America’s Seth Quintero has 20 Challenger Dakar Rally stage wins to his name, six of which he claimed at age 18 in 2021. Today, he claimed his first stage win in the Ultimate class, despite crossing the finish line for the opening stage of the 47th Dakar — a 412km/256-mile loop around the Bisha Start Camp — with the second-fastest time, right behind the X-Raid Mini of Guerlain Chicherit.
That second became first after race officials credited the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver with the 95 seconds that he had spent assisting Laia Sanz, who had crashed at the 330km mark. Sanz and her co-driver Maurizio Gerini were unhurt but were working on their Century CR6 without their support crew when Quintero stopped to lend a hand.
“It’s always good to get the first one done. We got past quite a few cars. Then we saw Laia had a big crash so we stopped there and did what we could to help,” related Quintero.
Another youngster — 19-year-old South African Saood Variawa — placed third on the stage, 1m45s down to his American Toyota teammate.
It might appear the other Dakar favorites are reeling from early massive time losses, with most of them finishing below 20th place, over 10 minutes down. In fact, they largely followed the lead of Toyota’s teammate Lucas Moraes, who led for most of the day, in backing off at the end to avoid having to start the 48-hour chrono stage too close to the front. Reigning champ Carlos Sainz was something of an outlier, finishing eighth. The Spaniard will hit the course in seventh position tomorrow morning, making him a prime target for the likes of Nasser Al Attiyah (20th), Yazeed Al Rajhi (21st) and Sebastien Loeb (22nd).
No vehicles got through Stage 1 without any issues, with all cars sustaining damage from the numerous trees and bushes that lined the route.
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Daniel “Chucky” Sanders followed up his pace-setting Prologue by winning the opening stage in the Bike class. The Australian Red Bull KTM rider put clear daylight between himself and the competition, pushing his closest rival on the stage, America’s Ricky Brabec, more than two minutes down. A whopping 25 minutes now separate the leader from the 10th-placed rider.
In contrast with the FIA rules, which prompted the car favorites to engage in a bit of sandbagging, the 48h chrono stage regulations stipulate that the Bike Rally GP riders will start tomorrow in reverse order of their results today.
“There was a lot of dust so it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to start at the back,” reckoned Sanders. “In the end, everyone caught up with each other so you had to stand your ground and stay strong.”
Ross Branch put in a solid ride to take third in the stage, although he was dismayed to learn at the finish that his Hero teammate Sebastian Bühler had exited the race after crashing and injuring his shoulder.
Nicolas Cavigliasso grabbed the early lead in the Challenger class, four seconds clear of Gonçalo Guerreiro of the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team. Guerreiro’s American teammate Corbin Leaverton, who won yesterday’s Prologue, again showed strongly, placing fifth.
In SSV, Xavier De Soultrait led Francisco “Chaleco” Lopez by 7m35s, with America’s Brock Heger placing third, 12m40s back. Fellow American Sara Price was 15th on the opening stage, but positions only tell part of the story with 11 grueling stages still ahead.
The rally continues tomorrow with the start of the 48-hour chrono stage, featuring 1,000km across two days. When the clock strikes 5pm competitors must stop at the next rest area they arrive at (there are six rest areas in total dotted along the route). On the morning of Jan. 6, the remainder of the enormous timed stage must be completed.