Toyota and Honda control the 2023 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge after the first stage covered an unprecedented track and did not change the plans of the winners of the prologue in cars and motorcycles: Al Attiyah and Quintanilla, respectively, are remains the leader.
the qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) did not expect to see their main rivals so quickly. Sebastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme), leader of the W2RC standings, stopped at 39km due to a problem with a cooling system hose. He left the stage, ending his hopes of an ADDC victory. A scenario that came to life last year on the first day.
Guerlain Chicherit, another Prodrive driver, who was closest to the official Hilux at the first checkpoint, also had bad luck. The Frenchman stopped several times, suffering from dizziness from the sands. At the end of the day, third overall in the championship, he decided to withdraw from the race.
It was a successful day for Toyota. The three Hiluxes of Nasser Al Attiyah, Yazeed Al Rajhi and Henk Lategan achieved the podium of the day and the provisional classification.
In T3, Seth Quintero (Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA) prevailed over his teammate Austin Jones. The second place was obtained under special conditions for the leader of the world championship. Despite the challenge, the American did not hesitate to stop to help his teammate Christina Gutierrez (Red Bull Can-Am Factory), which ran out of gas. Mattias Ekström, second in the category for a long time, had the same bad luck as the Spaniard.
In T4, Rokas Baciuska (Red Bull Can-Am Factory) won the stage. Pau Navarro (FN Speed), who finished just over 5 minutes behind the leader of the day and the provisional classification, was his biggest rival in this race.
On motorcycles, Pablo Quintanilla and his teammate Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda), yesterday’s fastest in the prologue, once again dominated the day. The Chilean won the stage with a two-minute advantage over the Frenchman. Ross Branch (Hero MotoSports) finished third, 3’14” from the leader. “Nacho” Cornejo, another Honda rider, finished fourth in 4’16”. Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) is fifth in 4’37”. In the general classification, after the first stage, the hours of the day and the prologues with the coefficient 8 established in the championship regulations are added , Quintanilla leads. “VBA” by 2’16” and Price by 5’17”. Branch is 4th just 3 seconds behind the official KTM rider.
In Rally2, Paolo Lucci (BAS World KTM Racing) took the lead for the day ahead of Konrad Dabrowski (Duust Diverse Racing) who finished 5′ behind. In the general classification, the Pole is less than 2 minutes behind the Italian. Jean-Loup Lepan (Duust Diverse Racing) was 3rd at 8’35”. Toni Mulec (BAS World KTM Racing) ran out of fuel before refueling and is now 4th, 35 minutes behind the leader.
In quads, Abdulaziz Ahli It lived up to expectations. He overtook Rodolfo Guillioli in the special and overall, by more than twenty minutes. Laisvydas Kancius was forced to stop. Lithuanian is about three quarters of an hour from Emirati.
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.
