The prologue of the 38th edition of the Dakar was marred by an accident that saw competitor 360 veer off course at km 6.6 of the special and injure four spectators. Race officials immediately deployed all resources available to the site of the accident and decided to neutralise the race. As a result, the timed section was cancelled for the trucks. As for the race, the car special delivered a pleasant surprise.
The first special of the 38th edition was expected to fall into the hands of one of the favourites, but it was the Netherlands’ Bernhard ten Brinke who took the spoils today. The Dutchman at the wheel of a Toyota Hilux played his hand right in the 11 km section, whereas the favourites drove cautiously or suffered minor mishaps.
Carlos Sainz, for example, lost his hood when crossing a watering hole. At the finish, the Peugeot driver reckoned he had lost at least 3 seconds due to the incident. If true, this setback cost him victory.
Fellow Spaniard Xavier Pons (Ford) claimed the bottom step of a rather remarkable podium.
Last year’s winner, Nasser Al-Attiyah (Mini), was just outside the podium, beating teammates Roma and Hirvonen by 2 seconds and De Villiers (Toyota), Peterhansel, Loeb and Despres (Peugeot) by 4.
Sébastien Loeb, at the centre of attention, came in with the same time as his teammates and showed he has no plans to stay in the shadow of his famous teammates. Tomorrow’s stage ends in Villa Carlos Paz, home to the Rally Argentina and the scene of more victories by Loeb than any other WRC leg, so few would be surprised if the Peugeot driver were to push a bit harder…
Joan Barreda (Honda) won the motorcycle stage after clocking the same time as Ruben Faria (Husqvarna) in the 11 km timed section. The leaders of Honda and Husqvarna got off to a flying start, unlike Honda’s Paulo Gonçalves. The Portuguese rider was hit by a series of mechanical problems that forced him to stop several times during the special. Gonçalves will start tomorrow’s stage in fiftieth place after finishing one minute behind the winners. He now has a strong incentive to attack even more than planned to catch up to his rivals.
Chile’s Ignacio Casale, winner of the quad category in 2014, won today’s stage with a time of 7′14″. The Chilean rider put things right after having to withdraw on stage 10 of last year’s race. Meanwhile, defending champion Rafał Sonik suffered a minor technical that left him 23 seconds behind the leader in the provisional classification.
Now that the warm-up is over, things get serious tomorrow with a stage stretching for over 650 kilometres from Rosario to Villa Carlos Paz. The first part of the stage could change completely if the rain forecast for tonight materialises. The cars and trucks (258 km special) and the motorcycles and quads (227 km) will race on different courses in tomorrow’s stage.
Quotes:
Sebastien Loeb: “I did what I could”
“It was important to clear the prologue and avoid any mistakes on the first day. I haven’t got any specific concerns, everything is going smoothly. We’ll see how it goes in longer specials. I did what I could, but I didn’t want to be at the front anyway, that wasn’t my goal. I spent some time in the dust kicked up by a motorcycle racing in front of me, I’m not exactly sure why, but I had to overtake it.”
Nasser-Al-Attiyah:
“I sweated a lot!”
“I sweated a lot, we had to turn in a solid performance. It would be great to open the road tomorrow because it’ll be a much longer, quite difficult stage. However, it’s no big deal if we lose the special because it’s a good result anyway. For example, we already put 4 seconds into Giniel de Villiers in 11 kilometres.”