Rally Raid
Sam Sunderland and Nasser Al-Attiyah lead at the start of Dakar Rally 2018
The 40th edition of the world’s toughest rally is under way. Watch Red Bull TV’s Dakar Daily to get up to speed with who’s leading and who’s run into difficulties during the opening stage in Peru.
The first stage of the 2018 Dakar Rally followed the coast of Peru for 242km all the way from Lima to Pisco and ended with a 31km timed dash with Sam Sunderland reigning supreme in the bikes category and Nasser Al-Attiyah coming out on top in the cars category.
Scroll down to get the lowdown on what happened during the opening day of action and watch Red Bull TV’s Dakar Daily show in the player above to catch up on the highlights.
Cars
Two-time Rally Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah finished Stage One of the 2018 edition on top. The Toyota driver posted the best provisional time ahead of Nani Roma and leads Stéphane Peterhansel by more than two minutes. Sébastien Loeb also got off to a bad start after a handbrake problem on his Peugeot caused him to lose five minutes.
Selected standings
- 1. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota) – 00:21:51
- 2. Bernhard ten Brinke (Toyota) – 00:00:25
- 3. Nicolás Fuchs (Borgward) – 00:00:34
- 11. Stéphane Peterhansel (Peugeot) – 00:02:15
- 15. Cyril Despres (Peugeot) – 00:02:36
- 16. Carlos Sainz (Peugeot) – 00:02:39
- 29. Sébastien Loeb (Peugeot) – 00:05:37
I don’t want a strategy because I trust my co-driver Matthieu [Baumel]. Tomorrow, if we open the road, I know it will be very difficult, but I’m just really happy for today, tomorrow’s another day. We try to do our best.
Nasser Al-Attiyah won the first stage
© Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Content Pool
Motorcycles
Last year’s champion, Sam Sunderland, picked up where he left off by setting the quickest time to establish an early lead of 32 seconds. The Red Bull KTM Factory Team rider finished ahead of Adrien van Beveren (Yamaha) and Paul Quintanilla (Husqvarna). Fourth place went to Spain’s Joan Barreda (Honda). His team-mate and fellow Dakar champion Toby Price, who’s still recovering from the severe injury that ended his 2017 campaign, finished in 14th place.
Sam Sunderland: “I’m happy to have started strongly, but it’s only 30 kilometers, so it doesn’t mean much – it's only the first day of a long race. I went on the attack, of course, because we’re in a race!”
Champion Toby Price finished the special in 14th place
© Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Content Pool
Selected standings
- 1. Sam Sunderland (KTM) – 00:20:56
- 2. Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) – 00:00:32
- 3. Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) – 00:00:55
- 6. Matthias Walkner (KTM) – 00:01:22
- 9. Antoine Meo (KTM) – 00:01:48
- 12. Laia Sanz (KTM) – 00:03:15
- 14. Toby Price (KTM) – 00:03:20
- 21. Iván Cervantes (KTM) – 00:04:00
Quads
Ignacio Casale is determined to cross the finish line in Córdoba as winner of the Quads race when the 2018 Dakar Rally ends in Argentina on January 20. The Chilean began his campaign as he means to go on, claiming victory ahead of defending champion Sergei Kariakin, who finished second ahead of Frenchman Sébastien Souday.
Ignacio Casale: “It was a complicated stage because the start was reversed. We knew that navigation was not going to be difficult because we had to find several tracks. I had a navigation problem at the 18km mark, but I managed to fix it.”
Selected standings
- Ignacio Casale (Yamaha) – 00:27:32
- Sergei Kariakin (Yamaha) – 00:01:00
- Sébastien Souday (Yamaha) – 00:02:24
Trucks
The truck category also came to life as the big beasts of the Dakar tore across the sand. The four crews of Team Kamaz Master are all well placed after one day of racing with Eduard Nikolaev (RUS), Ayrat Mardeev (RUS), Ayrat Mardeev (RUS) and Anton Shibalov (RUS) all inside the Top 10.
Favorites get off to a flying start
© Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Content Pool
Selected standings
- 1. Ales Loprais (Instaforex) 00:25:15
- 2. Martin van den Brink (Mammoet) 00:25:37
- 3. Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz) 00:25:44
- 5. Shibalov (Kamaz) 00:26:33
- 7. Sotnikov (Kamaz) 00:27:03
- 8. Mardeev (Kawav) 00:27:26