Red Bull Junior driver select quotes after Dakar stage 12 13.01.2023: AJ Jones: “We’re just back from the second day of the Marathon Stage. It was a really good day with lots of dunes again. The dunes have been getting bigger and bigger here in the Empty Quarter. We took it easy today to try and protect what we’ve already g

AJ Jones: “We’re just back from the second day of the Marathon Stage. It was a really good day with lots of dunes again. The dunes have been getting bigger and bigger here in the Empty Quarter. We took it easy today to try and protect what we’ve already got. Now we’re down to just two more days to go.”


“Our plan before this rally was to make sure we did our own race. I’m not the most experienced at this rally, but I do have some. I’ve also been learning from the best around. I’ve taken bits and pieces from others and made my own style of how to do these races.”


“We’re not here trying to win every stage, we just want to be consistent on every stage. That’s what we’re doing and so far everything is working out pretty well. Even so, we’re not getting too excited about anything. Things can change quickly at the Dakar. We’ll do our best to stay on point on the last two stages because nothing is over until the very last kilometre has been raced.”



Seth Quintero: “The Marathon Stage treated us pretty well. On day one we kind of just cruised to the finish line inside the Top 5. We ended up moving up to P2 overall on that stage. We’re still an hour off P1 so there’s a lot of work to do there… if there’s even a chance for us. We’re going to keep fighting no matter what.”


“On the second day of the Marathon Stage I had a bunch of mechanicals so it was a little bit frustrating until reaching the finish line. We got there eventually and now we’re ready to fight for two more days.”



“It’s been a long couple of years, developing and testing Dakar cars. There’s been hardships and heartbreaks along the way. We did so well on the first four stages this year, but then we ran out of fuel one day and that cost us a couple of hours. So to be here in P2 now with two days to go feels good.”



Mitch Guthrie Jr.: “This Marathon Stage showed what our Dakar has been. On the first day of the marathon we had a problem with the car, we had to wait for the truck to get the part to fix it. Because we lost so much time yesterday, we started as the 134th car onto the stage this morning. Today we had a great day. No problems, the car was fast. I think we overtook about 75 cars and won the stage.”


“We’ve had ups and downs throughout this Dakar. We’ve had four stage wins so far and also two days with issues that took us out of the fight for the overall. I’m happy with what we’ve been able to do, at one point we were leading the overall. It’s been a good rally for sure, other than the couple of mishaps we’ve had.”




Christine Fial-