Another stage win for Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team driver Seth Quintero, combined with a sixth place stage finish for teammate AJ Jones, have allowed both to gain time on T3 Lightweight Prototype leader Guillaume De Mevius in the 2023 Dakar Rally with precious few stages remaining. Jones’ deficit to the lead is now back to within eight minutes with just four more stages in the grueling event.
Wednesday’s Stage 10 trek from Haradh to Shaybah may have had the shortest remaining special stage route—just 114 kilometers on the day—but what it lacked in length, it made up for in peril. Imposing dunes throughout the route, as well as tomorrow’s start to another marathon stage, meant that Stage 10 was about jamming as much challenge into as little of a space as possible, giving racers and their teams opportunity to adequately prepare back in the bivouac for the days ahead.
Quintero’s latest stage win came by just 37 seconds on Ignacio Casale, as the top seven were separated by under five minutes. Jones and Mitch Guthrie Jr. were the last two in that group, while defending winner Chaleco Lopez came home eighth on the day and De Mevius was 12th.
In T4 SSV, the four drivers who remain in the overall hunt also scored the top finishes on the stage, with Gerard Farres ahead of the father-son duo of Marek and Eryk Goczal and Rokas Baciuska just 2:30 behind in fourth. Baciuska remains the overall leader, 3:40 ahead of the younger Goczal, 6:47 ahead of Farres, and with 11:40 in hand on the elder Goczal.
2023 Dakar Rally Stage 10 winners were as follows:
- Lightweight Prototype: Seth Quintero, 1:55:17
- SSV: Gerard Farres, 1:58:22
2023 Dakar Rally class leaders are as follows:
- Lightweight Prototype: Guillaume De Mevius, 41:45:58
- SSV: Rokas Baciuska, 43:17:29
Coverage of today’s Dakar Rally action will debut on Peacock at 6:30PM ET. Tomorrow’s Stage 11 is the longest remaining special stage of the rally at 274 kilometers, and confronts racers with not only all types of sand, but also an empty bivouac at the end of the day as part of the planned Empty Quarter Marathon.
