Dakar Rally Stage 1: Ricky Brabec wins in bikes; Carlos Sainz keeps Audi in front

Taking advantage of penalties to multiple competitors, Ricky Brabec won Stage 1 of the 2023 Dakar Rally to take the overall lead in the bikes category.

The Southern California native clocked a time of 4 hours, 14 minutes, 10 seconds aboard his No. 2 Monster Energy Honda CRF 450 Rally, beating Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Kevin Benavides of Argentina (4:14:29).

Daniel Sanders (fifth, 4:15:55) and Pablo Quintanilla (seventh, 4:16:17) initially finished ahead of Brabec, but each rider received 2-minute speeding penalties that knocked them off the podium.

“Goal No. 1 was not to open the stage,” Brabec said. “I feel quite well and confident after today, but I will just try to go day by day, keep pace and stay in the top 10. It’s going to be hard to be out of the lead — like we saw today — but we have to see how it goes until the rest day. Today was fairly simple. No stress. It was a great day!

It’s the first stage win in two years for Brabec, who became the first American champion of the Dakar Rally in 2020. He won three stages and the prologue while finishing second in 2021.

“Today we encountered almost all of it,” Brabec posted on Instagram. “Sand, rocks, dunes, summits, animals, locals. It was great. Let’s push on for a new day.”

Heading into a critical second stage that will feature a special stage of closed tracks for 430 km that put a premium on handling, Brabec leads Benavides by 19 seconds. Australian Toby Price is third, 39 seconds behind. Joan Barreda Bort, who also suffered a speeding penalty, is fourth overall.

Californian Mason Klein of BAS world KTM finished sixth (4:14:49). Klein, who is making his second Dakar start after finishing ninth as a rookie, is 1 minute, 14 seconds behind Brabec.

“The navigation was super good,” said Klein, who rode cautiously after exceeding speed limits early in the stage. “I really enjoy this kind of riding. This is like what I have back home. … It was super good, and at least I know I can definitely win a stage in the future.”

Defending bikes winner Sam Sunderland, a two-time Dakar Rally winner, withdrew after crashing 52 kilometers into the special. Though conscious and fully mobile, the Brit was flown to Yanbu Hospital for further testing because of back pain.

In the cars category, Carlos Sainz kept Team Audi Sport at the front, taking the overall lead with a stage victory by 10 seconds over Sebastien Loeb. Sainz, a three-time Dakar winner, also leads the overall by 10 seconds over Loeb.

“Everything went smoothly except for a puncture near the start of the special, which also meant I was extra cautious the rest of the stage,” said Sainz, whose son, winning F1 Ferrari driver Carlos Jr., was on hand to watch the victory while following partly from a helicopter. “From then on, we had no problems, and the car worked like a charm. We’ll see what approach we take tomorrow.”

Prologue winner Mattias Ekstrom fell to 13th overall (15 minutes, 33 seconds off the lead) after fading from the lead to a 15th-place finish late in Stage 2.

In the T3 light prototype category, American Seth Quintero finished third in Stage 1, just 5 seconds ahead of Red Bull Off-Road Junior teammate Austin “A.J.” Jones