It’s been an opening day full of surprises on the opening 180-kilometre section of the Dakar Rally, from Rosario to San Luis in Argentina.
Carlos Sousa leads in the Chinese-made Haval, while for the second year running former NASCAR star Robby Gordon (pictured) has hit massive problems on the opening stage. This time, it was fuel feed issues that forced him to stop five or six times before he eventually had to be towed out of the stage.
It wasn’t easy for Sousa either, who said that he “suffered like a dog” to win the stage by just 11 seconds from the first of a trio of X-Raid Minis, led by Orlando Villanova.
“Our car doesn’t have air conditioning and all the air inlets got clogged,” said Sousa. “It must have got hotter than 70 degrees centigrade and we had trouble breathing. The reason I drove so fast was that I wanted to get out of that inferno, but I really thought we wouldn't make it.”
Nasser Al-Attiyah is third ahead of the similar Mini of Nani Roma. Two-time World Rally Champion (and former Dakar winner) Carlos Sainz is fifth in front of Stephane Peterhansel, who lost time with a puncture. Another former Dakar winner, Giniel de Villiers, dropped to 27th following a power steering failure on his Toyota.
Tomorrow there are 750 punishing kilometres between San Luis and San Rafael, with the competitors facing dunes for the first time.