On the hail reel, in Saudi Arabia, with a special stage of 333, the Lithuanian Laisvydas Kancius dominated with the Yamaha 700 and took the reins of the Quads specialty, since the Argentine Manuel Andujar (Team 7240), the current champion, had problems with navigation and took 10th place by 42 seconds.
Kordofan is headquartered in the United States, Pablo Cubate (Yamaha), who dominated the first part of the stage, finished fourth, at 9m 36, while newcomer Francisco Moreno (Dragon) of Mendoza completed the leading pentathlon, at 23m 42.
In the cars of the country division Nasser Al-Attiyah He won the first stage with Toyota Hilux in the 333 km loop of Hail Special and remains at the top of the overall schedule, and among the Argentines, Mendoza Lucio Alvariz slipped to fourth, on the Hilux, 27.42 behind Nasser.
Rest of Mendoza: Sebastian Halpern, with the Mini of the X-Raid, it was sixth in just under half an hour. and experienced Orlando Terranova, with the hunter, took 13th place, in the 49th m 27, and Juan Cruz Yacobini, with a Hilux, took 15th place, at 55 m 22.
In Motorcycles, the main test candidates, such as defending champion Kevin Benavidez (KTM) of Salta, lost cues in an initial section of the stage and, in turn, lost precious minutes.
Kevin Benavides was 20th with his KTM team, more than 36 minutes behind Sanders, and the other candidates, Juan Barreda Porte, another loser, finished 17th, about 42 minutes away.
Among the Argentines, in addition to Kevin Benavides, came Riojan Diego Gamaliel Llanos (32 degrees, 58 minutes), Salta Luciano Benavides (38 degrees, at 1h03m31), Mendoza Diego Nouras (52 degrees, 1 x 37 minutes) and Buenos Aires de Acevedo, Joaquín Diplugué (62°, 1h53m30).
As expected, the current Russian truck champion Dmitriy Sotnikov won the first stage in Hail with a distance of 333 km, and was put in front of the general with the 500th KamAZ.
His teammates and compatriots Sotnikov, Nikolaev and Lobris, completed the lead in third place.
Alice Loprais, with Prague, reached the middle of KAMAZ, in the 9m58, while Anton Shipalov and Andrei Kargenov completed the top five.
Chaco Juan Manuel Silva, accompanied by a man, led by Spaniard Paul Navarro and Argentine Carlos Mel Banfi, 26, came on his first test drive in a truck.
The band was a side by side, and American Seth Quintero, with OT3 for Red Bull, was the stage winner.
The Red Bull OT3 driver completed the special race in 4h21m35 leaving Chilean Francisco “Chalico” Lopez Contardo in second, about two minutes away, and Swede Sebastian Ericsson third, in 6m52.
Spain’s Argentine Fernando Alvarez Castellano finished seventh, with a distance of 43 meters 13 minutes.
ASO, the organizing company of the 44th edition of Dakar, reported that the marathon stage, which was scheduled to take place tomorrow, marking the second stage, has been suspended because Artawiyah bivouac, where the machines must arrive, was flooded as a result of strong storms in the past hours.
“Due to the flooding in Artawiya Temporary due to heavy storms and rain, we are forced to relocate the end of Phase 2 to the Temporary Qaisumah District. There will be no temporary marathon. The only change will be in Transition B from Phase 2,” he called.
In this way, the convoy will reach Qaisumah, the camp it was supposed to reach on Tuesday, and the planned link section will be modified.
In principle, the second stage had a 585 km long road between the cities of Hail and Artania.
