The Saudi Dakar Rally 2023 competition continued last week with the start of the 11th stage from Haradh to Shaybah.
The distance at this stage reaches 622 km, of which 508 km is for the link stage, and 114 km is for the special location subject to timing.
Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, the driver of the Bahrain Red Extreme team, won first place in the car category, recording an hour, 48 minutes, and 32 seconds.
Loeb overtook the Swede, Matthias Ekstrom, the Audi driver, by 3 minutes and 4 seconds, followed by the Brazilian Lucas Moraes, the driver of the “Overdrive” team, third, by 5 minutes and 22 seconds.
Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, the driver of the “Toyota Gazoo” team, maintained the lead in the general standings, moving away from Brazilian Lucas Moraes, by an hour, 21 minutes, and 34 seconds.
They were followed by France’s Sebastien Loeb in third place, with a difference of one hour, 37 minutes, and 23 seconds.
The Dakar Rally (Paris-Dakar Rally) is a racing and competition for cars on the most challenging roads organized by the ASO Organization
The Dakar Rally started in Paris in 1979 and ended in Dakar, Senegal. In 2009, it moved to South America between Argentina and Chile until 2019.
Recently, Saudi Arabia decided to host the 2020 Rally on its soil, in a partnership that will last for 10 years until 2030.
Vehicles participating in the rally
Three categories competed in the rally: the bike category, the cars category, and the truck category.
In this rally, fierce competition takes place between car manufacturers. They use this rally to show their cars’ durability and as a testing ground for them to modify them for the better.
