Al-Attiyah-Baumel and Baragwanath-Perry fastest in the Prologue

Okay, the Prologue only has 11 terminals out of the 7 km of the Dakar 646. Of course, the Prologue does not count for the general classification. Once this information has been assimilated, we can carefully look at the result of this full-scale training.

On sandy terrain 100 km from Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), the competitors of the 42nd edition were able to get their bearings and above all determine the starting order of the first stage, scheduled for Sunday January 3 from Jeddah to Bisha.

Disadvantageous for some, because it will be necessary to sweep the track and make a trail for the rivals, first place in the Prologue was won by Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel (Toyota). The Qatari-French duo was in the lead until the 38th vehicle to cross the line, the Century C6.R of South Africans Brian Baragwanath and Taye Perry, set the same time!

Behind, we find, 8'' ahead, the local Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Dirk von Zitzewitz (Toyota). The Pole Jakub Przygonski and Timo Gottschalk (Toyota) concede 12''.

The title holders, Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz (Mini) lost 36” following a slow puncture after two km of effort. The Spaniards changed the right rear wheel after the arrival of the day according to an RTVE video.

The ghosts Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena (BRX) remained in the top 10 for the first competitive laps of the Hunter designed by Prodrive (9th). The surprise winner of the 1st stage in 2020, Vaidotas Zala (Mini, 18th), almost rolled over!

The bad surprise concerns Romain Dumas and Gilles de Turckheim. The French abnormally lost more than 6' in a sector which presented no particular difficulty and bring up the rear of the ranking.

In SSV, beginner Kris Meeke (PH Sport) leads with a 2″ margin over this year’s youngest participant, Seth Quintero (Overdrive), only 18 years old! Mattias Ekström (Yamaha) is 8th, almost 30″ behind.