Another year of dune racing in superb Saudi deserts wrapped up on the weekend for Dakar 2023.
After 5000kms of racing across 14 stages in Saudi Arabia, T1 Car sensation Nasser Al-Attiyah finished with his fifth Dakar car victory.
The Qatari Toyota Hilux driver finished with a time of 45:03:15, clearing France’s Sebastien Loeb (+1:20:49) and Brazil’s Lucas Moraes (+1:38:31) respectively for second and third. “It was a difficult Dakar for everyone. It’s crazy to manage to defend my title. I’m very happy to win five times,” Nasser said.
A third-place finish for Lucas had everyone surprised in his rookie race, with the 31-year-old stating “finishing third on the podium is important for the rally community in Brazil because it had never happened before.”
American AJ Jones took first in the T3 Lightweight Prototype class, while Pole Eryk Goczal finished first in the T4 SSV section.