Price second after Dakar Stage 5 | Illness strikes Sanders

2023 Dakar Rally – Stage 5
Ha’il – Ha’il

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Stage Five was billed to be a tough one, covering 645 km in total, with a timed special of 373 km, camel grass littering the sandy tracks and dunes. That didn’t dissuade Toby Price who once again remained consistent, building off his fourth place start in the leading group, including taking an early lead, before losing time due to a missed waypoint that proved an issue for much of the field.

After the refueling, while riding with that same group, Barreda crashed in front of Toby and went down, Price also crashing after being unable to avoid the downed rider, but thankfully coming away uninjured. Stopping to assist his rival resulted in several minutes lost – time that was subsequently returned to the Australian on completion of the stage, leaving price third for the stage. The result moves Price up to second overall.

Toby Price – P3

“Tough stage today – we got lost early on and spent some minutes getting back on track there. Then, later on in the second half of the stage, Barreda had a big crash and I ended up getting tangled up in that. I was ok, but we stopped for around five minutes there to make sure Joan was ok. All in all, it’s not been a bad stage, I don’t think we lost too much time. I’ll get my shoulder looked at now because I knocked it in the crash, but apart from that, I’m looking forward to the next day.”

The Dakar Rally is tough enough for competitors, without any additional challenges, however for Australian Daniel Sanders the day dawned with an additional hurdle, sickness striking and leaving Chucky with no energy and unable to eat and drink.

Sanders will now get some much-needed rest ahead of tomorrow’s stage six having finished the stage in 21st, and underwent examination by the medical team on arrival at the bivouac at the end of the stage.

Daniel Sanders – P21

“It’s been a bit of a struggle today to say the least. When I woke up, I didn’t feel good at all. I had no energy, couldn’t really eat or drink anything, so it seems like I’ve picked up some kind of bug, I guess. So yeah, it’s a bit of a bummer after starting the rally so well. What made things even tougher was that my bike is set up to work at higher speeds and I just didn’t have the pace I needed today. So we’ll make a few changes ahead of tomorrow to dial the comfort back in and hopefully with some rest I can be back fighting up front again.”

It was certainly a good day for the Monster Energy Honda Team, Adrien Van Beveran the winner of the fifth stage of the Dakar Rally 2023, teammate José Ignacio Cornejo – the Chilean known as ‘Nacho’ – finishing second, just 13s behind the leader.

Adrien Van Beveren – P1

“This stage win was a late anniversary present! It feels great to reach this performance, I am really happy! I did a good navigation at the beginning, then I opened around 200 kilometers. The terrain was really difficult but I could reach my goal.”

José Ignacio Cornejo – P2

“This was a great stage overall for the team, I am quite happy to contribute to this good result. I think I have found my rhythm and that is also the consequence of the permanent improvements our team is working on in our Honda CRF 450 Rally.”

Toby Price was third, ahead of KTM mounted Mason Klein, Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Skyler Howes rounding out the top five.

Skyler Howes – P5

“Tough day today. It’s been really physical as for most of the day we were up on the pegs picking our way through the camel grass. I caught up to the lead group quite early on, but it was really difficult to see the tracks today. We made a mistake and chose the wrong way, ended up getting lost, and then had to make a few circles to find the one waypoint we’d missed. Shortly before the finish Joan (Barreda) had a big crash and got caught up with Toby (Price), and so we stopped for a few minutes to make sure they were alright before carrying on. I know I lost a little time today, but I’m happy to reach the finish safely and I’m in good shape to push hard again tomorrow.”

Matthias Walkner was the last of the Red Bull KTM riders to enter the stage, still fighting through the pain of his injured wrist, sustained earlier in the race, the Austrian rider once again showed his mettle as he pushed hard through the tough special, making the minimum of errors to finish sixth.

