ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Start a new year and, as usual, to inaugurate the motorsport season will be the Dakar. The 47th edition of the legendary rally-raid, which for the seventh consecutive year will be held in Saudi Arabia, will start on Saturday, January 3 with the prologue, which will expire the engines in view of the first official stage, scheduled on Sunday. A ring route (starting from Yanbu, where on January 17 the last stop will be held) with a route that touches the 8 thousand km of race. There will be fewer dunes than in recent years, and yet it will be one of the most difficult editions: First of all, 5 thousand km will be made up of special tests, and then there will be two marathon stages for two days, in which the drivers will not count on the assistance of the teams, to replace the 48 hours stage that was present in the last two editions. It remains, therefore, than to see in action the protagonists: in the race there will be 118 motorcycles, 73 cars “Ultimate”, 46 trucks, 43 SSV and 38 Challenger, in addition to the category “Classic” with its historical cars. All hunting for defending champions, Yazeed Al Rajhi between cars and Daniel Sanders in motorcycles. The first, master of the house, is confirmed with his Toyota Hilux and will see a series of high level contenders; In particular, Ford and Dacia rely on the experience to try to take the throne.
As for the blue oval, after the experimental year of M-Sport, at 63 years old Carlos Sainz dreams of his fifth success in Dakar. And it is no less Dacia, which relies on the expert hands of Nasser Al-Attiyah, hunting for the sixth triumph, but also of Sebastien Loeb, who instead never won the race. As for the motorcycles, the Australian Sanders will have to defend themselves from pilots like Luciano Benavides and the promising Edgar Canet, also of the Ktm. Among other houses, Honda hopes for guilt by relying on drivers like Tosha Schareina, but also Hero and Sherco can say theirs. Many Italian protagonists, especially on the two wheels, on which Paolo Lucci stands, in top-15 in 2023.
– photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
