luciano benavídez took the tenth stage in motorcycles / telam
The Argentine Luciano Benavídes (Husqvarna Factory Racing) obtained his third partial victory yesterday in the Dakar Rally 2023 that takes place in Saudi Arabia, where his brother Kevin, from the Red Bull KTM team, resigned the leadership of the general motorcycle classification for his tenth stall at the start of the Empty Quarter marathon.
The youngest of the Benavídes led a test of 427 kilometers (274 timed) with a time of 2:57:59, ahead of the Australians Daniel Sanders (Red Bull GasGas) and Toby Price (Red Bull KTM).
“It has been a very nice stage, I had a lot of fun, dunes all the time. It felt like racing motocross. I did my best and enjoyed it a lot. I was very happy with the rhythm and the speed, it was something I was looking for”, stated the winner of the eleventh segment in statements to the rally’s official website.
Fourth was the American Skyler Howes (Husqvarna Factory Racing), who with that position recovered the first place in the accumulated table that he had lost on Wednesday against Kevin Benavídes, tenth yesterday.
With three stages to go, the motorcycle category reflects a definition in which every second counts: Howes is in front with an overall time of 38:47:43, followed by Price (+00:28) and Kevin Benavides (+2:44).
Then, more than 10 and less than 20 minutes away, the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla and the Frenchman Adrien Van Bereven, both from Monster Energy Honda and Luciano Benavides, take the sixth place.
The Dakar 2023 will continue today with its eleventh stage of 376 kilometers (185 of special) that will complete the so-called Empty Quarter marathon, a novelty introduced this year by the organization.
It is a tour divided into two days over the Rub Al Khali desert, an empty region, with no record of life, with an area of 650,000 square kilometers covered only by sand, with dunes that reach 250 meters in height.
In the quad division, the Brazilian Marcelo Medeiros (Taguatur) repeated the victory of stage 10, this time escorted by the French Alexandre Giroud (Yamaha Racing SMX Drag’on) and the Argentine Francisco Moreno Flores (Dragon), who took the podium for the sixth time in this edition.
