Dakar Rally Stage 1 – Lima to Pisco

Background

Stage winner Nasser Al-Attiyah almost flips over trying to pass Carlos Saiz Sr. for the lead

Pisco – the Start – is not only the city that has given its name to Pisco Sour, a cocktail that is the pride of the country as well as a source of many arguments and discussions with their Chilean neighbours about just who invented it. Since 2012 and the first visit of the Dakar, it has been one of the rally’s “classics". On this first stage, the riders, drivers and crews did battle among the dunes for almost 70% of the special stage route. To the north of the Ica region, this specific geographical zone has been named California!

Day 1 Highlights

In the car category, two-time Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing SA) took the win, beating reigning champion Carlos Sainz (X-Raid Mini JCW Team) by almost two minutes. In third, Jakub Przygonski (Orlen X-Raid Team).

Al-Attiyah said: “The stage was tricky, not easy. There was a good line from the bikes and we didn’t push a lot. The last 10km, we caught Carlos and tried to stay behind him until the finish. Today was not a short stage, full sand, it wasn't easy. And tomorrow will be similar."

Sainz’ teammates, Stéphane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres, took respectively seventh and 10th. A proof of the close bond between both drivers, they’ve switched co-pilots ahead of the event.

Motorsport legend Sébastien Loeb, racing as a Red Bull privateer, took 13th. He said: “We drove correctly. We didn’t want to take any risk, it wasn’t our objective on this stage. We’re getting into the rhythm, we didn’t do any mistake and we finished the stage."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]In the bike category, Joan Barreda (Honda Team) won ahead of Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna Factory Racing), second, and teammate Ricky Brabec, third. Sam Sunderland from Red Bull KTM Factory Team took fifth, ahead of the other KTM riders Toby Price (sixth) and Matthias Walkner (seventh).

Walkner, who won the 2018 edition, said: “The pace is quite high because we have a lot of lines [in the dunes]. It was quite an easy navigation, it was really fast. It’s good to be racing."

In the quad category, Nicolas Cavigliasso beat Jeremías González Ferioli by almost four minutes, with Tomas Kubiena in third.

In the truck category, four-time winner Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz-Master) won ahead of Ton van Genugten in second and Federico Villagra in third.

Tomorrow Tuesday, the cars will open the track from Pisco to San Juan de Marcona, with 211km of liaison followed by 342km of racing.

Top-10 Auto

Top-10 Bikes