Daniel Sanders, GasGas, and Nasser Al Attiyah, Toyota Gazoo, win the Sonora Rally. Not very well Paolo Lucci, not at ease, good in the final Eugenio Amos with Paolo Ceci on the new Hilux. We now move on to Ruta 40 in Argentina
April 29, 2023
saint Louis, Mexico, April 29. The Desert of the Altar is traversed far and wide, and so the Sonora Rally 2023 goes to archive. Not before having engraved the names of Daniel SandersGasGas, dominator of the Motorcycle race, and of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Crew Nasser Al Attiyah-Mathieu Baumel, winners of the car race. For the Australian and for the Prince of Qatar it is the first time in Mexico. The result of third round of the Rally-Raid World Championship, after Dakar and Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, reinforces the position of Toby Price, KTM Motorcycles classification, and allows Al Attiyah to overtake Loeb and climb to the lead. The last stage of the Rally, with a relatively short Special Stage, 140 kilometres, and the games practically done, complied with the… script already written in the previous days and formalized the expected result. Daniel Sanders was greatwon three of the 5 Stages, Nasser Al Attiyah is always great and redeem the unfortunate start to the World Championship (apart from the Dakar) by recovering the “capital” lost in Abu Dhabi with interest.
In the motorcycle race two things worked: the formula of the “Trailblazer bonuses” introduced by the World Rally-Raid Championship by ASO, e very well Daniel Sanders, Pilot for a while in credit with luck. A bit’ less good road book and routes, little navigation and many dangers. The Australian GasGas official got off to a strong start and, above all, maintained and imposed an unsustainable pace throughout the race except for the penultimate stage, which he needed to offer himself a pyrotechnic finale. After the surprise result of the prologuewon by son of art Bradley Coxand the equally surprising victory of Tosha ShareinaMoreHonda, by a hair’s breadth in the first stage, Sanders won the second and, despite the tough task of opening the trail, the next third stage, thanks also, in fact, to the accumulated bonuses. Leaving fourth to Toby Price, KTM, Sanders then finished with the textbook victory of the fifth and final stage, taking the entire post. Behind the winner Sandersthe excellent and now more than promising Shareinasecond and behind by almost 8 and a half minutes and, third overall, the Argentine Luciano BenavidesHusqvarna, as in Abu Dhabi inconspicuous but extremely constant and profitable.
With the fourth place and a stage victory, the fourth, Toby Price mantiene la leadership of the provisional after 3 Rallies of the Rally-Raid World Championship with 62 points. The Australian followed 7 lengths from Luciano Benavidesand 9 points from Adrian Van Beveren, the winner of Abu Dhabi. Similarly, Paolo Lucci maintains the overall lead of the Rally2 category3 points ahead of the Frenchman Dumontier who won in Mexico. Lucci couldn’t find the right pace to line up in comparison as he would have liked, but it must be said that many of the big names have suffered the same hardship. Basically, the Sonora Rally turned out to be a particular Rally, with little navigation, few dunes and tracks often narrow between cacti, with a “broken” bottom and many pitfalls and dangers not signaled correctly. They are the conditions under which it is not a bad “strategy” to risk as little as possible and limit the damage. I am proof of that incidents at Sunderland and Howes, out of the race and injured. Finally, in Rally3, “dominio” by Massimo Camurri, winner of 4 of the 5 stages. Oh God, certainly not a crowded category, but in fact, Camurri has been able to perfectly interpret the role and “script” of the Rally.
Il Sonora 2023 of Cars it was a Rally ad very high intensity of competition and twists. It was a priori since the announced cartel confrontation was the challenge between Sebastien LoebBRX Prodrive, World Championship leader, and Nasser Al Attiyah, Toyota Gazoo Racing. Also on the waiting list Guerlain ChicheritProdrive, e Yazeed Al Rajhi, Toyota Overdrive, Abu Dhabi double legacy winner after Loeb and Al Attiyah woes. In the Desert of the Altar it all began with the victory of Al Attiyah in the first stage and with the Loeb’s clear answer winner of the second and new, temporary leader of the Rally. The keystone of the Rally it came with the twistcompletely analogous to the one sanctioned by Abu Dhabi, of the third stage. Loeb, winner of the previous stage, opened the track and had just 3 seconds to defend, a real feat. Loeb would have tried anyway, if only at the KM 12 of the Special in Ring Crag-Cragamong other things the longest of the Rally, the red BRX Hunter has driven into an invisible crevasse. The car was stuck but, what’s worse, the navigator Fabian Lurquin he was left in pain with a small fracture in his right shoulder. The helicopter evacuation of the doctors had a clear meaning: per Loeb was the resa. At that point Al Attiyah, little “disturbed” by Al Rajhi and even less by the rest of the caravan, had no difficulty in putting the boilers back under pressure and winning the Rally with the usual, great confidence. First Al Attyah e BaumelToyota Gazoo Racing, therefore, second Al Rajhi e GottschalkToyota Overdrive, at over 6 minutes, third Halpern Gray, Mini X-raid, just under a quarter of an hour. It goes without saying that, with the victory and Loeb’s forfeit, Al Attiyah returns to lead the World Championship, 136 points against Al Rajhi’s 106 and Loeb’s 101.
