Price falls agonisingly short in a nail biting finish to Dakar 2023

Australian Toby Price has fallen just short of achieving a third win in the Dakar Rally, conceding a 12-second lead to finish second overall behind stage 14 and overall winner, Kevin Benavides, by 43 seconds.

Australia'a Toby Price of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing after placing second in the Bike category of Dakar 2023. Photo: EPA/Andrew Eaton Credit: Andrew Eaton/EPA

The Gold Coast-based factory KTM rider came into the final 136 km stage to Dammam with a very tiny buffer over Argentinian Benavides, who is also Price’s teammate. The KTM duo were a part of a three-way battle for the win, with American Skyler Howes trailing Price by 91 seconds in third place.

Beginning the final stage from Al-Hofuf, the starting order was reversed as per Dakar tradition on the final day of competition. Spain’s Ruben Saldaña Goñi was the first to leave at 3:50pm AEDT, whilst the top three in the general classification waited up to 90 minutes before commencing the final stage.

Mud at 29 km brought many of the competitors who started the stage undone, with some getting stuck just minutes away from the first checkpoint at 33 km. This didn’t affect the top three who negotiated through the section safely.

Fellow Australian, Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders was doing everything he can to assist Price in the final push. The Victorian clocked through the three checkpoints at 33km, 66km and 102 km provisional fastest, before the Argentinian bettered the GasGas factory rider.

Price clocked through the first checkpoint 12 seconds slower, and then conceded more time at halfway point by 1’49”. He did manage to regain 20’ at the final checkpoint, but the fightback was too little late. Benavides took the final stage win with a time of 1H15’17”, leading Sanders by 35”, with Price completing the top three, 55” behind his teammate.

In the general classification, Benavides has won this year’s Dakar, completing the rally in 44H27’20”. It’s also his second Dakar win, complementing his maiden win two years earlier. Price finished the rally in second, 43 seconds behind, with Howes finishing third overall, 5’04” further back.

Argentina's Kevin Benavides celebrates his victory after winning the Dakar Rally of 2023. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP) (Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images) Source: AFP / FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images

With a second place stage finish, Sanders concluded his 2023 campaign in seventh overall, just under 26 minutes behind Benavides.

Daniel 'Chucky' Sanders was all smiles after making it to end of Dakar 2023 in seventh overall. Photo: EPA/Andrew Eaton Credit: Andrew Eaton/EPA

Price and Sanders weren’t the only Australians to make it to the end, with Molly Taylor also making it to Dammam. Taylor and American navigator Andrew Short were hoping for a final push into the top ten in the T4 Modified Production SSV class, starting the final stage 9’30” adrift. But a puncture mid stage finally extinguished their hopes, meaning that they could only manage 21st on the final stage and completed the rally in 12th overall. The result for the Sydney born driver bettered her debut performance of 14th from last year’s rally.

The T4 class was won by Poland’s Eryk Goczal and Oriol Mena, who snatched the class win when Rokas Baciuska lost 25 minutes during the final stage. The Lithuanian dropped from the lead to second overall, with Goczal’s father Marek finishing in third place.

An emotional Eryk Goczal celebrates after winning his maiden Dakar Rally in the T4 class, snatching the win from Rokas Baciuska in the final stage. Photo: ASO/F. Le Floc'h/DPPI

In the cars component, Nasser Al-Attiyah made it through the final stage safely to win his fifth Dakar Rally and the first to go back to back since Carlos Sainz Snr. The Qatari driver finished 80 minutes ahead of France’s Sebastian Loeb, who set a new Dakar record of six stage wins in a row in the penultimate stage. Brazil’s Lucas Moraes finished his rookie Dakar campaign in third, giving Toyota a 1-3 result.

Toyota's Nasser Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Mathieu Baumel celebrate after winning the cars component of Dakar 2023, the fifth of the Qatari driver's career. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP) (Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images) Source: AFP / FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images

And in the Classic Dakar, Victorian brothers Peter and Christopher Schey completed their bucket list of completing the Dakar Rally by finishing a highly respectable 28th place in the regularity based event for pre-1990 machines. Spain’s Juan Morera and Lidia Ruba won the Classic Dakar in a Toyota.

The competitors will now travel towards the 281 km liaison towards Dammam, where the prize-giving ceremony will be conducted later tonight.

Catch the final stage highlights tomorrow night on SBS from 5pm AEDT and anytime of SBS On Demand, along with the official prize giving ceremony.