Villa Carlos Paz, Argentina - Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah was stripped of victory on the opening stage of the Dakar Rally on Sunday for exceeding the speed limit while defending champion Nani Roma saw his hopes shattered.
Mini driver Al-Attiyah, the 2011 champion, had finished first on the 170km timed stage between Buenos Aires and Villa Carlos Paz, clocking 1 hour 12 minutes.
That was 22 seconds faster than Argentina's Orlando Terranova, also in a Mini, and 1m04s ahead of American Robby Gordon in a Hummer.
But seven hours later, Al-Attiyah was punished for travelling at 68km/h in a section of the stage where the limit was 50km/h.
He was penalised two minutes and relegated to seventh place on the stage with Terranova declared the winner ahead of Gordon and South Africa's Giniel de Villiers in a Toyota.
“We had a fairly good, clean run today,” said Giniel de Villiers after arriving at the first bivouac of the 2015 race. “The Hilux ran absolutely perfectly, and we didn't take any risks so early on.”
De Villiers' works Toyota team-mate Leeroy Poulter set off at a blistering pace, moving up from 27th at the start to second at the first checkpoint. However, he quickly caught up with one of the slower competitors nd got stuck in their dust for more than 140km. As a result he recorded only the 14th fastest time.
”It was very frustrating today," said Poulter at a road-side check after the stage. "We were so much faster than the guy ahead of us, but there was nowhere to go past him. So we just had to sit there in the dust.”
Another South Afrcan, Nissan driver Johan van Staden, came in 71st, 28m33s off the pace.
Veteran Peugeot drivers Carlos Sainz and Stephane Peterhansel placed eighth and 10th respectively at 2m06s and 2m35s.
It was also a miserable first day for Roma as the Spaniard's Mini broke down after just 10km and he eventually ended the day being towed home in 135th place and six and a half hours off the lead.
Peterhansel, an 11-time champion, admitted that he did not drive flat out with a marathon stint to follow over the next two weeks.
“It was a bit stressful to tackle the first special when you don't know how strong you are,” said the Frenchman.
“We eased into the race, without taking too many risks, gently, keeping a watchful eye on all the dials... We're trying to learn about the car. We had no clue how far we could go.”
MOTORCYCLES
In the motorbike section, Britain's Sam Sunderland on a KTM was fastest in 1hr 18min 57secs, five seconds faster than Paulo Goncalves of Portugal on a Honda and 1min 12secs ahead of last year's winner Marc Coma on a KTM.
"It's difficult to judge your strategy based on the first day because you still don't know who's pulled out all the stops," said Sunderland.
"It's also important not to go all in, you've got to leave something for the other stages.
"However, I think I had a good special and that's always a reason to be happy. The bike didn't miss a beat."
The top South African rider on Day 1 was experienced KTM rider Riaan van Niekerk, now on his third Dakar after finishing 13th in 2013 and 12th in 2014.
He worked his way up to 12th overall before a 90 degree bend in the road sent him through a barbed-wire fence and into a hole, where spectators had to pull his bike out. He emerged relatively unscathed, with some bruises, but got back on track to finish the day 22nd, 5m54s behind the leader.
“Riding fast and navigating is really hard,” he said. “I can ride as fast as Marc Coma and follow him, but I’m not focused on my road-book.
“On the Dakar, you can only go as fast as you can read and navigate.”
Fellow KTM stalwart Albert Hintenaus finished the stage 64th, 19m14s off the pace, while Dakar rookie Wessel Bosman, also KTM mounted, came in 158th - and third last – more than an hour behind Sunderland, after a baptism of fire on the world’s toughest motorsport contest.
This year's rally features a gruelling 9,000 kilometres trek through Argentina, Chile and Bolivia before arriving back in Buenos Aires for a January 17 finish.
Former winners Sainz and Peterhansel were spearheading the Peugeot campaign as the French carmakers returned to the Dakar Rally for the first time in 25 years.
Their ultimate goal was to win but at the very least they were expected to prevent the Minis from completing another clean sweep of the auto podium.
Peterhansel took second place last year for Mini behind then team-mate Roma.
Peugeot won the Dakar for four successive years from 1987-1990 when it was still staged in Africa.
This year's race, the seventh in South America since its enforced transfer for security reasons from Africa, is the 37th in the series.
The 2014 race will take the Dakar caravan from the Atacama, the driest spot on the planet, to the Iquique dunes and across the Andes at the highest point on Argentina's Route 40, the 4970m mountain pass of Abra del Acay.
In all, there will be 4600km of special stages including a 781km time trial from the Bolivian city of Uyuni to Chile's Pacific Coast.
Next up will be the longest special stage of Dakar 2015, which will see crews tackle 518km of varied terrain after a short liaison of 26km. Stage 2 starts just outside the town of Villa Carlos Paz, and features hard packed dirt and rock tracks at the start, with long dusty sections in the middle. The monster stage ends with a long sandy stretch, leaving the crews with just an 81km liaison to the next bivouac at San Juan.
AFP