RIYADH — Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah dominated the first week of the 44th Dakar Rally and had deservedly built up a lead of 48min 54sec at the event’s traditional rest day in Riyadh on Saturday.

Partnered by French co-driver Mathieu Baumel, who made several critical navigational decisions during a tricky week and six stages through the demanding deserts of Saudi Arabia, Al-Attiyah was able to win both parts of the opening stage and a further special on his way to a comfortable cushion over Overdrive Racing teammate Yazeed Al-Rajhi and his co-driver Michael Orr.

Al-Attiyah said: “Absolutely, we are quite happy. We tried to push from the beginning but some drivers made some mistakes. Mathieu navigated well. We are quite happy to have finished the first week of the Dakar with a good lead. Mathieu did a good job. He was very careful to avoid making mistakes. I think we are in a good way. We’ve worked a lot this week without any risks.

“This is the Dakar and we will try to manage next week without any risks. We need to be strong all the way. We need to have a good pace without any relaxing because, when you relax, you make a mistake. We also need to navigate well.”

Al-Rajhi was deprived of one near certain stage win by a minor speeding penalty, but the Saudi was able to steer his Toyota Hilux into second at the expense of nine-time WRC champion Sébastien Loeb on the stage before the rest day.

Al-Attiyah’s Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate Giniel de Villiers endured fraught preparations to his Dakar challenge and only arrived in the Kingdom at the 11th hour. When a five-hour time penalty was rescinded by the event stewards on Friday afternoon, the South African regained his place inside the top five and held fourth place in Riyadh, a mere 1min 31sec behind Loeb.

Argentina’s Lucio Alvarez and his Spanish navigator Armand Monleón had been running as high as third overall during the opening week in their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux but lost 20 minutes to their rivals on the sixth stage and slipped down to fifth place. Juan Cruz Yacopini and Alejandro Yacopini drove a third Overdrive Racing Hilux and were classified in 23rd overall at the rest day.

Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke took Erik van Loon’s place in the team at the 11th hour, when his fellow countryman tested positive for Covid-19. Ten Brinke teamed up with French co-driver Sebastien Delaunay and belied his lack of recent racing experience to overcome several delays en route to 29th overall.

The French duo of Ronan Chabot and Gilles Pillot had their own fair share of delays and reached Riyadh in 30th, while Portugal’s Miguel Barbosa and Pedro Velosa rounded off Overdrive Racing’s T1 challenge in 37th.

The team also built four OT3s for the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team and they were entered in the FIA T3 category for lightweight prototype vehicles. The team enjoyed a first week of mixed emotions, the highlight being victories on every stage of the Dakar so far.

Young American racer Seth Quintero teamed up with Germany’s Dennis Zenz and won six specials during a remarkable week, where the one blot on his copybook was front differential issues and a sizeable time delay that saw him down in 31st overall at the rest day.

“That’s six stage wins and we are going to keep ticking them off,” said Quintero. “Nine is the record, so we are going to see if we can break it!”

Spanish female racer Cristina Gutierrez was the highest-placed of the OT3 drivers in third at the rest day alongside French co-driver François Cazalet.

Pre-rally Covid testing forced the team to make a late driver and co-driver change. Belgium’s Guillaume de Mevius teamed up with America’s Kellon Walch, when his usual co-driver Tom Colsoul was not able to attend and Walch’s usual driver Mitch Guthrie was also sidelined.

De Mevius won one stage during the first week, but broken transmission, a differential case breakage and sizeable delays waiting for assistance cost the Belgian heaps of time and he reached Riyadh in 38th.

WRC star Andreas Mikkelsen was a late stand-in for Guthrie, despite never taking part in a desert race like the Dakar before. He teamed up with fellow Norwegian Ola Floene and was second quickest on the Qualifying Stage and seventh on the first desert special before retiring his OT3 after the subsequent test with roll cage damage.

The second half will feature six further desert special stages through the south and western regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, featuring bivouacs in Wadi Ad Dawasir and Bisha, before the route heads west for the final stage and ceremonial finish in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on Jan. 14.

South Racing Can-Ams held outright leads in both the FIA T3 and T4 categories in the Dakar Rally. In fact, South Racing Can-Ams had completely dominated the upper reaches of the top 10 all week in the T4 section and were classified first, second and fourth overall in T3, despite fierce competition from a number of other international teams.

Chilean driver Francesco ‘Chaleco’ Lopez and teammate Sebastian Eriksson held solid first and second positions in the T3 section for lightweight prototype vehicles in their EKS-South Racing Can-Ams and Spain’s Fernando Alvarez was fourth. Lopez’s and navigator Juan Pablo Vinagre’s lead over their Swedish colleague and his Dutch co-driver Wouter Rosegaar was 23min 09sec at the rest day.

“I broke the differential and lost time at the end of the last stage,” said Lopez. “But I’m still happy. I’m leading the general rankings after one week, so it’s perfect. For the rest of the rally I’m going to treat it as if I was starting again from scratch, but with a lead of over 20 minutes!”

Also running strongly in the T3 category on her first Dakar was Saudi Arabia’s Dania Akeel. She climbed through the field during the first week and reached Riyadh in an excellent sixth position at the helm of the first of three South Racing Middle East-run Can-Ams. Teammates, Thomas Bell and Mashael Al-Obaidan, were classified in 14th and 19th of the 48 drivers who started out from Jeddah on New Year’s Day.

Brazilian driver Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira and American racer Austin Jones — the T4 World Champion in the 2021 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies — became embroiled in a fascinating tussle at the top of the T4 standings. Luppi claimed a stage win on his way to a 6min 56sec advantage over Jones at the rest day.

“It’s my first Dakar and I am happy with it,” said Luppi de Oliveira. “I’m still learning how to drive in the dunes. I’ve only driven them in Abu Dhabi and Morocco to prepare for the Dakar. We’ve driven tidily and I can be happy about reaching the rest day at the top of the general rankings. We are going to continue at this pace and keep looking after the car.”

Both Marek and Michal Goczal won five stages between them in their Cobant-Energylandia Rally Team Can-Ams, built and run by South Racing. But niggling little time losses on subsequent specials meant that the Polish brothers reached the rest day in sixth and third positions, respectively.

“Hopefully we can make up the lost time next week,” said Marek Goczal. “It may be difficult but we are planning to have fun and win some stages. We don’t have any option now. We have to push to the last day at our maximum.”

Spain’s Gerard Farrés delivered a solid first week to hold fourth in the second of the Can-Am Factory South Racing Mavericks and Lithuania’s young Rokas Baciuska was classified fifth in his South Racing machine.

Can-Am Factory South Racing’s Molly Taylor and Aron Domzala were outside the top 10 after a challenging week that saw the Pole claim a stage win but spend several hours implanted in sand into nightfall with a damaged car after a frontal impact. The duo were classified in 18th and 26th at the rest day.

Chile’s Lucas Del Rio and Americo Aliaga were just outside the top 10 in 11th and it was a strong start for the Dutch crew of Gert-Jan van der Valk and Branco de Lange. They were 14th overall, two places ahead of South Racing’s Argentine duo of David Zille and Sebastian Cesana.

Ukraine’s Ievgen Kovalevych teamed up with fellow countryman Dmytro Tsyro to hold 22nd and South Africa’s Geoff Minnitt and Siegfried Rousseau brought up the rear of the South Racing Can-Am line-up in 47th. — SG