Carlos Sousa remains in 1st place (provisional) at the start of the 2014 Dakar.
To the delight of all the Portuguese and some Chinese, Carlos Sousa today won the first stage of the Dakar at the controls of the Great Wall Chinese machine, thus becoming the first leader of the 2014 edition of the largest off-road race in the world. The Portuguese pilot of the Chinese team thus shows that in a race where speed is not the essential point, even with less powerful "weapons" it is still possible to disturb the MINI X-RAID fleet.
That said, the main disappointment of the day was Stephane Peterhansel (Mini) who already has 4m21s to recover and who is the main driver of the MINI X-RAID fleet, which this year presents 11 cars starting for the 2014 Dakar. favorites to win, American Robby Gordon also started off on the wrong foot as he had mechanical problems at the start of the special.
Thus, today's provisional classification is as follows:
1. Carlos Sousa (Great Wall), 2:20:36
2. Orlando Terranova (Mini), +11s
3. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Mini), +47s
4. Nani Roma (Mini), +1m15s
5. Carlos Sainz (SMG), +4m03s
6. Stephane Peterhansel (Mini), +4m21s
7. Krzysztof Holowczyc (Mini), +4m21s
8. Christian Lavieille (Great Wall), +5m42s
9. Leeroy Poulter (Toyota), +5m57s
10. Erik Van Loon (Ford), +6m02s