Automotive: Ekstrom ahead of Leob and Peterhansel, the Dakar is off to a good start!

Swede Mattias Ekstrom made his rivals bite the dust by winning on Saturday with his hybrid Audi during the 13 km prologue of the Dakar 2023, launching the 45th edition of the rally-raid on the shores of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia .

Ekstrom was ahead of Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive Hunter), 2nd in the 2022 edition and nine-time world rally champion, and Stéphane Peterhansel (Audi).

The winner of the 2022 edition, Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota), took 4th place, closely followed by Guerlain Chicherit (Prodrive) and Spaniard Carlos Sainz, three-time winner of the event (Audi).

This prologue is anything but insignificant, as it makes it possible to determine the starting position on the first real stage on Sunday (603 km including 368 km of specials) which will set the tone for the event.

“We are getting into the race.

When you put the helmet on your head at the start, you feel that you are on the subject.

We do 1, 3 and 6 (the ranking of the three Audis) and, personally, it's better than I expected, analyzes Mr Dakar, Stéphane Peterhansel, 14 times crowned.

It was a course cut out more for pure rally or rallycross drivers, which is not my case, so it's a good position.

I'm not really used to strategies, but I'll still be well placed to make my choice in Sunday's starting order.

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🚗 @mattiasekstroem dancing in the desert!

👍#Dakar2023 pic.twitter.com/gGoc3g4Pny

— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) December 31, 2022

On the motorcycle side, Australian Toby Price (KTM), 10th last year, set the fastest time, beating fellow countryman Daniel Sanders (GasGas) by one second and Botswana rider Ross Branch (Hero ).

Defending champion Sam Sunderland (GasGas) ranked 10th, and the first Frenchman, Adrien Van Beveren, is in 17th position.

Until January 15, more than 8,000 km await the 790 competitors for this fourth edition in Saudi Arabia.

With some new stuff.

For the cars, the Dakar has reduced the performance of the elite cars in order to bring the performance of the cars of the amateurs closer to that of the official teams.

“We lost more than 40 horsepower, 30 kW.

That's 10%, that's huge and that's not good news, comments Guerlain Chicherit.

It will play a lot.

We didn't think it would have such an impact.

It's a bit of the unknown."

On two wheels, bonuses have been introduced for motorcyclists who open the road and make the mark.

The first three drivers who spend the most time opening the special between the start and the refueling thus benefit from bonus seconds which will be deducted from their time at the finish.