Dakar Rally 2020: Vaidotas Zala upsets favourites, De Villiers fades to 14th
Vaidotas Zala made the most of a troubled end to the day for Nasser Al-Attiyah to claim first blood at the 2020 Dakar, upsetting the form book.
Giniel de Villiers, who had been running as high as P5, faded to 14th as the opening day concluded in Al Wajh.
Dakar Rally: Zala surprises on Day One
The X-raid Mini drivers in their 2×4 buggies had a near perfect start to the 2020 Dakar Rally as they claimed the top three spots on Sunday’s timesheet.
Racing from Jeddah to Al Wajh along a 319km special stage, 342 vehicles were cleared to start the 42nd edition of the Dakar, Saudi Arabia’s first.
In a stage dominated by winding dunes and stones, defending champ Al-Attiyah led the first 200kms only for his Toyota Hilux to suffer three punctures late in the running.
That cost him almost three minutes, dropping him off the day’s podium.
Zala put in a late surge to take the opening win ahead of Stéphane Peterhansel, crossing the line 2m14 while Carlos Sainz was third as Mini dominated Day One.
Peterhansel , running a new co-driver in Paulo Fiuza, lost time when he, well got lost.
“We wandered around a bit and must have lost three to five minutes looking for a hidden waypoint. The directions were hard to understand in English… I must be going soft in the head,” he told the official website.
“In 21 editions of the Dakar, I’ve never had a co-driver talk to me in English, so I need to get used to it. There were dunes, sandy plateaus and rocky sectors where we had to walk on eggshells. We’re good at adapting to these conditions, we’re nimble!”
De Villiers, who was fifth after the first 43km, faded as the day progressed. The Toyota driver, chasing a second Dakar victory, eventually finished 23m16 down after a slow puncture hampered his charge.
As for Fernando Alonso, the double Formula 1 World Champion was an impressive P11 on the day, 15m27 off the pace.
But, as one competitor said ahead of the rally, it is a race for the top 20, for everyone else it is an adventure.
Romain Dumas was the only retirement from the cars as he was forced to climb out of his RD Limited when it caught fire 65km into the stage.
Price sitting P1 in the bikes, top 40 for Mare
KTM’s Toby Price claimed the opening win in the bike category, building up a lead late in the stage to take P1 by 2m05 ahead of Honda rider Ricky Brabec.
“It went well,” Price said. “It was a hard day, but it went well.
“My road book walked out on me after 15-odd kilometres, so it was strange. I was quite lucky in one way because I managed to follow on some dust and just keep up with the guys. Once the road book is gone, then you’re pretty much driving blind.”
Aaron Mare was the top-placed South African, bringing his Honda home in 35th place. He had started the day inside the top 15 but lost ground as the stage progressed to finish 34m54 down.
13 women began the 42nd Dakar with Laia Sanz the best-placed in 21st position.
As for South Africa’s Taye Perry and Kirsten Landman, who are in a fight to become the first African woman to complete the prestigious desert race, Perry was 73rd on board her KTM while Landman was 95th.
Stuart Gregory was 86th with Wessel Bosman 136th.
The bike category saw the first retirement of the rally with Willy Jobard calling it quits after just 13km.
The 48-year-old Frenchman crashed and dislocated his shoulder resulting in his ninth DNF in 13 Dakars.
Quads, SSVs and trucks
Quad favourites Ignacio Casale and Rafal Sonik finished first and second in their division with Aron Domżala taking the top honours in the SSVs.
Domżala, contesting his second Dakar, stole the show as he took the more seasoned runners to task, taking the win by 7m25.
Anton Shibalov is the first leader of the truck race.
Special Stage 1 top ten
- Vaidotas Zala and Saulius Jurgelenas – Mini – 3h19m04s
- Stephane Peterhansel and Paulo Fiuza Mini – 3h21m18s – 2m14s
- Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz – Mini – 3h21m54s – 2m50s
- Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel – Toyota – 3h24m37s – 5m33s
- Bernhard ten Brinke and Tom Colsoul – Toyota – 3h25m34s – 6m30s
- Mathieu Serradori and Fabian Lurquin – Century – 3h25m59s – 6m55s
- Orlando Terranova and Bernardo Graue – Mini – 3h26m19s – 7m15s
- Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Konstantin Zhiltsov – Toyota – 3h30m50s – 11m46s
- Vladimir Vasilyev and Vitaly Yevtyekhov – Mini – 3h32m29s – 13m25s
- Erik van Loon and Sebastien Delaunay – Toyota – 3h33m02s – 13m58s
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