Defending champion Carlos Sainz took the lead in the Dakar Rally car category after winning Sunday’s first proper stage in the Saudi Arabian desert ahead of Mini team mate Stephane Peterhansel.
The Spaniard was eight seconds clear of ‘Mr Dakar’ Peterhansel— the Frenchman who has won a record 13 times on two wheels and four - overall after the 277-km timed stage from the port city of Jeddah to Bisha.
Overnight leader Nasser Al-Attiyah, who won Saturday’s short prologue for the factory Toyota team, dropped back to 10th and nearly 12 minutes off the lead.
“We decided to win the prologue, and we expected to lose time opening the road today. Tomorrow’s stage is what really matters,” said the Qatari.
Sainz, a triple Dakar winner whose son and namesake is a Ferrari Formula One driver, had started 28th after a puncture in the prologue but came back aggressively in his X-Raid Mini JCW buggy.
“We had a puncture and a problem with the roadbook made us lose four minutes. Happy with the P1 and with the lead tomorrow,” the 58-year-old said. Peterhansel lost time with a puncture in the last 50km.
Nine-times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb had a difficult day, the Frenchman suffering three punctures and dropping nearly 24 minutes behind for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team.
Spaniard Cristina Gutierrez led the way in the lightweight prototype category, becoming the first female winner of a Dakar stage since Germany’s Jutta Kleinschmidt in 2005. Kleinschmidt won the Dakar car category in 2001.
Gutierrez, a four times finisher in the Dakar, recently signed up to compete in the new Extreme E series for a team owned by seven times Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton.
