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Dakar 2023 Prologue Stage Results: Ekstrom & Price Claim Wins - Hero's Branch Finishes Third
The 43rd Edition of the Dakar Rally kicked off today with the Prologue Stage. Audi's Mattias Ekstrom claimed the stage win in the cars category while KTM rider Toby Price took the top spot in the bikes category.
The 45th Edition of the Dakar Rally kicked off today with the Prologue Stage. Audi's Mattias Ekstrom claimed the stage win in the cars category while KTM rider Toby Price took the top spot in the bikes category.
While the 13-kilometre-long Prologue stage did not allow competitors to pull out big gaps to their rivals, the top 10 finishers will get to choose their starting spot when the 43rd Dakar Rally properly gets underway tomorrow with Stage 1.
Bikes
Australia's Toby Price rode his KTM 450 Rally to victory in the prologue stage. Price, a two-time Dakar winner, finished the 13-kilometre-long prologue stage in 8 minutes and 22 seconds. Price finished just 1 second ahead of his fellow countryman Daniel Sanders, who is riding for GasGas Factory Racing.
Claiming the final podium spot was Hero Motorsports rider Ross Branch. Branch finished the stage in 8 minutes and 31 seconds, falling 9 seconds behind Price. In the fourth spot, finishing in the same time as Branch was Spain's Joan Barreda Bort astride his Honda CRF 450 Rally. Bort is the rider with the most stage victories currently still racing at the Dakar. Finishing in fifth, with the same time as Branch and Bort was KTM rider, Kevin Benavides.
The sixth spot was taken by Hero's Joaquim Rodrigues who finished the Prologue stage with a time of 8 minutes and 32 seconds. J-Rod, as he is known, was a second ahead of Red Bull's Matthias Walkner and his fellow Hero teammate Sebastian Buhler who finished the stage in the 7th and 8th spot respectively.
Claiming the 9th spot with a time of 8 minutes and 35 seconds was HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing's South African rider Michael Docherty. Sam Sunderland, the British GasGas rider rounded off the top 10, finishing with the same time as Docherty.
Hero's final rider in the Dakar, Argentina's Franco Caimi finished the prologue stage in the 22nd spot ending up with a time of 8 minutes and 46 seconds, 24 seconds behind Price.
Sherco Racing's riders had a decent day in the saddle though all of its racers finished behind the Hero team. Lorenzo Santolino was the best of the Sherco riders finishing in the 24th spot with a time of 8 minutes and 47 seconds, 26 seconds behind the leader Price. One spot and one second behind him was his teammate Rui Goncalves.
The final Sherco rider and the only Indian at the 2023 Dakar Rally, Harith Noah (running as a privateer sponsored by TVS), finished the stage in 9 minutes and 8 seconds, 46 seconds behind the leader in the 45th spot.
Cars
Audi Sport's hybrid RS Q e-tron E2 flexed its muscles with its Swedish driver Mattias Ekstrom claiming the top spot with a time of 8 minutes flat. Ekstrom pipped WRC legend, Sebastian Loeb, to the top spot by just 1 second.
11 seconds behind Ekstrom was the second Audi Sport car piloted by Mr Dakar himself, Stephane Peterhansel. Last year's winner Nasser Al-Attiyah finished in the fourth spot with a time of 8 minutes and 12 seconds in his Toyota.
Claiming the fifth spot was GCK Motorsport's Guerlain Chicherit, who finished the Prologue Stage with a time of 8 minutes and 13 seconds. Chicherit finished one second ahead of Dakar legend Carlos Sainz Sr. who was driving the final Audi Sport car.
In the 7th spot was Overdrive Racing's Saudi driver, Yazeed Al Rajhi who drove his Toyota Hilux across the 13-kilometre-long stage in 8 minutes and 16 seconds, the same time as the 8th place finisher, Mini X-Raid's Polish driver Jakub Przygonski.
Coming in 9th spot was Orlando Terranova who drove his Bahrain Rally Raid Xtreme Hunter across the Prologue Stage with a time of 8 minutes and 20 seconds. Claiming the final spot in the top 10 was South Africa's Henk Lategan who drove his Toyota Hilux across the Prologue Stage in a time of 8 minutes and 21 seconds.
Thoughts About The Start of Dakar 2023
Dakar 2023 kicked off with a brisk 13-kilometre-long stage which was dominated by the usual suspects. This Dakar Rally promises to be tougher and harder than ever and we cannot wait for proper racing to start tomorrow.
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