Five things we learned from stage nine of Dakar 2023

With teams and competitors now fully rested, the charge to Dammam is back on and the ninth stage provided an array of challenges for the front-runners across many of the classes.

It was another strong stage for Toby Price, finishing second on the day and retaining second overall. EPA/Andrew Eaton Credit: Andrew Eaton/EPA

1. Price has eyes on the big prize

It was another strong day for Toby Price. Remaining competitive through the dunes and swamp-like conditions, which are a by-product of the rain that drowned Saudi Arabia last week, the two-time winner took a big bite out of Skyler Howes' lead.

Heading into the ninth stage with a 1’58” deficit, the Gold Coast-based KTM rider came through the stage finishing second for the day behind eventual stage winner Luciano Benavides and is now only three seconds behind the American and his Husqvarna.

With five stages to go in this year’s event, surely it’s only a matter of time before Price takes the overall lead.

An animated Price during stage nine. Photo: Gigi Soldano /DPPI/LiveMedia Credit: IPA/Sipa USA

On the other hand, it was a day of struggles for fellow Australian, Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders. Having got lost early in the stage, he dropped more time to the leaders and was almost involved in a clash between Mason Klein and Adrien van Beveren.

He finished the stage 20th and has dropped a place in the general classification to ninth overall.

2. Molly storms back into top 10 in T4

Molly Taylor and Andrew Short now sit eighth overall in the T4 Modified Production SSV class with five stages to go. Photo: Florent Gooden/DPPI/LiveMedia Credit: IPA/Sipa USA

Molly Taylor is back in the top 10 of the T4 Modified Production SSV class despite a slightly troubled day out in the dunes.

In previous stages, it’s either been a mechanical failure or a puncture that’s slowed her progress. Today, it was an electrical gremlin that kicked in just eight kilometres into the stage that caused concern for herself and navigator Andrew Short.

Eventually, they pulled off to the side of the course part-way through the stage and found the source of the problem to be one of the connectors to the ECU.

Once rectified, Taylor and Short pushed their Can-Am through a 17th-place stage finish. Despite the lowly placed result, they hauled in a chunk of time to make up three places and now sit eighth overall.

Her current standing eclipses her previous best of ninth back on stage two, but now it’s a case of maintaining her pace in the five remaining stages to get to the finish.

3. The end of El Matador

It’s been a Dakar to forget for Carlos Sainz Snr.

Having lost time in stage three with a broken trailing arm, his crash in stage six brought his charge to win his fifth Dakar title undone. But the Spaniard wasn’t going to give up finishing this rally without a fight and he was doing his darnedest to make sure he was going to make it to Dammam.

Sadly, this wasn’t to happen. He crashed again, 18km into the stage in almost identical circumstances to his stage six incident, only this time, he flipped and landed on the roof of his Audi.

From there, a weird set of circumstances happened. He sustained injuries to his right hand and torso and declared that he was going to retire from the event. But then, he changed his mind and got back into his Audi and drove through to finish the stage.

Carlos Sainz Snr is assisted by medical staff following his crash during Stage 9 of Dakar 2023. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP) Source: AFP / FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images

Upon further assessment by Audi team mechanics, his RS Q e-tron E2 was declared too damaged to continue and is now officially out of Dakar 2023.

Only one Audi remains in their 2023 challenge, a challenge that was extinguished after stage seven.

4. Rain - the lasting legacy of this year’s event

One of the lasting legacies of this year’s event will be the rain and there’s been lots of it.

The aerial view shows the amount of rain that had turned parts of stage nine into swampland. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP) Source: AFP / FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images

The vision mid-stage of some of the sandy sections looking more like swamps provided an extra degree of difficulty for many of the competitors. However, the ones that got caught out were the kind of vehicles that you’d least expect to get stuck in these conditions.

It was quite a sight to see a number of the truck competitors getting bogged in the swamp and having to be rescued by some from the T3 and T4 classes.

This was a far cry from what we saw on stage three, when the trucks were the saviours to the likes of Red Bull Can-Am when they almost got swept away by the flash floods.

Czech Republic's truck driver Martin Macik alongside co-drivers Frantisek Tomasek and David Svanda as well as Dutch Iveco truck Martin Van Den Brink, co-drivers Rijk Mouw and Erik Kofman try to get their vehicles out of the mud. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP) Source: AFP / FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images

The trucks that tackle Dakar are made to trek the terrains of Saudi Arabia, but this was something else.

5. MotoGP and WSBK royalty adapting strongly to Rally Raid

Former World Superbike champion, Carlos Checa prior to stage nine. Photo: Gigi Soldano /DPPI/LiveMedia Credit: IPA/Sipa USA

Having been at the top flight of MotoGP competition between 1995 and 2010, with three pole positions and two wins, plus a world title in World Superbikes, Spaniard Carlos Checa has made the transition to rally raid competition rather effortlessly. Only that he’s not doing it on two wheels but, rather, four.

Having made his Dakar debut last year, Checa has partnered with the Astara team as part of a three-car attack in the T1 Prototype class. The car itself, the Astara 01 Concept, is powered by a Chevrolet LS7 seven litre V8, run on sustainable e-fuels.

The ASTARA 01 Concept that Checa is driving. EPA/Gerard Laurenssen Credit: Gerard Laurenssen/EPA

Last year, he finished 66th on debut. Twelve months on, Checa has substantially improved on his performance and with his navigator Marc Sola, he’s currently sitting 17th overall in the general classification.

For the Spaniard, this is a great learning experience as he embarks on his debut campaign in the FIA World Rallycross Championship later this year.

Catch the stage nine highlights tonight from 5pm (AEDT) on SBS and any time on SBS On Demand.