Not even an engine fire could stop Nasser Al-Attiyah as he won the opening short 39km stage of the Dakar Rally in Paraguay.
In a stage that is more a prologue to set the starting order for the longer test tomorrow, the Qatari had a frantic moment just prior to the stage finish when a small fire started under the bonnet of his Toyota.
It was quickly extinguished and he took the stage win and an early advantage in the two-week event.
After switching from Mini for the Toyota, it was his 26th stage win on the Dakar, as he set a time 26s quicker than the Ford of Xavier Pons and Nani Roma (Toyota).
“Over the last 10 kilometres we had smoke inside the car,” said Al-Attiyah.
“In fact, there was a fire on Mathieu’s (Baumel, Al-Attiyah’s co-driver) side. After we needed to go a little bit slowly until the finish. We had to use the fire extinguisher to stop the fire.
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“We finished the stage and we’ll see if we’re leaking oil; I don’t know yet. I don’t know what happened – we’ll check now. I hope the engine is okay, because we were losing our oil.”
It is the bikes that will open the 275km stage tomorrow and therefore plenty of cat and mouse occurred as the leading riders, including defending champion Toby Price, settled to ease themselves into the event.
Price was 17th on the stage 85s off the lead.
“There were a lot of people right near the track and a bit of wildlife, so I just took it nice and easy and we’re through day one so far,” said Price.
“It wasn’t too hot and we started nice and early before it started to heat up too much. We’re now through the stage so we can just cruise back to the bivouac tonight.
“Tomorrow, it just depends on where we are. It’s going to be a bit of a difficult day. We’ve just got to keep our heads switched on and keep on moving through and trying our best so it should be pretty good.”
Xavier de Soultrait was the quickest but preferred to concede his first victory, by speeding on the link stage, to Juan Pedrero in order to avoid opening the way tomorrow.
There are four Australians competing in the bike section with Todd Smith (KTM) in 20th, Rod Faggotter (Yamaha) sitting in 26th and Matt Hart (Husqvarna) back in 64th.
The opening stage was the first time the event had visited Paraguay with the start taking place in the capital Asuncion.
The only stage in Paraguay was a contrast to the majority of the event with a lush jungle-like setting and tropical climate.
Tomorrow the event is run in Argentina with competitors travelling a total of 812 kilometres from Resistencia to San Miguel De Tucoman; 275 of which is competitive running.
VIDEO: Dakar Stage 1
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