American Seth Quintero on Saturday led the two-week Dakar Rally as race favorites in the car category slowed to secure better conditions for yesterday’s 48-hour Chrono stage in the Saudi Arabian desert.
French Mini driver Guerlain Chicherit was fastest in the 413km first stage around the southwestern town of Bisha, but Toyota’s Quintero, who finished 50 seconds behind, was promoted hours later after he was credited 95 seconds to make up for time lost when he stopped to assist Spaniard Laia Sanz, who had crashed.
Defending champion Carlos Sainz went against the flow by moving up to seventh, but five-time winner Nasser al-Attiyah dropped to 20th, nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb was 24th and local contender Yazeed al-Rajhi ended the day 21st.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Setting off first through the sea of dunes and over rough and rocky desert tracks is a disadvantage for a driver compared with those who follow.
“The goal was not to do the best time, so we decided to stop for a few minutes at the end to lose a bit of time and not to be first on the road tomorrow,” Frenchman Loeb said. “Everyone played the same game.”
Fellow Dacia driver al-Attiyah agreed that tactics had played a big part in the day’s classification, adding that he had taken the stage easy, stopping for 15 minutes after a puncture to secure a more favorable position for the next stage.
“Maybe we lose a lot of time ... but it’s very important for tomorrow. If I start 50th, that would be nice,” the Qatari said. “Last year, we took a risk, but we learned. We don’t need to learn this year, we need to be smart, and I’m really quite happy to manage today without any problems.”
Chicherit also stopped when a small fire broke out around the exhaust, but he decided to adopt a different strategy to rivals.
“I predicted that all the top guns would follow the same strategy, so I asked myself: ‘Should I stay with the herd in a low-risk, low-reward approach, or should I do the exact opposite?’” he said. “Winning tomorrow is virtually impossible. I need to limit the damage to 15 minutes or less. If I can pull it off, I’ll still be within five minutes of the rest.”
In the motorcycle category, prologue winner Daniel Sanders made it two out of two and the Australian is now more than two minutes clear of defending champion Ricky Brabec of the US.
Hero rider Sebastian Buehler’s rally ended after the German crashed and injured his shoulder.
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