Belly sliding through puddles, the rain ritual and plenty more – there were many moments that left us all smiling this year
Dakar Rally
Dakar Rally 2023: MotoGP™ recap: Catalunya – agony & ecstasy
The most dramatic race of the season? Probably. When the World Championship landed in Barcelona, Ducati and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) were on a high after their victory at Mugello, but it was home hero Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) who took pole position.
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REWIND: CHAPTER 9 – AGONY & ECSTASY
Title chase leader Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) joined Espargaro and Pecco on the front row, as we prepared ourselves for a classic Catalan GP battle between three of 2022’s race winners – and the favorites for the Championship
However, huge drama unfolded at Turn 1. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) got a great launch from P12 on the grid, but the Japanese rider lost control of his RC213V when the field dived on the anchors for the first time. Nakagami wiped out Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and tagged Pecco too, seeing the Italian crash out with Nakagami and Rins. Quartararo, meanwhile, went from P3 to P1 and never looked back.
How to Watch 2023 The Dakar Rally (Motorbikes, Cars and Dakar Classic)
Here’s how to watch the 2023 The Dakar Rally on FloRacing and 2023dakarrally.com. The 2023 Dakar Rally will run from December 31-January 15, after a prologue stage on December 31, 2022. For the fourth year running, the event will be held entirely in Saudi Arabia. However, organizers have now extended it to 14 Stages for the first time since the 2018 edition that was spread across Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.
The 2023 The Dakar Rally starts on 31 December 2022 and runs until 15 January 2023.
How to Watch Dakar Rally:
STREAMING: Watch the 2023 The Dakar Rally on FloRacing. SIGN UP HERE.
On Your TV: Now Available on Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast & Apple TV.
Cast: Cast to your smart TV including Vizio, Samsung and LG TVs.
On The Go: Download the FloSports app on iOS or Android.
Read More: 2023 Dakar Rally Live Stream
Dakar 2023 Rally Changes bellow…
Some changes were announced for this year’s event:
- Digital roadbooks for all participants, including the bikes
- Time bonuses for bikes opening the stage
- “Mirror routes” – in order to separate the routes some stages will be split into “A and B routes”, which feature different waypoints, assigned randomly
- No neutralizations for T1 and T2 categories – the stage will not have breaks in the middle
- Stage start procedure – the first truck to leave will be from 45th place. No reclassification for top 40 drivers
- Dakar Classic will follow dedicated route with 13 stages, including 2 marathons. New average speed group for less powerful vehicles
- Introduction of “synthetic and biofuels”, with expectation that elite drivers will compete in low emission prototypes by 2026
Read more: The 2023 Dakar Rally Schedule: Live Race at very high speed
Dakar Rally Quad: the Giroud method
10 of the 14 titles contested since the launch of the quad category in 2009 have gone to Argentinian or Chilean riders, but in 2022, Alexandre Giroud finally brought it home for France and extended his hegemony throughout the W2RC season.
While this dominant performance marks him as a favorite, the 19-strong field —in which Yamaha 700 cc quads are the steed of choice— is packed with riders bent on toppling him from the throne.
Read More: Watch 2023 Dakar Rally Live Streaming
Alexandre Giroud had been ready for a long time, but he had to wait until his 6th attempt to finally stand on the top step of the podium and bring the quest started by his father to an emotional close. Daniel Giroud had become the first rider to reach the Lac Rose on a quad all the way back in 1997, when the category did not even officially exist. These oddballs have since taken the Dakar by storm and experienced a golden age in South America, where quads are part of everyday life.
Now, a field of specialists are about to go head-to-head in a close-run race. The competition has got fiercer and the pretenders to the crown have less room for error than ever. After so many years, the Frenchman has the advantage of no longer having to prove that he can win the rally, and becoming the W2RC champion, with two victories in the Rallye du Maroc and the Andalucía Rally along the way, has only boosted his confidence.
Yet he knows better than most how precarious life at the top can be. Back in 2022, the stakes were still high going into stage 10, in which he benefited from the withdrawal of his closest rival, Pablo Copetti, a stage hunter who has finished third twice (2017 and 2021) in ten starts. The American-Argentinian rider will be looking to settle the score, as will 2021 champion Manuel Andújar, whose title defence ended in stage 6 due to injury.