Update:
Race officials credited Seth Quintero with the 95 seconds that he had spent assisting Laia Sanz after her crash. It was history in the making: never before had a 22-year-old won a stage in the premier class.
A number of competitors received various penalties, the worst top runner affected was Henk Lategan who received a 10 minute penalty which dropped him from 10th in the classification to 21st overall. The Lategan penalty is under appeal as the tracker system malfunctioned.
Bisha – Bisha Stage 413km, liaison 86km
The Dakar got underway with a 499km stage to whet the appetite for the stages to come. It was important to preserve the cars for stage two on Sunday which is the feared 48-hour Chrono stage – two days and 1058km without service while sleeping in a bivouac in the desert with the bare basics.
No one would want to open the road on such a crucial section of the route. Who was sandbagging in stage one and who was confident enough to grab the lead and open the road on Sunday?
When the cars returned to the bivouac in Bisha, Guerlain Chicherit and Alex Winocq set the fastest time in their X-Raid Mini JCW, giving Mini their first stage win since 2021, finishing 50 seconds ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz.
Rounding out the stage podium, 13 seconds further back was 19-year-old Saood Variawa/Francois Cazalet in their Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa Hilux. The Toyota pair pipped Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka’s Jipocar Ford Raptor by one second.
The ‘lady of the desert’ and the top Dacia runner was Spaniard Cristina Gutierrez and co-driver Pablo Moreno who ended a superb fifth overall, ahead of Joao Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro in another X-Raid Mini JCW.
The first of the ‘big guns’ was Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz who brought their Ford Raptor home in seventh position, one second ahead of Lucas Moraes/Armand Monleon in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux.
Rounding out the top ten was Australian Toby Price and British co-driver Sam Sunderland in their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux and the prologue winner Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings in their TGR SA Toyota Hilux.
Rally favourites Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger ended 20th with fellow Dacia Sandrider team mates Sebastian Loeb/Fabian Lurquin in 22nd, were clearly not keen on opening the road on the 48 Hour Chrono stage. Loeb said: “The goal wasn’t to set the fastest time, so we decided to stop for a few minutes at the end to lose some time and avoid starting first tomorrow”, the Frenchman explained at the finish. “Everyone played the same game… Now we just have to wait and see our exact position in the standings.”
Al-Attiyah, having learned from his mistake last year said; “The stage wasn’t easy, but we took it steady and avoided mistakes. In the final kilometres, we had a puncture and stopped for about fifteen minutes to make sure we secured a starting position well down the order for tomorrow. We gave up a lot of time, but it was important to do so. If I could start fiftieth, that would be ideal. Last year, we took a risk and learned the hard way.”
In the opening half of the stage, Moraes, Variawa, Chicherit, Brian Baragwanath/Leonard Cremer (Century CR-7), Guy Botterill/Dennis Murphy and Lategan dominated the top six, trading places as the waypoints rolled by.
Rokas Baciuska stopped at km 210 to work on the rear brakes while Laia Sanz/Maurizio Gerini crashed their Century CR6-T into a rock while racing in dust and were forced to wait for their truck to repair a broken shock absorber and control arm.
In the bike category, Daniel Sanders, the prologue winner claimed victory in stage one. The Australian finished 2′04″ ahead of Ricky Brabec and 2′26″ clear of Ross Branch. Tosha Schareina, who was just 18″ behind Sanders at the previous waypoint, completed the stage 4′42″ off the leader’s pace. Skyler Howes, who clocked in at 14′49″, will have the time he spent assisting the injured Sebastian Bühler reinstated, which ought to bring him closer to the stage podium.
Top 10 T1+ (Provisional)
- S. Quintero/D. Zenz Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux 4:35:08
- G. Chicherit/A. Winocq X-Raid Mini JCW +0:55
- S. Variawa/F. Cazalet Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Toyota Hilux +1:48
- M. Prokop/V. Chytka Jipocar Ford Raptor +1:49
- C. Gutierrez/P. Moreno Dacia Sandrider +2:13
- J. Ferreira/F. Palmeiro X-Raid Mini JCW +2:38
- L. Moraes/A. Monleon Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux +3:18
- C. Sainz/L. Cruz Ford M-Sport Raptor +3:27
- G. de Mevius/M. Baumel X-Raid Mini JCW +5:37
- M. Gastaldi/A. Metge Century Racing CR7 +5:43
