Dakar Rally 2023

The effort paid off: Team Audi Sport shaped the 2023 Dakar Rally with innovation and performance right up to the end despite various setbacks. The Audi RS Q e-tron with its electric drive concept scored a total of 14 podium results on 15 event days including the prologue. In addition, the Audi drivers led the rally in Saudi Arabia with the prototype for three days for the first time. However, a series of punctures, the accident-related retirements of Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz and Stéphane Peterhansel/Edouard Boulanger as well as a massive loss of time for Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist prevented a better result than 14th place.

For Team Audi Sport, the first half of the 2023 Dakar Rally was an emotionally intense mix: Two stage victories and the Audi RS Q e-tron’s first three days in the lead at the world’s toughest rally were offset by setbacks for all three driver teams. Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist were leading in Saudi Arabia after the prologue, Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz on the two following days. However, different damage on the hard stages threw them far back. Stéphane Peterhansel/Edouard Boulanger were in second place after the fourth special stage but dropped out two days later due to an accident.

Carlos Sainz has returned to Madrid after his retirement from the Dakar Rally. Due to persistent back pain after his accident on the ninth stage, he had himself examined again medically. The doctors treating him discovered a fracture of two thoracic vertebrae, the condition of which is considered stable. The Audi driver is now undergoing further treatment in his Spanish homeland to cure the injury as quickly as possible.

Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz will not continue in the 2023 Dakar Rally after their accident on the ninth stage on January 10. The three-time Dakar winners landed on the front of the vehicle after jumping off a dune on the section from Riyadh to Haradh and rolled over. Driver and co-driver were uninjured. Team Audi Sport subsequently made the RS Q e-tron ready again with the help of the race truck crew. However, during the assessment at the evening bivouac in Haradh, the Audi Sport engineers determined that the damage was too serious for repairs on site because safety-relevant assemblies were also affected. “As sorry as we are, even a team as tireless as ours cannot repair damage of this dimension on site in time,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Rolf Michl. “As a result, the hopes for a finish rest on the shoulders of Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist in the remaining Audi RS Q e-tron.”