Matthias Walkner – P6

“Once again it was another tough day in the desert. Today was really the day where I had to decide if I would continue the race or not – my wrist and my body have really been suffering since my crash on Monday. Despite that, it’s probably been my best day so far – I really was pushing hard for the whole stage and didn’t feel too bad physically. Looking at how much time I lost, it’s a little bit frustrating, but I know I really did give my all today.”

Pablo Quintanilla finished seventh after stopping to help downed rider Joan Barreda, also admitting the navigation was a challenge.

Pablo Quintanilla – P7

“The stage was more or less similar to the one we faced yesterday. I started the stage with a good pace, I was riding together with Joan Barreda and just before the finish he had a bad crash and I had to stop to assist him. The navigation was tricky and I think many of the riders had problems with it.”

Missing the same waypoint as the leading group, Kevin Benavides was unable to take full advantage of his seventh-place start position and lost several minutes while re-finding the correct route. Giving his all for the remainder of the stage, Benavides placed an impressive eighth, 10 minutes down on the stage winner. A result strong enough to move him up to third in the provisional overall rally standings.

Kevin Benavides – P8

“Today was a good stage and I’m happy with how I rode in the sand. Unfortunately, I made a big mistake around kilometer 190 and that cost me a lot of time. After refueling I tried to push again to make that up, but the terrain was so physically demanding, it got to the point where it was tough to hold on. I’m a little frustrated because I know I could have made up more time today, but it seems a lot of the top guys had similar issues, so my position in the overall is still good. Time to recharge my batteries now ready for tomorrow.”

Lorenzo Santolino finished ninth, followed by Rui Gonvalves and Stefan Svitko.

Luciano Benavides powered his FR 450 Rally through stage five to finish as 12th quickest. Falling foul of the same navigational error that caught out the front runners, Benavides spent several minutes trying to find one particular waypoint. Correcting his mistake successfully, the Argentinian racer then focused on the remainder of the stage.

Luciano Benavides – P12

“It was another day alone for me. I was doing really well up to around kilometre 190 where I got lost a little and found it tough to get back on track. I think the riders ahead of me had got lost too, so there were so many tracks on the ground in all directions. I knew I was offline, so I tried to judge it right to find one waypoint, but it took a lot of circling to find it. After losing around 10 minutes there I really tried to push for the rest of the stage. Racing over the sandy tracks covered in camel grass is so demanding though, I had to ease my pace a little to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes. Overall, not a bad day, I’m still in the top 10 overall and looking forward to getting some rest now before giving my best again tomorrow.”

Rally GP Rankings after Dakar Stage 5

Skyler Howes now holds the overall 2023 Dakar Rally lead after five stages, with Australian Toby Price in second 2m07s off leading pace, followed by a more distant Kevin Benavides 5m16s off the lead.

Mason Klein is fourth, Adrien Van Beveren fifth, Joan Barreda sixth despite his crash, Pablo Quintanilla seventh and Daniel Sanders has dropped to eighth due to his 21-place finish for the stage as he struggles with illness.

Jose Cornejo and Luciano Benavides round out the top 10, 22 and 25-minutes off the lead respectively. Sanders in comparison is now 17m50s of the lead, and almost seven and a half minutes off seventh place.

Stage 5 Highlights Video

Stage 6 Route

Tomorrow the sixth stage from this year’s Dakar Rally will leave the Ha’il region in the direction of Riyadh – meaning a last minute change by ASO due to the weather conditions. This special stage will have 367 km (less 100 than initially foreseen) and a liaison of 300 km.

The route will continue to travel from coast to coast with the longest stage of this Dakar, which also contains the longest special stage. Speedometers will easily hit triple digits on the fast ample tracks that take the first half of the course through extensive plateaus.

A sequence of dunes will bring some variety and ramp up the suspense in the final third of the stage. By the end of this day, riders and machines will have already completed nearly 2500 kilometers of specials.

2023 Dakar Rally Stage 5 Provisional Results

2023 Dakar Rally Overall After Stage 5

2023 Dakar Rally Schedule