RALLY DAKAR 2023

Luciano Benavides wins again and Skyler Howes recovers the leadership of the Dakar 2023

The Argentine Luciano Benavides has achieved his third victory in five days by winning the eleventh stage of the Dakar 2023, by covering the 274 kilometers of special between Shaybah and Empty Quarter Marathon in 2 hours, 57 minutes and 59 seconds.

He led Australian Daniel Sanders by 1:38 and Toby Price by 1:56, with American Skyler Howes fourth to regain the lead with 28 seconds over Price and 2:44 from Argentina's Kevin Benavides. Three days from the end, the group of favorites is reduced to three.

Among the Spaniards, Lorenzo Santolino's 8th place and Tosha Schareina's 12th place stand out -both after changing engines- and, above all, Javi Vega, leading the Original category.

Already fully in the vaunted Empty Quarter, after yesterday's short stage won by Ross Branch, much was expected from the first part of the marathon stage, where the riders will not have assistance at the end. However, once again the differences have been much smaller than expected.

As he did before yesterday, Branch took advantage of the fact that he was not fighting for the general classification to allow himself to be caught by Adrien Van Beveren, who was already opening the track ahead of the Botswanan at the second waypoint, with Kevin Benavides reaching them after having caught Michael Docherty to Enter the four together at the finish line.

Once again, the stage was disputed from behind with two candidates and an unknown. The Husqvarna couple, made up of Luciano Benavides and Skyler Howes, took turns in charge of the waypoints while the Australian Toby Price had a problem with his GPS and did not score at any, although the organization confirmed that he was still in the race without problems .

Little by little, Luciano Benavides grew and widened his lead to prevail at the finish line, with Daniel Sanders sneaking in second in a stage from less to more to finish 1:38 behind the Husqvarna. Toby Price was almost two minutes behind, beating Skyler Howes by 13 seconds.

Skyler Howes recovers the leadership of the Dakar 2023 three days from the end(image above)

Pablo Quintanilla gave up almost three followed by Sebastien Bühler, Romain Dumontier and Lorenzo Santolino, who ended the day eighth after having penalized 15 minutes for changing his engine, with Franco Caimi ninth and Kevin Benavides tenth, delivering just over six minutes and securing a good position departure for tomorrow.

Tosha Schareina also changed her engine, twelfth in the stage ahead of two of the great favourites, Nacho Cornejo and Matthias Walkner. Applied the bonuses, Michael Docherty lost 8:37 (1:05 in bonus), Adrien Van Beveren 9:10 (3:10) and Ross Branch 12:53 (2:34); although the worst unemployed of the day was Mason Klein, who with more than 19 minutes lost says goodbye to his chances of final victory.

With Joan Pedrero solid for another day, the great news among the Spanish pilots was given by Javi Vega, who is the leader in the Original category with more than nine minutes over the South African Charan Moore, who after being penalized for changing his engine lost almost 16 minutes compared to to the man from Madrid on the stage.

by SWINXY