The 2023 Dakar Rally took the convoy deep into the Empty Quarter desert on Stage 11. The 273km race route brought competitors over every type of desert sand and also asked questions of their mechanical abilities. With tonight being the midway point of this year’s Marathon Stage, competitors will have zero outside assistance with any repairs required. Instead they must perform all maintenance on their machines themselves before the start of Stage 12 tomorrow.
Up until today it had been a near perfect rally for Guillaume De Mevius and co-driver François Cazalet in their OT3. The duo had led the general classification of the T3 category since Stage Five and now had the finish line coming into sight. However, the Dakar is a notoriously cruel race and on Stage 11 De Mevius’s OT3 came to standstill for more than 90 minutes. The pair were able to bring their machine to the end of the stage, but it looks like their dreams of victory have evaporated for another year.
Needing no second invitation to pounce on the vacancy at the head of the T3 race were AJ Jones and co-driver Gustavo Gugelmin. The Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA presented by BFGoodrich duo had occupied the runners-up spot since Stage Six. Their skill and patience finally paid off on the first half of the Marathon Stage as they hit the front. Jones’s Can-Am Maverick holds an advantage of nearly an hour over his nearest competitor.
« That’s the kind of racing that we do, especially on the Dakar, everything changes fast. » – AJ Jones
Now up to second overall are Jones’s team-mates Seth Quintero and co-driver Dennis Zenz. 20-year-old Quintero has showed maturity well beyond his years to battle back from a series of issues on Stage Four. The Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA presented by BFGoodrich driver is now second overall and with a cushion of over 30 minutes to De Mevius who has dropped to third place.
« It looks like we’ve moved into P2 overall as the leader had a problem. That’s unfortunate because you always want to take a place because of clean racing. » – Seth Quintero
Keeping his cool and keeping his place at the front of the T4 contest on Stage 11 was Rokas Baciuška. The 23-year-old Lithuanian and co-driver Oriol Vidal of the Red Bull Can-Am Factory Team won the stage to extend their overall lead over second place Eryk Goczal to 4m 17s.
« It seems that the plan worked. We’re first not only on the eleventh stage, but we continue to lead the overall standings. » – Rokas Baciuška
The imperious 2023 Dakar performance of defending car race champion Nasser Al-Attiyah continued today as he took the first half of the Marathon Stage in his stride. The Qatari, co-driver Mathieu Baumel and their Toyota Hilux T1+ clocked the day’s fifth fastest time to see the gap to their nearest competitors stand at 1h 21m 04s.
« Today we just needed to finish. We need to control things because there is no point going really crazy. » – Nasser Al-Attiyah
It’s still Brazilian rookie Lucas Moraes who holds second place in the car race. It’s amazing to see the debutant looking so relaxed when steering his Hilux to the finish line with co-driver Timo Gottschalk day after day.
« The dunes here in the Empty Quarter are a lot closer together with a lot more drops. It’s quite different from the desert in the north of Saudi Arabia. » – Lucas Moraes
The chilled out attitude of Moraes is all the more surprising when you consider who is chasing him down. It was a fourth consecutive stage win for Sébastien Loeb, he’s now within ten minutes of Moraes as he looks to leapfrog him from third overall. Loeb, co-driver Fabian Lurquin and their BRX Hunter are doing a fine job of hoovering up plenty of W2RC points in this second week at the Dakar.
« I had a good rhythm and pushed hard. The dunes were not so complicated overall, except some parts that were really tricky, but in the end we had a good day. » – Sébastien Loeb
The order of the leading trio of bikers was once again shuffled today, this time it was Husqvarna rider Skyler Howes who ended up leading the overall. The American’s advantage over Toby Price of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing is a slim 28 seconds at the midway point of the Marathon Stage.
« We had a good day, no crashes, no nothing, so it was good. We pushed where we could and tried to minimise the risks as much as we could. » – Toby Price
Price’s KTM team-mate Kevin Benavides is now in third overall, just a few minutes off the lead himself. Tomorrow is bound to see another shake up of the bike race’s overall podium positions.
« I’m happy with the job that I did on the first part of this marathon stage and I think I’ll be in a good position for tomorrow. » – Kevin Benavides
Stage 12 will be another dune fest with a racing distance of 185km before the convoy returns to the bivouac at Shaybah. The second half of the Marathon Stage will show us who has been able to keep their machine in perfect racing condition and who is lacking the performance to stay on the pace.
