Dakar 2023 – Stage 2: Nasser Al-Attiyah prevails, Sébastien Loeb suffers a major setback
The Qatari driver behind the wheel of his Toyota won the second stage between Sea Camp and Alula, while several favorites have already seen their chances of ultimate victory dangerously diminish.
The Dakar 2023 has already caused (very) significant damage among the favorites. Sébastien Loeb is the main protagonist to have suffered from it. Long immobilized at kilometer 278 of a stage that included 431, the Alsatian and his co-pilot Fabian Lurquin fell victim to several punctures. Eventually ranked 59th in the stage, the crew of the BRX number 201 lost nearly an hour and a half to the day’s winner.
In a battle all day for the lead with the Dutchman Erik Van Loon’s Toyota, the defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah claims his first stage victory in this rally by a mere fourteen seconds. On the third step of the stage podium, Carlos Sainz maintains his overall lead by two minutes over Al-Attiyah. Both men are clearly the major beneficiaries of this eventful second stage.
Further on, the two other Audis of Stéphane Peterhansel and Mattias Ekström crossed the line with over thirty minutes of delay behind the winner of the day, while the gap is quickly widening in the overall standings. This is a situation that the Frenchman and the Swede will have to remedy quickly if they don’t want to see their chances of ultimate victory vanish from the first kilometers of this race.
Stage 2 Ranking
| Concurrents | Team | Times / Gaps | |
| 1 | Al-Attiyah / Baumel | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 05:00:26 |
| 2 | Van Loon / Delaunay | Overdrive Racing | +00:00:14 |
| 3 | Sainz / Cruz | Team Audi Sport | +00:05:05 |
| 4 | Serradori / Minaudier | Century Racing Factory Team | +00:11:29 |
| 5 | Baud / Boulanger | Overdrive Racing | +00:13:00 |
General ranking
| Concurrents | Team | Times / Gaps | |
| 1 | Sainz / Cruz | Team Audi Sport | 08:34:26 |
| 2 | Al-Attiyah / Baumel | Toyota Gazoo Racing | +00:02:12 |
| 3 | Serradori / Minaudier | Century Racing Factory Team | +00:24:55 |
| 4 | Vitse / Lefebvre | MD Rally | +00:25:40 |
| 5 | De Villiers / Murphy | Toyota Gazoo Racing | +00:26:38 |
