DAKAR 2025

Cristina Gutiérrez, the queen in a poker game in which Sainz is compromised

A poker game. That was expected to be the first stage of the Dakar 2025 in the car category... and it has not disappointed. You only have to look at the classification table with less than 100 kilometres to go to the finish line and the final one to realise that nothing has been what it seemed.

Cristina heads, Sainz tails... Many of the favourites have chosen to stop in that final part to lose time and hope that it would be enough to stay behind the rest... but not too much. Practically all of them (Al-Attiyah, Roma, Moraes) did so, except... Carlos Sainz who, to top it all off, has not had any luck today.

First with a puncture, then with problems with the digital navigation tablets... the fact is that once the cards are on the table, it will turn out that the Madrid native will be the reference among the favourites in tomorrow's abyss because he will start quite far ahead (7th) and many places ahead of Al-Attiyah or Loeb, his toughest rivals.

It does not seem the most suitable situation for the Madrid native, of course, but in the Dakar it is impossible to know what awaits you tomorrow. At least you will have the traces of several competitors ahead of you who will open the track for you on a different day, since they will not have the usual traces of the motorcycles during the almost 1,000 kilometres that await them.

Therefore, to find Sebastien Loeb or Nasser Al-Attiyah you have to go down many lines in the classification. Both lost time on the Madrid native, around eight minutes. Now we will have to wait to see if in the next two days their bet will yield them the profits.

Chicherit scored the first win for the new gasoline Mini (image above) X-Raid

In the chaos, Cristina Gutiérrez emerged, achieving a sensational result on her first day as one of the greats of the Dakar. At one point in the final chaos she was in second place, but she eventually became a historic top 5 finisher in the car category and equals Laia Sanz's best partial result on a motorcycle, achieved in 2015.

The stage win, which is perhaps the least of it, went to Guerlain Chicherit with the new Mini with a petrol engine. The bad news of the day is Laia Sanz's accident with her Century. The Catalan and her co-driver, Maurizio Gerini, are fine and, in fact, are trying to repair the car to continue in the race... although the fight for a leading position has vanished too soon.

And after this intense first course of the Dakar 2025 menu comes the first decisive day of the race... which will last 48 hours. This is a stage divided into two days in which the drivers will have to overcome 900 kilometers of distance, sleeping in the middle of the desert in a tent, eating military rations... and most decisively (especially in cars): without assistance from mechanics. 

-Classification of stage 1 in cars

Dakar 2025:

Guerlain Chicherit (Mini) 4h 35:53

Seth Quintero (Toyota) at 50 s

Saood Variawa (Toyota) at 1:03

Martin Prokop (Ford) at 1:04

Cristina Gutiérrez (Dacia) at 1:28

Joao Ferreira (MINi) at 1:53

Carlos Sainz (Ford) at 2:32

Lucas Moraes (Toyota) at 2:33

Toby Price (Toyota) at 3:13

Henk Lategan (Toyota) at 3:27

-Dakar general classification in cars

Dakar 2025:

Guerlain Chicherit (Mini) 4h 35:53

Seth Quintero (Toyota) at 50 yes

Saood Variawa (Toyota) at 1:03

Martin Prokop (Ford) at 1:04

Cristina Gutiérrez (Dacia) at 1:28

Joao Ferreira (MINi) at 1:53

Carlos Sainz (Ford) at 2:32

Lucas Moraes (Toyota) at 2:33

Toby Price (Toyota) at 3:13

Henk Lategan (Toyota) at 3:27

Schareina and Canet struggle with navigation on another day of Sanders dominance

Daniel Sanders wants his first Dakar and is determined to dominate it. The Australian KTM rider, winner of the prologue, also claimed victory today in the first stage (a demanding 413-kilometre loop around Bisha that kept them on the bike for almost five hours).

"It was very hard, with a lot of dust ahead. Maybe it would have been more cautious to slow down but I didn't want to give anyone any space. For the first day, it was really hard," said the winner at the finish line... who was satisfied to have arrived in one piece after facing a maximum effort (Luciano Benavides suffered cramps halfway through the stage) and quite a bit of risk.

Navigation played a trick on Schareina...The truth is that the Aussie controlled the stage perfectly from kilometre 150 onwards. Before that, Brabec's Honda was the fastest and in the final stretch it seemed that Tosha Schareina's could challenge him for the win.

However, the Valencian lost a lot of time in the final part: he finished almost five minutes behind when he was barely 20 seconds behind with 70 to go to the finish. Schareina opened the track after reaching the last waypoint together with a group of riders that also included Lorenzo Santolino (who finished 12th provisionally), but an apparent navigation error immediately afterwards allowed those who were behind (the Hondas of Brabec and Howes) to pass. In fact, both the Valencian and Honda consider that there may be an error in the roadbook and are going to claim the lost time.

Canet suffers the rigours of the Dakar... The sensation of the prologue, Edgar Canet, has already discovered the hardships of the Dakar. Although he held his own for a good part of the stage, being by far the best among the Rally 2 class drivers, he was complicated at the end by navigation problems at the same point where Schareina lost control of the lead.

Although he rode in the top ten all day, he eventually lost more than half an hour to Sanders to finish 15th. It is true that the Catalan had no reason to take more risks than necessary today, since he was 'condemned' (although in this case in a positive way) by the rules of the category.

Regardless of the weather today, Canet was always going to start tomorrow behind the riders in the higher category (Rally GP). To prevent the favourites from 'giving away' the stage today, the organisation established that the starting order for the bikes in tomorrow's 48 Hours would be reversed from the order of arrival today, so that everyone would have that incentive.

The Dakar 2025 has already recorded the first major retirement: that of the official Hero rider Sebastian Bühler. The German suffered a fall at kilometre 68 in which he damaged his shoulder (probably by stepping on a stone), to the point of having to be evacuated. For this reason, the final classification of today's stage may undergo some changes this afternoon as Skyler Howes (Honda) stopped to attend to his teammate and will be given back the time he spent assisting him.

Tomorrow, the second stage will be held, one of the most feared of the 2025 Dakar. It will take place over 48 hours, during which the drivers will have to overcome a distance of 900 kilometres, sleeping in the open air, with only military rations as food... and without mechanical assistance. Two days that can decide things in the race.

Stage 1 classification (provisional) in motorcycles

Dakar 2025

Daniel Sanders (KTM) 4h 41:27

Ricky Brabec (Honda) at 2:04

Ross Branch (Hero) at 2:26

Tosha Schareina (Honda) at 4:42

Luciano Benavides (KTM) at 8:02

Pablo Quintanilla (Honda) at 11:06

Skyler Howes (Honda) at 14:19

Adrien Van Beveren (Honda) at 14:44

Nacho Cornejo (Hero) at 18:09

Martin Michek (KTM) at 24:07

Enrique Naranjo