Al Rajhi and Al-Attiyah lead a Dakar shaken up by the 48H time trial

A big attraction of the previous edition, the 48H chrono stage is again on the menu for the Dakar this year, except that it is placed at the start of the event. After playing cat and mouse on Saturday to try to have an advantageous starting position, the favorites launched into the battle in scattered order this Sunday.

The principle: complete the 976 km of special by Monday, after a break declared at the same time for everyone with camping under the stars, food ration and without technical assistance. At 5 p.m. local time in Saudi Arabia, far from Bisha which we will have to return to tomorrow, everyone had to return to the nearest camp. The clock is therefore paused until early morning and no communication is possible between the pilots, apart from what is happening at the camp where they are.

Previously, things happened! Winner yesterday, Seth Quintero led the way, quickly joined by Guerlain Chicherit, and the two men were able to quickly measure the enormous disadvantage that this cursed privilege constituted. After a few hundred kilometers, the cars faced the first lines of dunes of this Dakar 2025, and that's where the first twists and turns occurred.

Carlos Sainz was the first to suffer the law, rolling over after a jump. His Ford Raptor, which ended up on its roof, was able to get back on its wheels thanks to the help of another M-Sport driver, Mitch Guthrieand the defending champion resumed his journey with a damaged machine and more than twenty minutes lost. Then it was Lucas Moraes who found himself stuck in the sand and left there for several minutes.

At midday, Sébastien Loeb suffered electronic problems which forced him to stop several times. The Frenchman also received help and then escort from his teammate Cristina Gutiérrez but the blow was hard since he lost almost half an hour, without certainty that everything would be resolved on his Dacia Sandrider, whose cooling was acting up. and causes overheating problems.

Dacia, in fact, had to rely on its last representative, Nasser Al-Attiyah. The five-time winner of the Dakar demonstrated his ease in the dunes, leading the provisional classification for the stage. However, it is not him who has been the fastest so far, but Yazeed Al Rajhi.

Last year, the Saudi lost everything on the first day of the 48H stage. This time, he hit the mark at home, even allowing him to provisionally occupy first place in the general ranking. As things currently stand, he would therefore take the lead in the Dakar with 1'19 ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah and 3'44 over Mattias Ekström.

It should be noted so far the very good performance of the ex-biker duo Toby Price-Sam Sunderland, provisionally fifth in the general ahead of Henk Lategan and Nani Roma. For Sébastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz, the bill is steep: 33'33 provisional general outlay for the Frenchman, 49'33 for the Spaniard.

Provisional general classification Cars

Sanders impressive motorcycle skills

For motorcycles, the principle of the stage is the same but the route is completely separate from that of the Cars, allowing in particular more peace of mind with less overtaking to manage. The distance of the special to be covered over the two days is 947 km.

Faithful to his pace set since the start on Friday, Daniel Sanders was extremely solid by simply leading at all checkpoints until the break at the camp. As things currently stand, the Australian would greatly consolidate his lead in the general classification with a 3'02 margin over defending champion Ricky Brabec and 6'29 over Ross Branch.

The Frenchman Adrien van Beveren is currently in eighth place in the stage, which would position him in the same place in the general classification, although 29'40 behind the leader.

Monday morning, the competitors will hit the road again to finish this second stage. From 7 a.m. on site (5 a.m. in France), they will set off from each of the six camps alternately, with a car then a motorcycle every 30 seconds.