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 his 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, who drives a Toyota, also took the lead in the overall classification with the same advantage over the Spaniard.
The third of the day was Giniel de Villiers (Toyota), followed by Vaidotas Zala navigated by Portuguese Paulo Fiúza in a MINI from 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 seen in the overall classification.
Mattias Ekström (Audi), winner of the prologue, led the intermediate times until about halfway through the stage, but ended up 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) was 19th, Nasser Al-Attiyah (Nasser Racing/Hunter) finished 22nd, and Stéphane Peterhansel (Audi) finished 26th. They all lost more than 20 minutes, and Peterhansel even conceded more than half an hour.
Top ten of Stage 1:
Top ten overall after Stage 1:
