Qatar’s al-Attiyah extends lead after opening stage win

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah stormed to victory in the opening stage of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia yesterday, even as his main rivals struggled. The three-time Dakar champion, who had won the 19km prologue on Saturday, extended his overall lead to 12 minutes 44 seconds over nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb in second place. Al-Attiyah, driving a Toyota Hilfux T1+, and his French navigator Matthieu Baumel finished the 333-kilometre loop around northern Saudi Arabia in 3:19.57 seconds. Having elected to run as the 10th car on the stage following the road order selection in Ha’il on Saturday evening, al-Attiyah made a strong start and took the lead at the second checkpoint, but only six seconds clear of Peterhansel, who started 14th on the road.But Peterhansel’s charge then came to an abrupt halt during the narrow canyon-like section of the stage as last year’s winner struck trouble before the third checkpoint around 99 miles into the test. The 14-time winner suffered a broken rear axle on his Audi RS Q e-tron that forced him to stop mid-way through the stage. The Frenchman could now decide to withdraw from the race after having to wait for six hours for assistance.But Audi’s troubles didn’t end there as Carlos Sainz soon lost more than two hours in search of a tricky checkpoint near the end of the stage, having already dropped six minutes behind the leaders with unrelated issues in the middle part of the day. Sainz is provisionally classified in 32nd place, having finished the stage 2h07m down on al-Attiyah.Martin Prokop was third in Benzina Ford, while Lucio Alvarez (Overdrive Toyota), Vladimir Vasilyev (VRT BMW) and Sebastian Halpern (X-Raid Mini) were next up in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.“It was incredible because it was a really tricky stage. I expected it to be more straightforward,” said al-Attiyah before praising his co-driver Baumel. “Mathieu Baumel did an outstanding job, especially in the second part of the stage. There was a time when we saw a track that went a bit too far to the right, and he said, ‘no, turn left’, and then, when we got to the next waypoint, we saw we were on the right track. “Then, we drove at the front with Seb and pushed hard. I’m very happy. The Toyota works like a charm and I’m having a blast in this T1+. It feels steady. We’ll do our best, but today was a good stage for us. This is no time to race conservatively. Tomorrow will be another day, and it’ll be the marathon, but I’m not seeing anyone come in, so I think it was a good day,” he added. Loeb is now behind al-attiyah in the early standings after battling back from a difficult start which saw his car suffer two punctures. “It really wasn’t simple, we messed up and started with two punctures before the neutralisation. There was no room for error in the second part,” Loeb said.  “Then Nasser caught up with us, I was keeping it cool behind him. It was a bit easier with fewer rocks, so I thought we could keep going at a high pace and we made it to the finish in much better shape than at the neutralisation. Both Nasser and Matthieu are strong. You can see it from behind them. They can afford to take shortcuts and return to the track at high speed. It’s quite the sight. It’s only the first stage, and it wasn’t even singled out as being especially difficult. I think we need to stay focused. The first part of the day dented our confidence, but everything turned out fine,” the Frenchman added.Meanwhile, Australian Daniel Sanders extended his early advantage in the bikes category, beating Chilean Pablo Quintanilla by 3mins and 7secs. “In the end, a lot of guys got lost and, luckily, we got onto the right track,” said Sanders. “It was a good, strong finish. I just didn’t push too much at the start, just gave it a nice rhythm, and at the end I tried to open as much as I could.”More than two minutes slower was the second classified, Pablo Quintanilla in Honda . Matthias Walkner (KTM), was eight and a half minutes behind the winner and finished third.Stage 1 result1. Nasser al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel (Toyota Gazoo Racing) 3h19m57s2. Sébastien Loeb/Fabian Lurquin (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) +12m07s3. Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka (Ford Raptor RS) +21m21s4. Lucio Alvarez/Armand Monleon (Overdrive Toyota) +26m31s5. Vladimir Vasilyev/Oleg Uperenko (VRT Team BMW) + 27m52s6. Sebastian Halpern/Bernardo Graue (X-raid Mini JCW) +28m16s7. Giniel de Villiers/Dennis Murphy (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +32m43s8. Jakub Przygónski/Timo Gottschalk (X-raid Mini JCW) +40m50s9. Yazeed al-Rajhi/Michael Orr (Overdrive Toyota) +42m53s10. Cyril Despres/Taye Perry (PH Sport Peugeot 3008 Dakar) +48m21s