Guillaume De Mevius struck hard on Saturday by winning his first stage of the Dakar, ahead of Carlos Sainz, three-time winner of the event.
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A first step and already twists and turns. As promised by the organizers, this 46th edition of the Dakar, with its unique route, is off to a flying start. During the first stage, a 414 km long special, linking Alula to Al Henakiyah, the Belgian Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota, Overdrive racing) created a sensation, Saturday January 6, by offering himself his first stage victory on the Dakar car. Despite a start delayed by an hour, due to an incident with a spectator near the starting line (the latter, injured, was transported to the nearest hospital), nothing seemed to be able to stop the youngster Belgian, 29 years old. He finished ahead of the Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Team Audi sport, +1’44”) and the South African Giniel De Villiers (Toyota Gazoo Racing, +9’18”), winner of the event in 2009.
Dakar 2024: The auto summary of stage 1
The start of the Dakar 2024 was given yesterday in Alula in western Saudi Arabia. The first stage (Al-‘Ula to Al Henakiyah) was 414km today. Discover the car summary of the day with a 5th French place for Romain Dumas and a 1st place for the Belgian Guillaume De Mevius. – ()
Guillaume De Mevius, rookie in the category, held his own in his duel against one of the most experienced in the discipline, Carlos Sainz, who aims to become the first winner of the rally-raid at the wheel of a hybrid vehicle. Because the three-time winner of the Dakar (2010, 2018 and 2020) made a great comeback between kilometers 225 and 281, even taking the lead in the race for nearly 40 kilometers.
Loeb and Al-Attiyah more than 20 minutes away, Peterhansel even further
Guillaume De Mevius took advantage of a bad day for the favorites, notably the two major players of the previous edition, Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive, Bahrain Raid Xtreme) and Nasser Al-Attiyah (Prodrive, Nasser Racing), to take control of the general classification. The nine-time WRC world champion paid for several navigation errors, and finished 22’47” behind the leader. Behind him, the defending champion, Nasser Al-Attiyah, concedes a delay of 24”47”, while the other Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel, fourteen times winner of the Dakar, is 32”15′ behind the Belgian.