The Dakar begins with a prologue stage that serves as a test of the desert and its own possibilities. The competition is long, so some participants have taken it as a first contact, although it has given others the opportunity to reaffirm their fitness in the toughest rally.
The South African won in the car category Henk Lategan (Toyota), and the Australian Daniel Sanders (KTM), in the motorcycle class, in this 29-kilometer special stage starting and finishing in Bisha (Saudi Arabia).
In cars, Lategan was the fastest in ‘Ultimate’ with a time of 15:28.6 minutes, just one second faster than the Swede Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) and 20 more than the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia). Joan ‘Nani’ Roma (Ford), eighth, was the best Spanish; and Carlos Sainz (Ford), winner in 2024, twenty-fifth. Cristina Gutiérrez (Dacia) from Burgos was sixteenth in her debut in the main category.
For its part, on two wheels, in the main category, RallyGP, the winner was Sanders with a time of 16:51 minutes, 12 and 18 seconds faster respectively than the Botswanan Ross Branch (Hero) and the American Ricky Brabec (Honda), although the great performance of the young Spaniard Edgar Canet (KTM), winner of the special in Rally2 with the same time as the African, places him third overall.
The KTM rider, just 19 years old, the youngest in Dakar history, recorded the best time in his division with 35 seconds ahead of South African Michael Doherty, and 1 minute 14 seconds ahead of Tobias Ebster, both also with KTM. Unlike cars, in the motorcycle category the times set this Friday by the drivers do count towards the general classification.
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