– Ninth place in the Prologue for Kuba Przygonski
– Official starting ceremony in Hail
The 2022 Rally Dakar is up and running: The competitors completed a 19-kilometre Prologue on the route from Jeddah to Hail. Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL) and Timo Gottschalk (GER) finished ninth in the MINI JCW Buggy. The two crews of
Yasir Seaidan (KSA) / Alexey Kuzmich in the MINI JCW Rally and Sebastian Halpern / Bernardo ‘Ronnie’ Graue (both ARG) in the MINI JCW Buggy ended day one in 17th and 18th place respectively. Denis Krotov and Konstantin Zhiltsov were 28th in a MINI JCW Buggy. Laia Sanz (ESP) and Maurizio Gerini (ITA) came home 41st at the end of their first Dakar stage in the MINI ALL4 Racing.
The drivers and teams have spent the past few days in Jeddah preparing for the start of the 2022 Dakar. As well as the Shakedown, the Saudi Arabian city also hosted the administrative and technical inspections. After the short prologue, the drivers continued to Hail, the official start city for this year’s Dakar. Here, the Dakar competitors rolled over the podium at the official start to the rally.
Przygonski: « We are pleased to finally get underway. The Prologue was a good start. We were a little too slow in places. We lost a bit of time in the soft sand, but we still have a lot of stages ahead of us. »
Halpern: « The Prologue was very short, but it was fun. The sand was very soft, but it was just right for the start of the Dakar. We are now looking forward to tomorrow! »
Sanz: « We took a steady approach to the Prologue – maybe a little too steady. However, a lot is new to us, even the roadbook tablet. The rally really gets going tomorrow, which is when we’ll really see how we get on. »
Tomorrow’s stage takes the competitors on a loop, returning to the bivouac in Hail. A total of 514 kilometres is scheduled, 333 kilometres of which are against the clock.
Dakar Rally – Result SS1a
1. N. Al-Attiyah / M. Baumel – Toyota – 10m 56s
2. C. Sainz / L. Cruz – Audi – 11m 08s
3. B. Baragwanath / L. Cremer – Century – 11m 32s
4. H. Lategan / B. Cummings – Toyota – 11m 32s
5. S. Loeb / F. Lurquin – BRX – 11m 33s…
9. J. Przygonski / T. Gottschalk – MINI JCW Buggy – 11m 57s…
17. Y. Seaidan / A. Kuzmich – MINI JCW Rally – 12m 16s
18. S. Halpern / B. Graue – MINI JCW Buggy – 12m 17s…
28. D. Krotov / K. Zhiltsov – MINI JCW Buggy – 12m 50s…
36. V. Zala / P. Fiuza – MINI JCW Rally – 13m 09s…
41. L. Sanz / M. Gerini – MINI ALL4 Racing – 13m 36s