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Selected Overall Standings after Stage 11
T1 Car Class
1. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) TOYOTA 39:16:33
2. Lucas Moraes (BRA) TOYOTA +01:21:04
3. Sébastien Loeb (FRA) BRX +01:30:41
5. Giniel De Villiers (ZAF) TOYOTA +02:14:18…
20. Mattias Ekström (SWE) AUDI +06:54:14…
23. Kuba Przygoński (POL) MINI +07:20:49…
60. Laia Sanz (ESP) ASTARA +18:17:38…
T3 Lightweight Prototype
1. AJ Jones (USA) CAN-AM +45:19:15
2. Seth Quintero (USA) CAN-AM +55:54
3. Guillaume De Mevius (BEL) OT3 +01:28:19
4. Chaleco López (CHL) CAN-AM +02:50:39
5. Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP) CAN-AM +03:07:53
10. Ignacio Casale (CHL) YAMAHA +07:11:28…
27. Mitch Guthrie Jr. (USA) MCE5 +27:58:04…
T4 SSV
1. Rokas Baciuška (LTU) CAN-AM 46:42:42
2. Eryk Goczal (POL) CAN-AM +04:17
3. Marek Goczal (POL) CAN-AM +14:18…
Bikes
1. Skyler Howes (USA) HUSQVARNA 38:47:43
2. Toby Price (AUS) KTM +00:28
3. Kevin Benavides (ARG) KTM +02:44…
7. Daniel Sanders (AUS) GASGAS +21:40…
10. Matthias Walkner (AUT) KTM +44:45…
14. Štefan Svitko (SVK) KTM +01:32:06…
38. Mohammed Balooshi (ARE) HUSQVARNA +08:51:42…
QUOTES
AJ Jones: « That’s the kind of racing that we do, especially on the Dakar, everything changes fast. Anything can happen in these three days, but for now we’re in a good spot, so I’m happy. I don’t think there’s anything wrong. We’re going to look it over and make sure that everything is one hundred percent, but I don’t really think we have anything to fix, so I think it’s good. The strategy for the next three days is just to keep it moving and try not to have any big problems. »
Seth Quintero: « In the morning I talked to my co-driver about just making sure we survived the day. It was the first half of a marathon so we toned it back a lot. It looks like we’ve moved into P2 overall as the leader had a problem. That’s unfortunate because you always want to take a place because of clean racing. »
Cristina Gutiérrez: « Our day was fine, because in the first part of the stage we were quite fast and safe, because today is the first day of the marathon stage. After that, Austin, who is now leading, overtook me and I stayed behind him to help him if he needed something. One time he got stuck and we helped him to get out. »
Rokas Baciuška: « It seems that the plan worked. We finished successfully, we are first not only on the eleventh stage, but we continue to lead the overall standings. »
Nasser Al-Attiyah: « Today we did an amazing stage with no mistakes. It looked a little bit easy because we didn’t really push a lot, just to finish today without problems so we don’t need to work on our car all night. We still have too many hours to do. We try to do our best because tomorrow is so important. Today we just needed to finish. We need to control things because there is no point going really crazy. »
Lucas Moraes: « The dunes here in the Empty Quarter are a lot closer together with a lot more drops. It’s quite different from the desert in the north of Saudi Arabia that we drove on in the first week. Also here the sand is much softer because we don’t have the rain we had on the early stages. It’s great to be here and I’m ready to sleep in my tent. We have three more stages to go so we’ll keep going. »
Sébastien Loeb: « It was a good stage today for us. We had to change one wheel in the dunes, so it was a bit tricky to find a good place to do it and we lost a bit of time for it. For the rest, I had a good rhythm. I pushed hard. The dunes were not so complicated overall, except some parts that were really tricky, but in the end we had a good day. »
Toby Price: « We had a good day, no crashes, no nothing, so it was good. We pushed where we could and tried to minimise the risks as much as we could and not lose so much time, but starting from the back, for sure, it meant we could try and gain some time today, so hopefully it’s worked out in the end. »
Kevin Benavides: « I put the maximum I could today. I started in fourth position so I tried to push as much as I could. I caught the guys in front of me and after that we rode together for the last 80km. I’m happy with the job that I did on the first part of this marathon stage and I think I’ll be in a good position for tomorrow. »
Daniel Sanders: « It was good fun, to get to ride together and eat some sand in the dunes, so it was cool. The bike’s all good, everything is running smoothly, so I’ve just quickly checked over the wheels, the chain and all the oil levels and that, so everything is good and we’ll be alright for tomorrow. »