THE SEVENTH CONSECUTIVE DAKAR RALLY OF THE HERO MOTORSPORTS TEAM BEGINS

At the Sea Camp outside Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Hero MotoSports Team Rally began their sixth consecutive Dakar Rally, the world's toughest race. Hero MotoCorp is the world's largest maker of motorbikes and scooters. 

Four riders in the Rally GP class compete for the Hero MotoSports team: Franco Caimi, Joaquim Rodrigues, Ross Branch, and Sebastian Buhler. At the 45th running of the Dakar Rally, the Team got their campaign off to a solid start, finishing the 13-kilometer Prologue stage with three riders in the top ten. With a third-place finish, Ross Branch earned a seat on the podium. Sebastian Buhler and Joaquim Rodrigues took the sixth and eighth spots, respectively. In the Rally GP Class, Franco Caimi is currently in place 20.

Riders finished the brief 13-km special on the seaside following a brief start podium ceremony, giving the top 10 finishers the opportunity to select their starting positions for the first stage, which was scheduled to begin on January 1, 2023. The riders will travel a loop of 603 kilometres around the Sea Camp on the first official stage of the Dakar Rally 2023, with 367 km constituting the special section. This is the first taste of the desert in the eastern part of the country, with sandy paths following stony areas with a significant amount of gravel.

On January 15, 2023, the rally will finish at Dammam after travelling inland toward Ha'il, turning southeast to cross the famed Empty Quarter, and then moving northward. The racers will only get a break after eight stages on this route, which covers nearly 8600 km, of which 4700+ km are timed sections.

Dakar 2023, the fourth consecutive edition to take place in Saudi Arabia, will consist of 14 stages spread over 15 days and is anticipated to be more challenging. The second World Rally Raid Championship season's opening race is the 45th Dakar Rally (W2RC). Hero MotoSports will compete in all five of the W2RC's events, starting with the Dakar in January 2023, followed by the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in February 2023, the Sonora Rally in Mexico in April 2023, the DesafioRuta 40 in Argentina in August 2023, and finishing the season with the Rallye du Maroc (Oct 2023).

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