Watch the Dakar Rally extended highlights January 2-14, exclusive and free on SBS from 5pm daily, also available on SBS On Demand daily in the morning.
The opening 19 km sprint was a sign of things to come over the course of the Dakar for 2022: sandy tracks and dunes in an all-sand timed sector in which the entrants crested and gobbled up dunes, sometimes even broken ones, and climbed to an altitude of close to 400m.
On this power hike, competitors were expected to bring their A-game from the beginning, much like young biker Daniel Sanders and the evergreen Nasser Al-Attiyah, primed for victory by a bountiful 2021 season. The caravan then headed north-east for a 614 km liaison to Ha'il, where the grand start podium awaited the participants for tomorrow's stage 1B on a loop course.
The Australian sensation of the 2021 Dakar again showed his talent in a short, sandy stage that also saw runner-up Pablo Quintanilla thrive in his new home at Honda. It comes as no surprise that Nasser Al-Attiyah was in his element on sandy terrain.
His 42nd career stage win was also his sixth in a Dakar opener. He gained 12″ on Carlos Sainz, who put his brand-new Audi through its paces from the get-go. Two South African drivers, namely Brian Baragwanath in his CR6 buggy and Al-Attiyah's Toyota teammate, Henk Lategan, are hot on the heels of the three-time winners, with Sébastien Loeb rounding out the top 5 in his BRX Hunter.
The lightweight prototype race saw an unexpected OT3-Red Bull exhibition (see Performance of the day), led by Seth Quintero, while first-time stage winner Marek Goczał and his younger brother Michał, in second place, made sure the SSV special stayed in the family. Finally, Kamaz blew the competition out of the water with a 1-2-3-4 to go with Eduard Nikolaev's 22nd stage victory.
It was a grim New Year's Eve for OT3-Red Bull, still reeling from the news that Mitch Guthrie and Guillaume De Mevius's co-driver, Tom Colsoul, had both tested positive for COVID-19 in less than 48 hours, but the team bounced back to place its three cars in the top 4 of the T3 race.
19-year-old prodigy Seth Quintero led the charge with his seventh stage win in his second Dakar start. Two last-minute substitutes were called up to fill the empty bucket seats. Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen went from enjoying a ski retreat to making his rally raid debut to posting the second-fastest time in the special.
Meanwhile, De Mevius was already on his way to the special when he met his new navigator: Kellon Walch, Robby Gordon's long-time co-driver, who partnered up with Austin Jones last year, had landed at 5:30 that morning after flying in from Los Angeles via Paris. Their second place at the end of the day represents a solid start for the newly-formed pair.
Daniel Sanders, who claimed top rookie honours and finished just outside the podium last year, grabbed his maiden Dakar stage win in the opener. It was a first in more than one way, as the Australian also netted GasGas its first triumph in the most prestigious rally raid on Earth.
"Awesome way to start the rally," wrote Sanders on social media. "I got to select my start position for tomorrow which is 15th, it gives me a good chance to get into the rhythm of the race with many lines in front."
As the icing on the cake, it was the first victory for the KTM 450, the latest showpiece of the Mattighofen factory, unveiled in Morocco last year. Spain's GasGas is the 13th constructor to take a stage in the Dakar motorbike race. The rally had not feted a new winner since 2010, when Sherco and Aprilia opened their accounts.
Watch the Dakar Rally extended highlights January 2-14, exclusive and free on SBS from 5pm daily, also available on SBS On Demand daily in the morning.
