Guillaume de Mevius surprised everyone in the first stage of the Dakar, which had 414km of timed sections. The Overdrive Racing driver achieved his first victory in the main class, in which he is making his debut this year.
Taking advantage of the starting position after the difficult prologue, Carlos Sainz (Audi) consistently stayed among the fastest, but ended up seeing de Mevius being 1m44s faster. The Belgian driver, who pilots a Toyota, also took the lead in the overall classification with the same advantage over the Spaniard.
The third place of the day went to Giniel de Villiers (Toyota), followed by Vaidotas Zala navigated by Portuguese Paulo Fiúza in a MINI from the X-Raid Arijus Team. On a day with several surprises, Romain Dumas (Rebellion Racing/Toyota) was fifth, ahead of two other Toyota drivers: Lucas Moraes and rookie Guy David Botterill. The same order is reflected in the overall classification.
Mattias Ekström (Audi), winner of the prologue, led the intermediate times until about halfway through the stage, but ended up only in tenth place, 14m20s behind the winner. Three of the strong contenders for the top positions also lost time in a very difficult stage. Sébastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme/Hunter) finished in 19th place, Nasser Al-Attiyah (Nasser Racing/Hunter) in 22nd, and Stéphane Peterhansel (Audi) in 26th. They all lost more than 20 minutes, and Peterhansel even conceded more than half an hour.
Top ten of Stage 1:
Top ten of the overall classification after Stage 1:
