The day at Dakar: Cristina Gutiérrez shines on Stage 1
Finally! The Dakar Rally 2021 got off to a flying start in Saudi Arabia with a fast 277km special stage. Some familiar legends of the sport and some new ones began their adventure in style.
Let's rewind and take you through some of the pre-event stories as over 200 different cars, bikes, trucks, quads and SSVs rush to get ready to tackle the sands – and streets – of Saudi Arabia.
As more than one Dakar veteran will tell you, the rally starts the minute competitors get off the plane. No matter how much prep you've done in the months leading up to the event, there's still last-minute things to grab and unforeseen problems to solve – this year, of course, after a two-day quarantine in the hotel.
For most teams, the first big step is the shakedown. Since many of the vehicle get shipped over in various states of assembly, they have to be put back together again on site – and smart competitors always want to check their work.
The shakedown usually means fairly unrestricted access to a short track near the starting bivouac and every serious team does a few rounds to make sure machines are running okay and shake off jet lag – or more than a few. It's a fun place to be and it always attracts the attention of the locals, who are pretty excited to see world class vehicles playing in their local sandbox.
After that, it's scrutineering, which is just like it sounds like. Stewards and officials check the vehicles for safety and for adherence to the class specifications. With all of this, it's a race against time – the less time you spend here, the more time you can spend banking sleep and resting for the days ahead, because you'll need it!
The final day before the event is pretty predictable – a short off-road prologue to battle for start positions and then the start podium – a standard bit of pomp and circumstance before the start.
Stage 1. Ready, set, rally. The first day is full of nervous energy, no matter who you are. As the roving Dakar city of 2,400 people starts moving to the first bivouac, energy is high, but everyone knows they'll soon settle into the rhythm of the rally.
As you’re driving on the liaison – Stage 1's was about 600km – you remember you can already start checking what's happening on the course, so every time the 4G working you're hitting refresh on the event, tracking to see who's hit what waypoint marker, who's ahead, who's off the pace and who might well be lost.
Catch up with the action from Stage 1 of Dakar 2021 below:
Dakar Daily – Stage 1
The race for glory is on in Saudi Arabia, so catch up with the highlights from Stage 1 of Dakar Rally 2021.
The real star of the Dakar's Stage 1 has to be Red Bull Off-Road Team USA's Cristina Gutiérrez, who absolutely dominated the Lightweight Vehicle class to win by over two minutes and become the first female Dakar stage winner since Jutta Kleinschmidt in 2005. What a way to kick off her campaign!
Fans will have also seen that it's been a good day for some very familiar names with Carlos Sainz in the Car, Toby Price in the Bike and Dmitry Sotnikov in the Truck category winning the stage and serving notice to their rivals they are ready to fight for the title. The day’s big loser was one of the pre-event favourites and car prologue winner Nasser Al-Attiyah, who lost 12m 34s on the stage.
Once you step foot on the bivouac, if you're lucky enough to have been here before, things start to feel familiar and a little like home – and it better, because for the next 14 days, it will be. The rally has now really begun.
Cristina Gutiérrez was the Stage 1 star with a first female win since 2005