Interesting races of the Chinese Zhang with the Baic, sixth overall, and the two Brazilians competing with two Hunter Prodrives, i Fratelli Marcos and Cristian Baumgartabove all the first one, who finished on the Speciale podium at his first experience. Phenomenalas is now the practice, the race of the small, “bad” SSValways uncertain and compelling. Guthrie won T3 ahead of Ekstrom and Jones, e Baciuska won the T4 ahead of ours Rebecca Busi and Umeda. All Can-Am strongly South Racing oriented, with the exception of the latter, with a Polaris from Xtreme Plus. Italians on the rise. An Italian, actually, actually two. Eugenio Amos and Paolo Ceci, debuting with a Toyota Hilux of Team Overdrive, and with a great project: the Dakar 2024 with the owner car. The announcement was that of a Rally-school, of adaptation to the Machine and the typology of the Rally. It happens that at KM 25 of the first Special the Toyota number 209 goes into a spectacular tonneau. Lesson learned, starting from scratch. Little by little the good sensations and mastery of the car are arriving, up to the very best 8th place overall in the last special stage. The indication suddenly becomes very good. Twenty-first place overall for Rebecca Busicon Delaunay alle note e il Can-Am del Team FN Speed.
The World Championship will resume with the Rally Route 40 Challengea “classic” of the new South American era, in Agentina at the end of August.
Paolo Lucci. KTM Rally2. “Finished rally, archived. Not as I would have expected or as I would have liked. But it is so. Last Special, rather ugly. Zero navigation, 10 kilometres, a 90° bend, ten kilometers of potholes, another bend. Very fast, and dangerous to the end. I’m not really satisfied with this race, I have the impression that I haven’t found the right sensations with the bike, that the tracks really don’t suit me. Or maybe I was in the week no, I don’t know. However, we limited the damage. 15th overall, third Rally2 and still first in the Championship. Now I have to prepare well for Argentina, hopefully there will be more suitable terrain and more navigation, certainly there will be more sand and more dunes. Well, let’s update on the return to Italy. Thank you all!”
Paolo Ceci, Eugenio Amos, Toyota Hilux Overdrive. “A nice finish to Sonora Rally. absolute eighth just 5 minutes from Al Rajhi, the winner of the stage. we are obviously happy. The Speciale was very fast, around 120 KM/H on average. The feeling with the Machine is growing day by day. It would be nice to be able to train again, and instead we will get back in the car at the end of August, the Argentina for the World Ruta 40. We hope to do well, of course, always better!”
© Immagini Red Bull Content Pool, W2R Championship – DPPI – Toyota – BRX – Sonora Rally – Rally Zone
2023 Sonora Rally. Finale Assoluta FIN MOTO
1. Daniel Sanders (AUS), GASGAS, 11:01:09
2. Tosha Schareina (ESP), Honda, 11:09:32 +8:23
3. Luciano Benavides (ARG), Husqvarna, 11:18:25 +17:16
4. Toby Price (AUS), KTM, 11:20:52 +19:43
5. Matthias Walkner (AUT), KTM, 11:24:09 +23:00
Provvisoria 2023 FIM World Rally-Raid Championship
1. Toby Price (AUS), KTM, 62 points
2. Luciano Benavides (ARG), Husqvarna, 55 pts
3. Adrien Van Beveren (FRA), Honda, 53 pts
4. Kevin Benavides (ARG), KTM, 43 pts
5. Daniel Sanders (AUS), GASGAS, 39 pts
Other KTM
Sonora Rally Absolute FIA Auto
1. N. Al-Attiyah / M. Baumel – Toyota – 10h 29m 55s
2. Y. Al-Rajhi 7 T. Gottschalk – Toyota – 10h 36m 17s
3. S. Halpern / R. Graue – MINI JCW Rally Plus – 10h 44m 13s
4. D. Krotov / K. Zhiltsov – MINI JCW Rally Plus – 10h 55m 43s
5. J.Yacopini / D. Oliveras – Toyota – 11h 01m 30s
