Results from stage two of the 2023 Dakar Rally which took the riders from Sea Camp to Alula across 589 kilometres and saw Mason Klein take a maiden stage win as Daniel Sanders decides to play it strategically.

Dakar ’23 stage 2 in a nutshell:

• Stage two started with a real slog of a ride, 159 kilometres south from 5am and for part of the way, in the rain too. You think the top riders have a charmed life? They were the ones riding in the dark and the rain. Later riders had it easy, at least daylight had arrived.
• The second stage of the 2023 Dakar consisted 589 kilometres, 430km of which were timed special, from the Sea Camp to Al Ula. Most of the stage went through rocky tracks which made “overtaking difficult” according to ASO but towards the end it opened out wide, really wide, in a vast desert with some dunes.
• “Opening the day won't be easy”, were Ricky Brabec’s words as the Californian lead the field after having won the first stage due to speeding penalties for his rivals. And it wasn’t easy for Ricky who lost over 10 minutes at the 269km refuelling point before reaching the finish line 5m35s shy of the winner in 15th place.
• Mason Klein took a steady start to the day with 25th at the first waypoint but the Rally 2 graduate laid it on as the stage progressed and hauled up the time screens with every time check. By the finish, after he’d taken over the lead on the track and the BAS KTM rider went on to record a maiden Rally GP stage win. That also makes him the new rally overall leader no less.
• The caveat is it should have been P2 for Mason (but still the rally lead) if Daniel Sanders had not pulled up for five minutes just short of the finish. It dropped Chucky from a stage win to ninth and showed the new time bonuses, set to start tomorrow for the top three, weren’t enough of a carrot at this stage of the rally.
• It was a good day for the Hero Motorsport guys who managed to place two riders inside the top five after not having the smoothest start in the 2023 Dakar. Sebastian Bühler was second today, his best stage results, despite spending most of the day picking up riders it seems and Ross Branch crossed the finish line in fourth 1m58s down.
• Skyler Howes moved up the ranks with a third place finish on the Husqvarna rider. Eighth off the start, Skyler continued amending his prologue mistake by finishing just a handful of seconds away from second place.
• Toby Price closed the top five with the Spanish duo of Joan Barreda and Lorenzo Santolino hot on his heels, just enough for the Australian to grab second in the overall.
• Today’s surprise was rookie Michael Docherty. The South African blew a whopping 15 minutes time penalty yesterday (a change of engine we believe) and that seems to have put a rocket up his backside as the Dubai resident led overall after the first 150km. Though he went on to lose a chunk of time in the last waypoint, he took the Rally 2 class win.
• Sandra Gomez took top spot in the women's category and came home in 66th position to bump her ahead of Mirjam Pol overall.
• Charan Moore was again the rider in charge of the Original by Motul class finishing in 37th place. 
• Isle of Man TT racer James Hillier racing the Originals class was reported to have crashed but we just popped to see him and he's fine, "abusing the free Motul oils" after clocking 67th today.
• Retirements today included Alex Salvini who got a trip in the helicopter after his Fantic developed an electrical problem.

Stage 2 results (all classes):

Overall Classification after stage 2 (top 25):

Photo Credit: ASO + Rally Zone