Dakar 2020: Vaidotas Zala, Anton Shibalov And Toby Price Draw First Blood In Stage 1

The 42nd edition of the world’s biggest cross-country rally, the 2020 Dakar Rally, kicked off with the first of 12 stages run between Jeddah and Al Wajh, in Saudi Arabia on Sunday. The first stage saw surprise results, with established veterans struggling, and unlikely names taking top honours. Here’s everything that happened in the opening 433km stage, out of which 319kms were timed special stages:

Cars 

In the car category, we saw a surprise challenger take first blood as Vaidotas Zala, the Lithuanian racer representing the Agrorodeo Dakar team, piloting an X-Raid Mini took his maiden stage win. This stage win also makes Zala the first driver to win a Dakar stage in a four-wheel-drive Mini after Miko Hirvonen in 2016. Stephane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz made it a 1-2-3 for Mini in Stage 1. The defending Dakar champion, Nasser Al-Attiyah, was the highest placed Toyota in 4th with the second Toyota of Bernhard ten Brinke taking 5th. Two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso was the third-best Toyota, finishing 11th in his Dakar debut. 

Bikes

The 2020 Dakar Rally turned out to be a positive one for KTM’s Toby Price, as the Australian rider and reigning Dakar champion topped the opening stage. Two minutes behind was American Ricky Brabec representing Honda, with Price’s teammate Matthias Walkner rounding off the top three. While this is a strong start for Price, there are still 11 more stages to go.  

Trucks

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Heading towards bigger machinery, Anton Shibalov lead the way for Kamaz to top the opening stage for Truck class. Following him was Siarhei Viazovich for Maz and Janus van Kaster of De Rooy Iveco rounding off the top three. Dmitry Sotnikov wound up being the second-best Kamaz in 4th.

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