2023 Sonora Rally: Nasser Al-Attiyah takes W2RC points lead

Fate, coincidences, and irony tend to work in mysterious ways. Yes, this also happens in rally raid.

The World Rally-Raid Championship took a surprising turn at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge when Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah crashed out of the third stage while leading, allowing Sébastien Loeb to maintain his points lead.

A month later, Loeb wrecked out at the Sonora Rally as the overall leader in Stage #3, which opened the door to Al-Attiyah to leapfrog him for the top spot in the standings.

Loeb looked to be in the catbird seat early on as he and his fellow Prodrive Hunters Guerlain Chicherit and series newcomers Marcos and Cristian Baumgart occupied much of the top five in Stage #2. The following leg, however, saw him crash into a dry river that he was following when its direction changed course while he was airbourne. The accident left a small fracture in co-driver Fabian Lurquin‘s right shoulder, ending their rally.

With Loeb out of the picture, the battle for the overall win came down to the Toyota Hiluxes of Al-Attiyah and Abu Dhabi victor Yazeed Al-Rajhi. Although Al-Rajhi won Stage #3, Al-Attiyah returned the favour the next day to increase his lead to 7:22 entering the fifth and final stage.

Al-Rajhi scored the Stage #5 victory, but Al-Attiyah finished behind him by just a minute. The duo’s 1-2 finish and Loeb’s retirement enabled them to leapfrog him in the championship picture; Al-Attiyah has a thirty-point gap on Al-Rajhi.

“To come here after our big crash in Abu Dhabi and try to defend our title by winning the race wasn’t easy, but we managed to lead from for most of the event,” said Al-Attiyah. “We also had an amazing fight with Sébastien Loeb and Yazeed Al-Rajhi, and I’m happy that we now have a big lead in the championship. Our GR DKR Hilux T1+ was back to full strength, and we had an amazing race.”

Sebastian Halpern joined the Hiluxes on the overall podium for his best W2RC finish and the highest for the Mini John Cooper Works since Jakub Przygoński at the 2022 ADDC. Halpern. He beat his Mini team-mate Denis Krotov by eleven minutes.

Loeb’s retirement, along with Chicherit’s mechanical failure two days later, marred what would have otherwise been a strong outing for Prodrive. The Buamgart brothers finished seventh and ninth in their W2RC débuts, and Marcos was able to score another podium in Stage #4 when he finished third (he had placed second but was bumped down a spot due to penalties).

T1 overall results

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	201	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Mathieu Baumel	Toyota Gazoo Racing	10:29:55	Leader
2	202	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Timo Gottschalk	Overdrive Racing	10:36:17	+ 6:22
3	205	Sebastian Halpern	Bernardo Graue	X-raid Team	10:44:13	+ 14:18
4	208	Denis Krotov	Konstantin Zhiltsov	X-raid Team	10:55:43	+ 25:48
5	203	Juan Cruz Yacopini	Daniel Oliveras	Overdrive Racing	11:01:30	+ 31:35
6	206	Guoyu Zhang	Oriol Mena	BAIC ORV	11:01:43	+ 31:48
7	210	Cristian Baumgart*	Alberto Andreotti	X Rally Team	11:42:21	+ 1:12:26
8	207	Yunliang Zi	He Sha	BAIC ORV	11:54:03	+ 1:24:08
9	211	Marcos Baumgart*	Kleber Cincea	X Rally Team	11:55:11	+ 1:25:16
10	209	Eugenio Amos*	Paolo Ceci	Overdrive Racing	23:18:23	+ 12:48:28
11	204	Guerlain Chicherit	Alex Winocq	GCK Motorsport	28:58:40	+ 18:28:45
DNF	200	Sébastien Loeb	Fabian Lurquin	Bahrain Raid Xtreme	DNF	N/A

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

T1 stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	5:18
Stage #1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	1:32:06
Stage #2	Sébastien Loeb	1:28:28
Stage #3	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	3:27:22
Stage #4	Nasser Al-Attiyah	2:40:34
Stage #5	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	1:13:45

