Stage Six at the 2023 Dakar Rally required the competitors to think on their feet. A shortened special stage didn’t necessarily make things any easier as it meant a huge liaison route to Riyadh. The last-minute changes to the course were a result of recent heavy flooding in the Al Duwadimi region of Saudi Arabia.
Taking things in his stride was car race leader Nasser Al-Attiyah who scored a second consecutive stage win alongside co-driver Mathieu Baumel. Six stages down and eight more to go, Al-Attiyah has a lead of over an hour as he chases down his fifth Dakar title.
« We pushed a lot and for the last 40km we had a broken steering pump. We lost steering and were losing a lot of oil. Thankfully we could make it to the end of the stage. » – Nasser Al-Attiyah
This morning two of Al-Attiyah’s closest challengers were the Team Audi Sport crews of Stéphane Peterhansel/Edouard Boulanger and Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz. Then Peterhansel crashed out of the race 212km into Stage Six. Remarkably, Sainz also suffered a separate stoppage at exactly the same place. The two drivers with 17 Dakar wins between them will not be adding another trophy to their collection on this visit to Saudi Arabia.
Enjoying a much cleaner stage were Sébastien Loeb/Fabian Lurquin in their BRX Hunter. This duo may have seen their chances of victory take a serious dent in recent days, but the overall podium is still within sight.
« When you see what happened I think in the end that we did a good stage. We’ve made a good step in the general rankings. » – Sébastien Loeb
One of the crews Loeb must catch if he is to climb onto the overall podium are Lucas Moraes/Timo Gottschalk. The remarkable rookie performance of Moraes continued on Stage Six, lifting him to third overall.
Less than 20 minutes separate the Top 8 riders in the two-wheel contest and that won’t change tomorrow as Stage Seven is cancelled for the bikers. Among the leading pack is two-time Dakar winner Toby Price who has the experience to cope with all the last-minute route changes and adverse weather conditions that this Dakar is throwing at him.
The only other rider inside the current Top 8 who knows what it’s like to win the Dakar is Price’s fellow Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider Kevin Benavides. While Price is 3m31s behind bike race leader Skyler Howes, Benavides is in third overall and only 7m01s off top spot.
« I’m still here, trying to do my best day by day. The times are so tight between the top guys and every stage is so tough. » – Kevin Benavides
It was a good day for Guillaume De Mevius and co-driver François Cazalet in their OT3. The pair set the day’s fastest time in the T3 category to increase their lead in the general classification.
Pushing hard were the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA presented by BFGoodrich crews of Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz and AJ Jones/Gustavo Gugelmin as they filled up the rest of the T3 podium positions on Stage Six.
« We gave a hard charge for the last 50km, but it wasn’t quite enough to win the stage. » – Seth Quintero
A reconfigured Stage Seven will take the cars, trucks and side-by-sides from Riyadh to the Al Duwadimi bivouac via a 333km timed special. At the end of the special stage competitors will be permitted two hours in an assistance zone where they will find their mechanics. Then competitors will head to the Al Duwadimi bivouac where their vehicles will spend the night in parc fermé. Tomorrow’s Stage Seven is cancelled for the bike and quad categories. They will rejoin the race on Stage Eight, running from Al Duwadimi to Riyadh.
Selected Overall Standings after Stage 6
T1 Car Class
1. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) TOYOTA 24:00:48
2. Henk Lategan (ZAF) TOYOTA +01:06:50
3. Lucas Moraes (BRA) TOYOTA +01:13:19
4. Giniel De Villiers (ZAF) TOYOTA +01:44:38
5. Mattias Ekström (SWE) AUDI +01:46:55
6. Sébastien Loeb (FRA) BRX +01:57:10…
45. Kuba Przygoński (POL) MINI +07:05:02…
88. Laia Sanz (ESP) ASTARA +15:39:15…
T3 Lightweight Prototype
1. Guillaume De Mevius (BEL) OT3 27:55:22
2. AJ Jones (USA) CAN-AM +08:59
3. Seth Quintero (USA) CAN-AM +01:08:15
4. Chaleco López (CHL) CAN-AM + 02:45:23
5. Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP) CAN-AM +02:53:59…
11. Ignacio Casale (CHL) YAMAHA +06:57:32…
21. Mitch Guthrie Jr. (USA) CAN-AM +24:49:35…
T4 SSV
1. Rodrigo Luppi De Oliveira (BRA) CAN-AM 29:02:55
2. Rokas Baciuška (LTU) CAN-AM +20:17
3. Eryk Goczal (POL) CAN-AM +22:32
Bikes
1. Skyler Howes (USA) HUSQVARNA 26:31:52
2. Toby Price (AUS) KTM +03:31
3. Kevin Benavides (ARG) KTM +07:01…
8. Daniel Sanders (AUS) GASGAS +19:54…
11. Matthias Walkner (AUT) KTM +30:01…
13. Štefan Svitko (SVK) KTM +01:10:56…
40. Mohammed Balooshi (ARE) HUSQVARNA +06:39:17…
QUOTES
Nasser Al-Attiyah: « We pushed a lot and for the last 40km we had a broken steering pump. We lost steering and were losing a lot of oil. Thankfully we could make it to the end of the stage. Now we must make some repairs before we can continue to the bivouac in Riyadh. »
Sébastien Loeb: « It was a clean stage for us. We lost a little bit of time on some waypoints, but not too much, just like two or three minutes. When you see what happened on the stage, I think in the end that we did a good stage. We’ve made a good step in the general rankings, so that’s not too bad. »
Toby Price: « We had that crash yesterday and felt a little bit sore in the back today. Because of that I ended up taking it a little easier today, but all in all things are going well. »
Kevin Benavides: « I’m still here, trying to do my best day by day. The times are still tight between the top guys and every stage is so tough. There’s so many more days still to come at this rally. I’m just doing my best to stay in touch with the lead. »
Matthias Walkner: « Things are getting better and better for me, but the pace of the rally is really crazy fast. We had to push all day again today. I’m improving day by day and we’ll see what that gets me. »
Daniel Sanders: « This was a tough day for me, I still feel really sick. I was OK for the first 50km, but after that I started to lose energy. It was super tough to keep pushing. I just tried to ride as good as I could. »
Mohammed Balooshi: « Today was a really nice stage with a lot of dunes. The kilometres were going past really fast. I think this is the most enjoyable stage so far at this Dakar. It was hard work and challenging for sure, but also fun. »
Seth Quintero: « We gave a hard charge for the last 50km, but it wasn’t quite enough to win the stage. I made a mistake on a plateau that cost quite a bit of time. I had to go back for one waypoint, but other than that and one puncture it was a pretty clean day. »
AJ Jones: « This day was definitely one for the books. We were not expecting such heavy rain and cold weather in Saudi Arabia, but we are dealing with the situation. We started the day with a small mechanical issue, however, we managed to overcome it and we are in an ideal position for tomorrow’s marathon stage. We are all hoping for better weather conditions! »
Ignacio Casale: « Today was a very good stage for us. Even though we started way back we ended up finishing the stage in fourth position. This was a trouble free stage for me and we were able to compete. »