Lebb’s victory returned him to a podium finish on the 9th Dakar Rally special

After the rest day on Monday (September 1st) in Riyadh, the second part and the final stage of the Dakar Rally 2023 started on Tuesday (October 1st) with the special route of 358 kilometers from the capital of Saudi Arabia to the finish on Sunday (January 15th). to the city of Harad in a sea of ​​sand.

Lebb picked up where he left off on Sunday, winning a stage for the fourth time this year to make up ground lost to falls and spins in the early days of the race. The Frenchman took almost 9 minutes from general classification leader Nasser-Al-Attiyah, who had scored for only the eighth time.

Still, Al-Attiyah extended his lead over the leaders in practice as yesterday’s runner-up – and his Toyota works colleague – Henk Lategan lost nearly 40 minutes when he was stopped at 18km with mechanical problems. Thus, the Brazilian Lucas Moraes, also with a Toyota Hilux DKR (but from the Overdrie team), climbed to second place, which is 1 hour and 21 minutes from Al-Aitiyya.

After the accident that disabled Carlos Sainz, in a surreal moment when he asked the helicopter pilot to fly him back to his Audi on the way to the hospital, the special became a monologue by Leb. And Prodrive’s Hunter, as the Frenchman was followed by Teltonika Racing’s Vaidotas Zala and GCK Motorsport’s Guerlain Ciccheri with two identical cars.

Saint, having decided to return to the scene of the accident – as he felt the pain on the right side of his upper body did not concern him – he awaited the assistance of the Audi escort vehicle. After the RS Q e-tron was repaired on site, the Spaniard returned to the race and is expected to complete the special. Not that he now has any hope of an award.

The only hope Lebb now has for his first Dakar Rally win of the year is his speed to overtake Moraes and then some time-wasting problems from Al-Attiyah as he lags behind his four-time winning race by over 1 hour and 40 minutes .

“It was a good stage. We got a bit lost in a couple of places as the timing was a little tricky, the lines of the bikes were wrong and we had to change direction. We lost maybe 5 or 7 minutes but it was a good stage, we could have lost a lot more time”said Lemb at the end.

The wrong lines of the bikes were made by one of the pioneers in the exciting and multi-faceted battle for the top spot on two wheels. Those caught in the navigation trap include Honda’s Adrien van Beveren, who was leading after the 43km mark and before the navigation error, his counterpart Pablo Quintanilla, and Daniel Saunders and Mason Klein on their KTMs.

After that, the battle for the lead switched faces and in the end today’s bike win went to Husqvarna’s Luciano Benavides, a minute behind KTM’s Toby Price and three minutes behind Skyler House, also of Huqsvarna – but he stayed on the top of the General, with a difference of only 3 seconds to Price after 9 days and a few thousand kilometers.

Unfortunately, after early retirements of Ricky Brabeck and Sam Sunderland, another star dropped today – Joan Barreda Bor, who overcame crashes and other issues to claim his first Dakar win of the year. After his fall today, however, he had to be hospitalized in Riyadh with a lower back injury.

General Ranking – After 9th ed

CARS

1. Nasser Al Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) 34:19:20
2. Luca Moraes (Overdrive Racing) +1:21:57
3. Sebastian Leb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) +1:43:08
4. Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +1:46:23
5. Ziniel de Viger (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +2:04:17
6. Romain Dumas (Rebellion Toyota) +2:25:51
7. Martin Prokop (Orlen Ford) +2:45:36
8. Brian Barraguanath (century) +2:48:06

MOTORCYCLES

1. Skyler House (Husqvarna) 33:55:57
2. Toby Price (KTM) +0:03
3. Kevin Benavides (KTM) +5:09
4. Adrien van Beveren (Honda) +15:40
5. Pablo Quintanilla (Honda) +18:24
6. Maurer Klein (KTM) +18:42
7. Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna) +21:35
8. Jose Ignacio Cornejo (Honda) +22:47