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Dakar 2023 Stage 3 Results: Chicherit And Sanders Take Stage Wins As Brabec Crashes Out
Stage 3 of Dakar 2023 saw Guerlain Chicherit and Daniel Sanders claim wins in the cars and bikes categories. Worsening weather conditions later in the day caused the special stage to be brought to an early halt.
Stage 3 of Dakar 2023 saw Guerlain Chicherit and Daniel Sanders claim wins in the cars and bikes categories. Worsening weather conditions later in the day caused the special stage to be brought to a halt early with the car race halted at CP3 - after 377km and the bike races halted at CP2 (after 335km) and CP3.
The stage was supposed to cover 669 kilometres with the participants riding/driving from Alula to Ha'il as the Dakar Rally 2023 continued its journey into the heart of the Saudi desert.
Bikes
Australian GasGas rider Daniel Sanders finished the stage in first place with the Aussie finishing the race at the top of the podium. Sanders finished the stage with a time of 4 hours, 24 minutes and 15 seconds.
Sanders finished the stage, 6 minutes and 19 seconds ahead of KTM rider Skyler Howes, who completed the stage in 4:30:34 astride his race-prepped Husqvarna. Taking the final podium spot was another KTM rider in the form of Stage 2 winner, Mason Klein, who finished the stage in 4 hours, 31 minutes and 14 seconds, 6 minutes and 59 seconds.
Hero's 4 riders had a good outing in the Saudi desert with Portugal's Joaquim Rodrigues who finished the day in the 9th spot; 16 minutes and 5 seconds behind Sanders. Ross Branch, Franco Caimi and yesterday's podium finisher Buhler ended up in 14th, 17th and 23rd respectively.
Lorenzo Santolino was the highest-placed Sherco rider on Stage 3, finishing the stage in 4:41:10 to claim the 12th spot, 16 minutes and 55 seconds behind Sanders. Santolino's Portuguese teammate Rui Goncalves finished 13th, another 14 seconds adrift of the leader. India's Harith Noah finished the stage in 33rd overall with a time of 5 hours and 8 minutes, 43 minutes and 45 seconds behind Sanders.
Sanders also claimed the overall top spot on the Classification lists as he opened up a 4-minute and 4 seconds over yesterday's winner, Mason Klein. KTM rider Kevin Benavides sits 3rd overall and is now 6 minutes and 53 seconds behind Sanders.
Hero's charge continues to be led by Ross Branch, who sits 10th overall (23:42 behind). Buhler (33:54 behind) currently sits 13th overall, 1 spot ahead of his teammate Franco Caimi (34:20 behind).
Sherco's best rider at Dakar 2023 is Lorenzo Santolino who sits 11th overall, 24 minutes and 18 seconds behind Sanders. Rui Goncalves sits 23rd overall, 1:05:21 behind the leading KTM. Harith Noah is now 32nd overall with a time of 15:46:12 and is now 100 minutes and 34 seconds behind the race leader Sanders.
However, the biggest talking point in the bikes section apart from the bad weather was Ricky Brabec's crash. The American, who won Dakar in 2020, suffered a fall after 274 km of the special stage and was transported to the hospital complaining of pain in his cervical vertebrae.
Cars
GCK Motorsports driver Guerlain Chicherit claimed a first stage victory in his Prodrive Hunter on a day that saw both Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Loeb lose big chunks of time with the Spanish driver losing the overall lead of the Dakar 2023.
Chicherit finished the special stage with a lead of 3 minutes and 26 seconds over Henk Lategan and over 5 minutes compared to third-place finisher Orlando Terranova.
The day started off with Yaseed Al Rajhi leading the charge but Chicherit gained the lead at the second waypoint at 98km and from then never looked back.
The day turned out to be quite a torrid one for Carlos Sainz who lead Dakar 2023 till now. However, a long stoppage of half an hour cost him the overall lead which is now in the hands of defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah. The Qatari driver still holds quite a healthy lead over Saudi Arabia's Yazeed Al Rajhi.
Thoughts About Stage 3 of Dakar 2023
Stage 3 of Dakar 2023 was brought to a premature end by worsening weather conditions. Many favourites including the likes of Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Loeb while were bitten by the Dakar and came out licking their wounds once again. Now, they'll have to hope and pray that their rivals don't get too far ahead. However, the most shocking news of the day came when the news filtered out that 2020 winner Ricky Brabec had crashed out of Dakar 2023.
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