Loeb, Al-Attiyah and Sainz penalized after the first stage

After a change of winner following a reallocation of time granted to Seth Quintero, at the expense of Guerlain Chicherit, the hours following the finish of the first stage of the Dakar 2025 gave rise to several penalties. Many of them hit contenders for final victory, all caught for speeding in areas where speeding was limited.

Winner of the Prologue on Friday, Henk Lategan is the most heavily sanctioned since he receives a 10-minute penalty after being controlled at 77 km/h in a section where the limit was 50 km/h.

Authors of offenses of the same type but to a lesser extent, Sébastien Loeb (+16 km/h), Nasser Al-Attiyah (+13 km/h), Yazeed Al-Rajhi (+18 km/h) and Toby Price ( +26 km/h) were all sanctioned with a 2-minute penalty in the general classification.

Finally, the defending champion Carlos Sainz (+5 km/h) and the second of the stage Guerlain Chicherit (+4 km/h) received a much lighter penalty of 10 seconds.

Paradoxically, these sanctions which push back all these drivers in the general classification of the day should have a limited impact on the sporting stakes, since many of them sought to lose a lot of time during this day in order to go far on Sunday for the 48 hour stage which will last until Monday.

As things currently stand, Seth Quintero remains the first leader of the Dakar at the top of a general classification where Nasser Al-Attiyah occupies 20th place at 13’13, Sébastien Loeb 23rd at 14’16. Carlos Sainz is the best placed favorite for the final victory, in seventh position at 3’27.

General classification Cars