The 27km long Dakar prologue saw the first running in anger today (Friday), as teams set about securing their starting order for the first stage.
There’s little doubt that many crews were hiding their true potential before the rally proper gets underway on Saturday.
Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist set the pace in their Audi e-tron finishing 23 seconds ahead of an impressive Ultimate class debut for Seth Quintero/ Dennis Zenz in their factory Toyota Gazoo Racing T1+.
“The prologue was very difficult with a lot of navigation, Emil was really doing a good job. We could have a clean run and also I like the car a lot so I’m very happy”, said the Swede after he returned to AlUla.
A further 15 second adrift was Sebastian Loeb/Fabian Lurquin in the first of the Prodrive Hunters with another Hunter in fourth driven by Brazilians Marcus Baumgart/Kleber Cincea having set an identical time as Loeb.
Brother Cristian Baumgart and co-driver Alberto Andreotti were six seconds further back, tied with Krzysztof Holowczyc/ Lukasz Kurzeja’s X-Raid Mini JCW.
Stéphan Peterhansel/ Edouard Boulanger made it two Audis in the top seven, one second up on Lionel and Lucie Baud’s Overdrive Toyota Hilux T+1.
Martin Prokop/ Viktor Chytka was the leading Ford in their Raptor while South Africans Brian Baragwanath/Leonard Cremer rounded out the top 10 in their Century Racing CR7.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Giniel de Villiers/Dennis Murphy got lost at a difficult to find waypoint and landed in a wrong valley and will start stage one from 69th position.
The bikes was a battle of the energy drinks giants which Monster won this time around, the leading bike belonged to Spaniard Tosha Schareina on a Monster Energy Honda from Daniel Saunders’ Red Bull GasGas
Stage one takes competitors on a 544km journey from AlUla to Al Henakiyah with a racing route of 414km, starting at 10h15 (Saudi Arabia time) comprising 71% dirt track, 12% sand and 17% stoned track. Included in the rougher sections is 130km of rough ground with rocks and volcanic lava.
Because the Dakar is now part of the FIA world championship, the race is run strictly under FIA regulations, this means for 2024 onwards the prologue is run purely to establish start positions and timing is not part of the actual race.
The top 10 finishers then choose their starting positions, picking in reverse order, so 10th fastest picks first and first position picks last and can choose any top 10 position.
