Following his win in the Prologue, both Price and Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders chose to start the opening stage 25th and 26th respectively in a strategic ploy to not only follow the tracks of their rivals, but avoid potential disaster so early in the event.
Disaster that struck defending champion Sam Sunderland 52km into the stage. The Factory GasGas rider started 22nd on the road and quickly grabbed the lead at the first checkpoint at 37km, leading the Honda pair of Pablo Quintanilla and Joan Barreda Bort by 10 seconds.
Fifteen kilometres later, Sunderland crashed heavily and although he was fully conscious and mobile, he had sustained a broken collarbone and contusions to his lower back. He was taken to Yanbu Hospital for further examination, but his Dakar defence was over.
Sam Sunderland shortly before his crash in the opening stage. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP) Source: AFP / FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images
By the final checkpoint at 277km, Klein was leading Sanders by 20 seconds and was en route to a maiden stage victory in what was his first-ever Dakar. But during the final 90km stanza to the end of the stage, Klein lost a heap of time which allowed Sanders to haul in the 20” deficit and claim the stage win by seven seconds ahead of the Monster Energy Honda pair of Quintanilla and Bort.
Sanders' sweet taste of victory quickly turned sour soon after, when a two-minute time penalty for speeding dropped him down to sixth place, handing the stage in to Brabec. Time penalties were also applied to Quintanilla and Bort, which brought KTM’s Kevin Benavides up into second and Klein up to third.
Daniel Sanders took the opening stage win provisionally, but dropped to sixth after incurring time penalties for speeding. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images) Source: AFP / FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images
In the T4 Modified Production SSV class, Molly Taylor’s hopes for a strong start were plagued by mechanical and roadmap troubles. Starting 10th on the road, the Can-Am South Racing driver and navigator Andrew Short started strongly and had worked their way up to third at one point during the stage. But as traffic became more difficult, the push to pass system on the electronic roadmap had malfunctioned, making the effort to pass traffic quite difficult.
Not long after encountering that, Taylor and Short not only suffered a puncture but a broken front driveshaft, forcing them to drive the remainder of the stage with rear wheel drive only. Whilst a massive inconvenience, the pair soldiered on to finish 13th in the stage and in the general classification. The stage was won by EnergyLandia Rally Team’s Eryk Goczal and Oriol Mena.
Meanwhile in the Cars section, age and experience certainly played a key role in Carlos Sainz Snr's opening stage success, usurping his more fancied Audi teammates Mattias Ekstrom and Stephane Peterhansel for the stage win and general classification lead.
Carlos Sainz and co-driver Lucas Cruz in the Cars category at the 2023 Dakar Rally
Ekstrom was immediately quick out of the blocks and had already commanded a dominant gap over Bahrain Road Extreme’s Sebastian Loeb, who was nipping at his heels for much of the stage.
The pendulum swung towards the Spaniard near the end of the stage, as Ekstrom’s dominance gradually whittled away and Sainz overcame his early stage puncture to take the stage win by 10 seconds ahead of Loeb and Ekstrom.
But Ekstrom’s third-place standing quickly turned to nothing after he received a hefty 15-minute time penalty for missing a weight point during the stage. The penalty dropped him to 14th for the stage and 13th overall, handing third in the stage and outright to Overdrive Racing’s Yazeed Al Rajhi.
With the Sea Camp loop now done, the competitors will now turn their focus to tomorrow’s second stage, departing from Sea Camp and heading 589km to Alula (430 of them are competitive).
Catch all the opening stage highlights tonight on SBS from 5pm (AEDT) and on SBS On Demand.
