This Saturday is the prologue stage of Dakar Rally 2023, the start of this edition of the toughest race in the world. It’s a phase already serves to establish the important starting structure for stage 1 on Sunday. The prologue will take place through the closed circuit of 12.5 kilometers of machine-leveled sand near the Red Sea, outside Campamento del Mar. There will be no navigation and it will purely follow the route marked with tapes. Of course, it won’t be the same as driving a timed section of the World Rally Championship because the organization has announced a ban on rally notes, so drivers and co-drivers must use memory or intuition in each curve after checking the route on the bike terrain.
“They passed a machine on a flat space and they passed it doing a similar route. In the end they wouldn’t let us take notes. Yesterday we made rally notes that we had to throw away. It’s a shame in that sense because good thing we got them. It is a difficult path to learn because it is all very similar. You have no references and it’s a flat site, marked by a machine and some tapes. It’s hard to memorize”Carlos said about it.
The first 10 cars will be able to choose their starting position for stage 1, the fastest will be the last to choose, while the best 15 will do so on motorcycles.
Starting order: Al-Attiyah, the first car
The day starts at 6 am (Spanish time) with the departure of debutant Dani Vilà (quads) and later his modality companions and motorcycles will follow. Then, the cars start at 8:40 am First to enter the ring was the defending champion, Nasser Al-Attiyah, followed a minute and a half later by runner-up Sébastien Loeb. Carlos Sainz will not start until 9.02 (Spanish time) at the wheel of his Audi RS Q e-Tron E2, at 16th starting position.
Achieving a good result in the prologue this Saturday morning is important to pick a good starting position. The ideal for anyone’s ambitions is to win and start stage 1 on Sunday behind their great rivals to avoid opening the track and start the rally by cutting time following the trail of their opponents .
Time on bikes is multiplied by 5 overall
In both motorcycles and cars, the final time achieved by each pilot will count towards the general classification. however, on motorcycles the last time is multiplied by 5. The reason is very simple: they do this because the bikes will be the first to hit the track in stage 1. This prevents someone who wants to lose a lot of time in the prologue to want to start as far away as possible and attack following slipstream the rest.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
