For the fourth year in a row, Saudi Arabia will host the Dakar Rally: the 45th edition of the queen of endurance races kicks off on Saturday, December 31, with a 13km prologue.

The distance of the race is 8,549 km, and more than 800 pilots and co-pilots on motorcycles, cars, ATVs and trucks participate in it, including the Romanian Emanuel Gienes in his 13th motorcycle start, writes Agerpres.

On December 26, 1978, Thierry Sabin gave the first start from the Trocadero in Paris for 182 cars destined for the Senegalese capital.

After 29 years in Africa, 11 years in South America, since 2020 the Dakar Rally is taking place in Saudi Arabia.

The 2023 edition sees 170 competitors competing for the first time, as well as around 100 drivers and co-drivers who have at least ten Dakar appearances. Competitors have 15 days of competition and 8,549 km to cross Saudi Arabia from west to east.

To eliminate any danger, such as the explosion of the car of the Frenchman Philippe Boutron two days before the start of the Dakar 2022 rally, an attack that seriously injured the driver, the organizers from the Amaury Sports Organization (ASO) specified that the control points, To ensure security of the participants, demining units and police patrols were involved.

The rally starts on December 31 with a 13-kilometer prologue near a bivouac set up on the shores of the Red Sea, and ends on January 15, after the 14th stage, with a route along the shores of the Red Sea, as a reminder of Lake Rose, where the race ends in Dakar (Senegal).

Favorites in the category of cars it’s as usual Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota), four-time winner, Spain’s Carlos Sainz (Mini), France’s Stephane Peterhansel (Audi), but Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive), nine-time WRC world champion, could also enter the book victory

to motorcycle classthe British Sam Sunderland (GasGas) will defend his crown, which is sought by such rivals as the Australian Daniel Sanders (GasGas), the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda), the Austrian Matthias Valkner (KTM) or the French Adrien Van Bevern (Honda). .

Emmanuel Gienes, who will be the ambassador of this edition, will lead the debutantes from category Original from Motul (the most difficult in the rally, without technical assistance), together with the Spanish Juan Pedrero Garcia and the French Benjamin Melot. He offered a podium in this category.

Mani Guenes took part in the Dakar Rally for the first time in 2007, managing to finish the race in the last edition in Africa. In 2011, he took his first victory in the marathon class (a class where you are not allowed to change a number of components during the two weeks of the race, including the engine and swingarm; this class no longer exists today). In 2015, he took his second victory in the Marathon class. In 2020, the pilot from Sătămăra won the Original by Motul class and in 2021 he finished second in the Original by Motul seven months after suffering a triple fracture of his right leg.

Dakar 2023 rally schedule

• Prologue (December 31): Sea Camp – Sea Camp, 13 km (13 km special section)

• Stage 1 (January 1): Sea Camp – Sea Camp, 602.56 km (367 km)

• Stage 2 (January 2): Sea Camp – Al-Ula, 589.7 km (430 km)

• Stage 3 (January 3): Al-Ula – Hail, 669 km (447 km)

• Stage 4 (January 4): Ha’il – Ha’il. 574 km (425 mi)

• Stage 5 (January 5): Khail – Khail, 645 km (373 km)

• Stage 6 (January 6): Hail – Al Duwadimi, 877 km (467 km)

• Stage 7 (January 7): Al Duwadimi – Al Duwadimi, 641 km (472 km)

• Stage 8 (January 8): Al Duwadimi – Riyadh, 713 km (398 km)

• Rest day in Riyadh (January 9)

• Stage 9 (January 10): Riyadh – Harad, 686 km (358 km)

• Stage 10 (January 11): Kharad – Shayba, 623 km (113 km)

• Stage 11 (January 12): Shaybah – Empty Quarter Marathon, 426km (273km)

• Stage 12 (January 13): Empty Quarter Marathon – Shaybah, 376km (185km)

• Stage 13 (January 14): Shyaba to Al Hofuf, 675km (154km)

• Stage 14 (January 15): Al Hofuf – Dammam, 417 km (136 km).