2023 Dakar: Cornejo Florimo takes stage 12, Price now leads overall

Stage number 12 is now done and dusted, with only two specials left to run in the 2023 Dakar. This was the last “Marathon” stage, so with no technical support for the bikes. The winner of the intense 185 km stage was Chilean Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo, who scores his first win of this edition. The Monster Energy Honda rider closed 49 seconds ahead of GasGas rider Daniel Sanders, with Toby Price finishing third (+1:58).

Matthias Walkner just missed the podium, finishing +2:05 behind the day's winner; the Austrian rider closed just 17 seconds ahead of Kevin Benavides while yesterday’s winner, Luciano Benavides, had to settle for twelfth place. The Argentinian opened the stage, which had a negative bearing on his result. Sixth place for Skyler Howes, who no longer leads the way overall, followed by the other Honda rider Pablo Quintanilla; Sebastian Buhler, Adrian Van Beveren and Ross Branch rounded out the top ten.

 

Toby Price now leads ahead of Skyler Howes

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An important win for Cornejo Florimo rather than a useful one, in that he already lags around 23 minutes behind in the general standings. Toby Price has now moved ahead of Skyler Howes in fact, the Australian’s third place finish in today’s stage taking his total overall time to 40:47:36. And Price was able to place third in today’s special despite having start amongst the frontrunners. This was possible thanks to the various bonuses awarded so as to close the gap that is automatically created when a rider opens the stage.

Argentinian Kevin Benavides lies a close third (+2:40), after which the gaps open up, with Quintanilla lying +14:54, Van Beveren +16:14, Luciano Benavides +20:00 and Daniel Sanders at +20:03. Today’s winner Cornejo Florimo places seventh, but already +23:14 from the front, while Walkner and Mason Klein round out the top ten.