Stage #1 of the Dakar Rally was always going to be an oddball leg with the daunting Chrono Stage set to follow. Most did not want to be the first out on course for Sunday, meaning sandbagging or racing conservatively to protect the vehicle was a very popular strategy.

“The goal was not to win the stage so we decided to stop for a few minutes at the end so we would not be first on the road tomorrow,” Sébastien Loeb explained. He finished 23rd in Ultimate, meaning he would start further back on Sunday.

Ironically, there is a chance that the Chrono Stage might be more benign than Saturday’s events.

Despite being just the first stage that “mattered”, Stage #1 ended up claiming multiple victims to crashes, both of the vehicular and the electronic kinds. Many navigators and riders had their roadbooks suddenly freeze up, resulting in consequences like Adrien Van Beveren’s 33rd birthday being ruined by him crashing after 15 km because the scroll button did not work and Lorenzo Santolino’s Speedocap (which is used to provide the roadbook’s CAP, similar to a compass reading) glitching out and sending him helplessly down a valley.

“We finished the stage with a little souvenir from a cactus that left me with a nice tattoo,” Santolino sarcastically remarked.

Navigation issues led to many getting lost with misadventures such as Dave Klaassen accidentally following the path used for private testing earlier in the week and missing two waypoints. Brock Heger had a more substantial blow as his roadbook glitching out in the final 100 kilometers led to him losing the SSV stage win because he got lost, though he could at least take solace in the winner being teammate Xavier de Soultrait. Nandu Jubany was able to get an ERTF technician to come by and fix his system, allowing five minutes to be deducted from his time.

The Sentinel system, which informs drivers of incoming cars and other hazards, was particularly susceptible to breaking down. Nasser Al-Attiyah narrowly avoided hitting another bike after his broke down, while Carlos Sainz had to resort to nerfing Mathieu Serradori to get the slower car to allow him to pass. Sainz eventually received a ten-second penalty for speeding while Al-Attiyah had two minutes slapped on.

X-raid’s Minis had a tumultuous day because of their technical problems. Guillaume de Mévius found himself barreling through trees and bushes, causing branches to get into the radiator, as did Vladas Jurkevičius. Guerlain Chicherit and João Ferreira made it out unscathed even with the former having to pass some cars.

With the chaos unfolding, it only seemed fitting that the FIA stage winner was involved in some form. Seth Quintero stopped to help Laia Sanz—also a victim of nav system failure—following her rollover at KM 330, and the FIA rewarded him handsomely with time credits that ultimately gave him the stage victory.

A service truck came to help Sanz five hours later and she reached the finish just two minutes before hitting the time limit, but the main tubing on her Century CR6-T team was too warped out of regulation by a few millimeters. Thus, the FIA forbade her from continuing and she retired from the Dakar for the first time ever after 15 starts.

“I had to ignore the roadbook for a while and just focus on my speed and standing my ground,” FIM winner Daniel Sanders offered. Save for having to ride in the dust, he managed to avoid the same misfortunes as his colleagues.

Fellow RallyGP rider Sebastian Bühler was not as fortunate. In a braking zone at KM 70, Bühler hit a rock that threw him off his Hero and broke his collarbone; Skyler Howes came by to provided assistance. Malle Moto competitor Stéphane Darques suffered the same fate at KM 285. Michael Docherty suffered a small fracture to his shoulder after a rock kicked up at him, but will continue the race.

The Dakar Classic ended up being a nightmare due to the navigation issues, causing them to get lost or drive around in circles in the vegetation. Axel Berrier, racing a Porsche 964 with a Gulf Oil livery, ended up in the trees after the cardan shaft broke.

Stage #1 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	204	Seth Quintero	Toyota Gazoo Racing	4:35:08
Challenger	19	301	Nicolás Cavigliasso	BBR Motorsport	4:47:12
SSV	27	400	Xavier de Soultrait*	Sébastien Loeb Racing	4:52:43
Stock	103	500	Akira Miura*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	5:54:46
Truck	51	602	Mitchel van den Brink*	Eurol Rally Sport	5:11:09

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	4:41:27
Rally2	13	96	Tobias Ebster	BAS World KTM Racing Team	5:11:56

Other

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Points
Dakar Classic	700	Carlos Santaolalla	Factory Tub	27
Mission 1000	702	Jordi Juvanteny, Xavier Ribas, José Luis Criado	KH-7 Ecovergy Team	15

Leaders after Stage #1

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	4:58:18
Rally2	13	96	Tobias Ebster	BAS World KTM Racing Team	5:30:13

Other

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Points
Mission 1000	1000	Benjamín Pascual	Segway Racing	30

Featured image credit: Florent Gooden / DPPI