In the Saudi desert, the rally-raid favorites took no risks this Saturday during the first stage.
Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit won the first stage of the Dakar car rally on Saturday, the favorites having slowed down to avoid starting in an unfavorable position in the “48 hours” which will follow.
Driving a Mini seriously damaged in the race, the 46-year-old Frenchman completed the 413 km special around Bisha (Saudi Arabia) in 4h 35min 53sec and provisionally takes the lead in the general classification, 50 seconds ahead of the American Seth Quintero (Toyota). He also offers his team its first stage victory on the Dakar since 2021.
Loeb did not “take any risks”
Nine-time world rally champion but having never yet managed to win in the Dakar, Frenchman Sébastien Loeb (Dacia) ranks 24th, 11 minutes behind the winner. “It was a problem-free stage for us, we didn’t take any risks. The goal was not to set the best time so we stopped for a few minutes at the end to lose a little time and avoid having to open the road tomorrow», declared the Alsatian to the press when he got out of the car.
The two other heavyweights of the rally-raid, the Spaniard Carlos Sainz and the Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah, are in 7th and 20th positions respectively. The Dakar competitors will be engaged on Sunday and Monday in the formidable “48h chrono”, a special of almost 1,000km without assistance over two days.
In these conditions, opening the road, as the leaders of the previous day’s stage must do, could constitute a serious disadvantage.
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