The first hurdle is behind Tim and Tom Coronel. In the prologue, the brothers finished 49th, officially kicking off their tenth Dakar adventure. On the 22-kilometre course around Yanbu, they clocked in just over a minute and a half behind Mattias Ekström in their striking green Century CR7 T1+. « Easy peasy, » Tom says about the opening run. « We’re ready for the real stages, because 22 kilometres isn’t enough to get me warmed up. »
The days leading up to the prologue weren’t without their highlights. During the administrative checks, Tom found himself in a surprising debate with the FIA over his spray-painted HANS device. « Suddenly, ten people were fussing over it, » Tom laughs. « Even though I’ve been racing the Dakar with it for ten years. It’s just carbon, spray-painted like a helmet. »
Good balance in the car
The prologue itself went smoothly. The course took the brothers through varied terrain with stones, hills, and technical sections winding through the trees. « Fairly fast at the start, » Tom explains. « There were a few really nasty stretches between the rocks, with lots of stones. Not exactly a trial, but rough. And then a very fast section with some twists between the trees, some tricky bits in there. »
For Tim, it was all about enjoying the first metres in the desert. « Wow, that felt good. We’ve been looking forward to this for so long, and it’s always a bit nerve-wracking, but it felt really solid, » says Tim. « The car had a nice balance, the dampers have been adjusted, and that setting gives us more stability. Normally, we get a lot of hard hits in the car, but this time it was much smoother. »
The new damper setting is one of the improvements Team Coronel has made compared to last year. « Everything felt good, the car was rock solid, » Tom continues. « Navigation went well, Tim kept a steady pace. We know there’s more speed in us, but it’s good to start like this. We didn’t go flat out, but our speed was good enough. »
A green standout
The team’s new main partner, Emotive, has given the car a striking new colour this year: green and white instead of the familiar blue. Even at the start, the team received compliments. « We’re getting a lot of comments about the green car, » says Tom. « The big boss who stood with us on the podium said, ‘Wow, that’s really going to stand out.’ And he’s absolutely right. »
From rocks to sand
After the prologue, the team took to the starting podium, and preparations for the first real stage began immediately.
Tomorrow, a challenging opening stage awaits, again starting and finishing in Yanbu. A 305-kilometre stage with two completely different faces. The first part winds through rocky terrain with narrow passages, where driving hard is a challenge and punctures lurk around every corner. Halfway through the special stage, there’s a pit stop, after which the terrain becomes sandier with fast sections and small dunes.
« Let’s just get those three or four hundred kilometres done as quickly as possible, » Tim concludes with confidence.