French rider, a member of the Bahrain Raid Xtreme (BRX) team, has achieved victory in the last five consecutive stages and has a total of six partial victories. Today he has become the second classified overall, after overtaking Lucas Moraes.
Neither the Empty Quarter nor the marathon stage can with Sébastien Loeb. The talented BRX rider was unbeatable in the 185 timed kilometers between the Empty Quarter and Shaybah, where the 2023 Dakar riders had to ‘navigate’ over large dunes. The Frenchman completed the course in 1 hour 56 minutes and 21 seconds, faster than any other driver.
Loeb, who also opened the track today, surpassed Mattias Ekström (Audi) by 3 minutes and 19 seconds; and Nasser Al-Attiyah, the race leader, by 3 minutes and 31 seconds. The one who finished much further back today was the rookie Lucas Moraes, the surprise of this race, who had been among the first classified for several days.
Moraes finished in tenth position, 11 minutes and 38 seconds behind the winner of the stage, which allowed Loeb to move up to second position in the general classification, overtaking the Brazilian from Overdrive Racing.
The first in the table is Al-Attiyah, but with two days to go before the end of the race, the Qatari maintains an advantage of 1 hour and 27 minutes over ‘Seb’.
The best Spaniard of the day was once again Armand Monleón, Jakub Przygonski’s co-driver in the X-Raid MINI, who was fifth. It was also a great day for Cristina Gutiérrez, who finished twenty-third overall in the cars and third in her category, the T3, reserved for light buggies.
Classification of the stage in cars
- Loeb/Lurquin (BRX) 1h56:21
- Ekstrom/Bergkvist (Audi) +3:19
- Al-Attiyah/Baumel (Toyota) +3:31
- Chicherit/Winocq (BRX) +7:13
- Przygonsky/Monleon (MINI) +8:02
Cornejo rises with victory in the Motorcycle category
Ignacio Cornejo has taken victory in the twelfth stage of the Dakar 2023, beating Daniel Sanders by just 49 seconds and Toby Price by 1:58, who becomes the new leader of the general classification, with a minimal difference of 28 seconds over Skyler Howes. The third, Kevin Benavides, is 2 minutes and 40 seconds away.
The decaffeinated and indecisive Empty Quarter has practically been overcome, the Dakar 2023 faces the penultimate day of the race, between Shaybah and Al-Hofuf. There will be a total of 154 timed kilometers that will follow the trend of recent days: short stage and many dunes to get closer to the end of the race.
