Al-Attiyah, Benavides win Dakar 2023

Kevin Benavides and Nasser Al-Attiyah have won the 2023 Dakar Rally in the bikes and cars categories, respectively. This year’s edition – the longest ever held in Saudi Arabia – concluded in Dammam after over 8,000km covering brutal weather conditions and terrain.

• Benavides beats Price to victory
• Al-Attiyah clinches fifth Dakar crown

Dakar 2023: Kevin Benavides wins bikes title by 43 secs

The bikes title went right down to the wire between Red Bull KTM’s Kevin Benavides and Toby Price.

While Benavides won the penultimate Stage 13, Price held a slender lead of 12 secs going into Sunday’s final stage. But Price lost a chunk of time in the opening stages after missing two waypoints. This allowed Benavides to pip him to victory and clinch his second Dakar Rally crown. After 15 days of racing, just 43 seconds separated the two KTM teammates.

“It's incredible to pull off the win at the end of this completely crazy Dakar, and with such a small gap. I'm also the first to win with two different motorbike brands, and that makes me very proud,” said Benavides, who had earlier won the 2021 Dakar Rally with Honda.

Husqvarna’s Skyler Howes, who spent six days in the lead, finished third overall.

Hero MotoSports in top 10

Hero MotoSports finished in the top 10 with Franco Caimi 10th overall. This year’s edition has been equal parts difficult and rewarding for the Indian squad. Star rider Joaquim Rodrigues had to retire after crashing and fracturing his leg on Stage 4.

Sebastian Buhler and Ross Branch dropped down the order after trouble in the early stages. But both of them managed to claw their way up the order, with Buhler finishing 20th overall and Branch 26th. Branch even won two stages for Hero MotoSports.

The only Indian rider competing in this year’s Dakar, Harith Noah, also retired after a crash in Stage 4.

Nasser Al-Attiyah scores fifth Dakar title

Nasser Al-Attiyah is now a five-time Dakar Rally winner. The Qatari driver has the second-most wins in the cars category (the overall record is held by Stephane Peterhansel with eight titles).

Prologue and Stage 1 victories for Audi, with their electrified range extender RS Q e-tron E2, had made them the early favourites. However, trouble struck the Audi camp with several crashes. Peterhansel was the first to retire in Stage 6, and Carlos Sainz followed in Stage 9.

With his main rivals out of the running, Al-Attiyah switched his focus on taking it steady and making it to the finish line. Bahrain Raid Xtreme’s Sebastian Loeb scripted an incredible comeback in the meantime. He bounced back from early issues and went on to win a record six stages back-to-back. But he ultimately had to settle for second place overall, more than an hour behind Al-Attiyah.

Mattias Ekstrom, the only Audi driver to finish this year’s Dakar, is 14th overall.

Alexandre Giroud takes second quads title

Yamaha Racing’s Alexandre Giroud has scored his second Dakar title in a row. The Frenchman won in the quads category following the withdrawal of Manuel Andujar.

Iveco wins trucks title

With a lead of over an hour, Iveco's Janus van Kasteren won the trucks title, becoming the first Dutch winner since Gerard de Rooy in 2016. They ended a streak of six Dakar victories for the Kamaz team. The Russian squad was absent from this year's rally.