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
T1	201	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Toyota Gazoo Racing	10:29:55
T3	302	Mitch Guthrie	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	11:17:24
T4	400	Rokas Baciuška	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing	11:51:05
RallyGP	18	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing	11:01:09
Rally2	17	Romain Dumontier	HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing	11:48:21
Rally3	57	Massimo Camurri	Freedom Rally Racing	15:59:16
Quad	162	Laisvydas Kancius	AG Dakar School	15:33:14
National Car/UTV	605	Sara Price*	SP Motorsports	17:14:04
National Enduro	513	Brendan Crow*	Brendan Crow	16:37:36
National Malle Moto	501	Matt Sutherland*	Matt Sutherland	18:24:08

W2RC standings

Unlike T3 and T4, T1 does not have its own standings and instead uses a championship in which the aforementioned categories can also earn points based on their finishes among all FIA W2RC entries.

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	136	Leader
2	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	106	– 30
3	Sébastien Loeb	101	– 35
4	Sebastian Halpern	74	– 62
5	Juan Cruz Yacopini	69	– 67
6	Martin Prokop	64	– 72
7	Guerlain Chicherit	55	– 81
8	Mattias Ekström #	49	– 87
9	Seth Quintero	32	– 104
T-10	Wei Han	31	– 105
T-10	Guoyu Zhang	31	– 105
12	Austin Jones	30	– 106
13	Rokas Baciuška	24	– 112
T-14	Denis Krotov	22	– 114
T-14	Mathieu Serradori	22	– 114
16	Mitch Guthrie	14	– 122
T-17	Pau Navarro	9	– 127
T-17	Zi Yunliang	9	– 127
19	Eryk Goczał	8	– 128
20	Cristina Gutiérrez	7	– 129
T-21	Aliyyah Koloc	6	– 130
T-21	João Ferreira	6	– 130
23	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	5	– 131
T-24	Francisco Lopéz Contardo	4	– 132
T-24	Marek Goczał	4	– 132
26	Claude Fournier	3	– 133
27	David Zille	2	– 134

# – Competed in multiple classes
Italics – T3 entry
Underscore – T4 entry

Co-drivers’ standings

Rank	Co-Driver	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Mathieu Baumel	Nasser Al-Attiyah	136	Leader
2	Fabian Lurquin	Sébastien Loeb	101	– 35
3	Timo Gottschalk	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	87	– 49
4	Bernardo Graue	Sebastian Halpern	74	– 62
5	Dani Oliveiras	Juan Cruz Yacopini	69	– 67
6	Viktor Chytka	Martin Prokop	64	– 72
7	Alex Winocq	Guerlain Chicherit	55	– 81
8	Emil Bergkvist #	Mattias Ekström #	49	– 87
9	Dennis Zenz	Seth Quintero	32	– 104
10	Ma Li	Wei Han	31	– 105
11	Gustavo Gugelmin	Austin Jones	30	– 106
12	Oriol Mena #	Eryk Goczał, Guoyu Zhang	29	– 107
13	Oriol Vidal Montijano	Rokas Baciuška	24	– 112
T-14	Konstantin Zhiltsov	Denis Krotov	22	– 114
T-14	Loïc Minaudier	Mathieu Serradori	22	– 114
16	Dirk von Zitzewitz	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	19	– 117
17	Kellon Walch	Mitch Guthrie	14	– 122
18	Jean-Pierre Garcin	Guoyu Zhang	10	– 126
T-19	François Cazalet #	Guillaume de Mévius, Pau Navarro	9	– 127
T-19	Sha He	Zi Yunliang	9	– 127
21	Pablo Moreno Huete	Cristina Gutiérrez	7	– 129
T-22	Stéphane Duple	Aliyyah Koloc	6	– 130
T-22	Filipe Palmeiro	João Ferreira	6	– 130
24	Cédric Duplé	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	5	– 131
T-25	Juan Pablo Latrach	Francisco López Contardo	4	– 132
T-25	Maciej Marton	Marek Goczał	4	– 132
27	Szymon Gospodarczyk #	Michal Goczał, Claude Fournier	3	– 133
28	Sebastian Cesana	David Zille	2	– 134