The South African farmland was anything but kind to the World Rally-Raid Championship on Tuesday. Nearly every bike and over half of the cars entered received a penalty of some kind for Stage 1, primarily for missing waypoints or speeding.

With how many riders got penalized, both bike categories ended up having different stage winners from when they initially finished. Prologue winner Daniel Sanders set the fastest time, but was slapped with a two-minute penalty for missing a waypoint. Ross Branch inherited the stage win, beating Ricky Brabec by just six seconds before the margin grew thanks to a time credit.

“I opened for a large part of the day, and that was a great confidence booster for me,” said Branch, who hails from neighboring Botswana. “Everything went smoothly, and we had some good fun out there. It felt great to be back on the old tracks and in the bush, just like I remembered it. Riding a rally bike through this kind of terrain is such a different experience, and I truly enjoyed it. Everything is going well so far, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Brabec officially finished Stage 1 in third after Honda teammate Adrien Van Beveren leapfrogged him on a 2:56 time credit.

Likewise, the Rally2 win was revoked from Michael Docherty because he was 11 minutes late to the start of the Selective Section due to feeling sick in the morning. Another two minutes were tacked on for missing a waypoint. The 13 minutes dropped him from the stage victory to fourth, while Edgar Canet took the win.

Conversely, the only four-wheeled FIM class stage winner Gaëtan Martinez as the only Quad rider without a penalty. Teammate Antanas Kanopkinas was busted for missing a checkpoint, while Marek Łój and Carien Teessen failed to finish.

Kanopkinas pointed out the “really slippery” track surface likely contributed to everyone’s difficulties. Stage 1 was primarily conducted on active farmland, with any grass being pressed down to forge a path but in turn led to it being extremely slick. Mud also didn’t help, many cars struggling to get through.

“The first 15 to 20 kilometers I was like, ‘Oh my gosh this is going to take all day,’” quipped Brabec. “The big grass fields we were ripping through were definitely not something I’m used to. I don’t live anywhere near grass so it was a bit slippery this morning, but after this it opened up, it was fairly quick, and navigation was quite fun.”

Drivers in the FIA classes got a day of battle testing. W2RC SSV points leader and Prologue victor Alexandre Pinto finished dead last among all cars after a difficult day that saw him place over an hour and a half behind winner Richard Aczel. João Ferreira had to deal with a jammed windshield wiper en route to a 14th.

The mud caused Dave Klaassen’s crankshaft sensor, its backup, and a fuel pump to fail at KM 220. His Red-Lined also had a hose from the air intake into the turbo come loose shortly after the start.

Attrition also knocked out Harith Noah as the Dakar Rally2 winner crashed 29 kilometers in.

Jayden Els initially finished an impressive second, but got two minutes for missing a waypoint. Sébastien Loeb moved up onto the FIA podium in third behind Henk Lategan and Carlos Sainz; Lategan’s stage win was the 70th for Toyota in the W2RC and his first with the flagship Toyota Gazoo Racing. Nasser Al-Attiyah received the same penalty, dropping him to ninth.

FIA Prologue winner Gareth Woolridge finished 12th overall.

Guy Botterill had the largest FIA penalty with 17 minutes, 15 of which were for not hitting Waypoint 22.

Stage 1 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	205	Henk Lategan	Toyota Gazoo Racing	2:38:08
Challenger	20	308	David Zille	BBR Motorsport	2:52:29
SSV	38	414	Richard Aczel*	South Racing Can-Am	3:13:28

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	1	Ross Branch	Hero MotoSports	2:44:04
Rally2	8	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	2:55:59
Quad	15	174	Gaëtan Martinez	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	3:25:42

Leaders after Stage 1

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	205	Henk Lategan	Toyota Gazoo Racing	2:38:08
Challenger	20	308	David Zille	BBR Motorsport	2:52:29
SSV	38	414	Richard Aczel*	South Racing Can-Am	3:13:28

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	1	Ross Branch	Hero MotoSports	2:51:32
Rally2	8	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	3:03:20
Quad	15	174	Gaëtan Martinez	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	3:34:15

Featured image credit: Hero MotoSports