Toby Price won the prologue stage of the Dakar Rally on motorcycles with a time of 8 minutes and 22 seconds and achieved his 16th stage victory in the mythical event. The Australian from KTM, the driver with the ninth most wins in the history of his category and owner of two Touaregs (2016 and 2019) set the pace on the opening day of the 45th edition of the rally, the fourth to be held in the sands of Arabia Saudi. “It’s nice to win, but this doesn’t guarantee anything,” he commented after getting off the bike.
Joan Barreda, who was confident with his options before starting despite not having done a race since the 2022 Dakar, set a devastating pace and was fourth, nine seconds behind the winner, beating all his teammates on Honda. “Most drivers need to run races to stay on pace. I have always sought to find sensations and rhythm during training ”, explained the 39-year-old from Castellón, who acknowledges that this may be his last Dakar. “I had a moment of confusion due to a problem, I don’t know if it was consumer or electronic. That made me hesitate on a straight line and I lost a few seconds. In the rest I have been safe and without errors ”, he summarized with satisfaction.
Daniel Sanders (GasGas) was the one who lost the least time compared to the winner, losing just one second in the standings compared to his compatriot. Sam Sunderland, his partner under the colors of the Spanish brand and winner in 2022, was tenth behind 13 seconds. “I had a couple of scares and I calmed down a bit. It’s been 14 days of chaos, so these kilometers aren’t going to change much, ”he assured. Pablo Quintanilla, second last year, was thirteenth by 16 seconds, a difference that will be multiplied by five and will be added to the final time of the first stage, as the organization announced in advance. The intention was to prevent any of the favorites from getting off the hook on purpose to leave far behind and be able to follow in the wake of the teammates who opened the track.
Mattias Ekström dominates for Audi, Carlos Sainz is sixth
The organization had to use machines to open and level the track for the prologue stage, which looked more like a World Rally Championship track than anything else. A strong storm days before the start of the race, an exception in these latitudes, made it necessary to review the 13-kilometer route around the camp next to the Red Sea at the last minute. Joan Navarro, engineer of Carlos Sainz’s Audi, sixth in the stage 14 seconds behind his teammate Mattias Ekström, the winner, commented that they had lowered the height of the car as much as possible to maximize performance on the hard lane.
In the days before the start, the riders covered the stage on foot, by bike and by electric motorcycle. Sainz and his co-driver, Lucas Cruz from Barcelona, took good note of every inch. At first, the organization allowed them to do so, but the next day they were told they couldn’t. “We made rally notes that we are going to throw away, a shame because it would have gone well for us and we spent two hours there,” he recounted in the preview. The Spaniard lost 13 seconds to Sébastien Loeb (BRX), the best among the favourites. The Frenchman gave up a second on Ekström, but scratched his main rivals by more than 10: Peterhansel was third, 11 seconds behind the winner, and Nasser Al-Attiyah, who defends his crown, was fourth, 12. surprises, we will start fifth tomorrow. Doing it further back would be better, but fifth is not bad”, said Sainz. The top 10 in cars, in reverse order, will also be able to decide where they start from to avoid opening up the track or swallowing too much dust.
The complexity of the stage lay in the lack of references on a path with very similar sections. The low mileage also caused minimal differences. The only thing left for the participants was to take another couple of laps to try to memorize it and go to sleep with the circuit in their heads. In her second adventure on four wheels, Laia Sanz started with a competitive 27th place, 49 seconds behind the winner, very close to her teammate in the Astara, Oscar Fuertes (24th), and at the same level as Isidre Esteve (28th with his Toyota). . “A small mistake will have cost us some position, but the objective was to be in the top 40 to start tomorrow in a good place and we did well”, commented the Barcelonan.
Daniel Vilà, the first participant to start in this edition, achieved a creditable third place in the quads category on the day of his debut. Cristina Gutiérrez, in T3 light prototypes, began leading a test where she started as one of the favorites for the overall victory. This New Year’s Eve there will be no grapes for the Spanish drivers, who will have to get up early to face the first stage of the rally, a 368-kilometre circuit with departure and arrival at the sea camp. “We are used to celebrating it at home, with the family. Last year we were here but there was no stage the next day, so we were able to live it awake despite the distance”, Sainz was resigned.
“Before, my girlfriend told me that it was New Year’s Eve and I didn’t even remember. It’s been many years since we celebrated it too much, but that’s our job”, Barreda smiled. “What, today is 31?” Monsieur Dakar wondered. “I had completely forgotten. I’ll go to sleep before midnight, but I hope to have a nice dinner.”
