Marc Coma placed his KTM 690 Rallye bike into the early lead in the
first running of the Dakar cross-country rally held in South America.
The Spaniard was not the only rider in the Bike category to lead in
the first of the 14 special stages to be contested in the 2009 event;
however, at the end of the 371 km stage, he earns the victory and holds
the lead in the standings.
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KTM: Marc Coma. Photo by Edmunds J. KTM Images.
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2007 Dakar winner Cyril Despres was first to take to the new route
on the fast narrow track followed two minutes later by Coma. The two
KTM riders are the favorites for this year's crown, having taken the
Legend title over the last three editions held on the African Continent.
Despres landed the championship in 2005 and Coma in 2006.
Coma was the leader at the first check point and stretched the gap to
51 seconds by check point two. The Frenchman was still in the chase at
CP3 but before the special ended, Despres found himself in trouble when
he had to limp his KTM to the finish on the rim due to a flat tire. The
loss of 40 minutes to Coma is early in the game and with 15 days before
the competitors return to Buenos Aires for the finish, the time can be
made up, depending on Coma's performance.
"The problem with this special was the distance. I paced myself
cautiously, waiting for the moment, on an unusual stage," said Coma. "On
this route, there was little work to do with the bike, so I tried to
ride my race to avoid problems. What has happened to the others could
also happen to me. I saw that Despres had problems with his back wheel
after filling up at CP2. After that, I tried to open up the gap."
Jacek Czachor was second on his KTM, 22 minutes shy of Coma. Also on a
KTM was Miran Stanovnik in third, just three minutes off the pace of
Czachor. The top non-KTM was Frenchman Fretigne on a Yamaha WRF 450 in
sixth, 28 minutes off the early pace.
BMW's Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah with co-pilot Tina Thorner took the Car
category leading edge with three Volkswagen Touaregs close behind.
It was a surprise finish, especially with the dominant Mitsubishi's
not classified in the top four; yet alone the stage victory. The 2007
champion team of Stephane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret was the
first car off the line.
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#302 BMW X3 CC: Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and Tina Thorner. Photo by X-raid.
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Forty-eight kilometers later, Carlos Sainz and Michel Perin in their
Touareg were the leaders with Al-Attiyah holding a two second edge. The
Mitsu of Peterhansel was over one minute off the pace. By CP1, the BMW
was leading with VW's Mark Miller and Ralph Pitchford were 11 seconds
behind Al-Attiyah.
"After 110 km, already I was catching up with the bikes. It was
difficult to overtake and rely solely on the Sentinel system, because of
the dust. All I saw was dust for 250 kilometers. There was so much that
I didn't even see the Pampa," explained Sainz.
Having notched the first Car victory at the new venue, Al-Attiyah was
all smiles but he can not rest too easily with only two second gap to
Sainz as the challenge will get more difficult as time goes on. Giniel
de Villiers was not that far back in one of the other Touareg's with his
navigator Dirk Von Zitzewitz.
Miller ended his efforts today in fourth, over four minutes behind
the stage winner. The highest finishing Mitsubishi was the duo of
Luc Alphand and Gilles Picard in fifth, nearly five minutes adrift.
Peterhansel follows his teammate in sixth.
Two Ginaf's take the advantage in Heavy Trucks. Marcel Van Vliet was
only 0.02 seconds ahead of Gerard De Rooy. It was the trio's first
Dakar victory. Van Vliet is co-piloted by Herman Vaaholt and Gerard Van
Veenen. Just two-tenths of a second behind the Dutch teams was Russian
Ilgizar Mardeev in a Kamaz.
"It was a really stressful stage, because there was lots of dust and
overtaking was difficult. I would have preferred to start with a shorter
stage," said De Rooy.
The first day has now ended in Santa Rosa. Sunday, they will see a
shorter special, only 237 km, as they trek from Santa Rosa to Puerto
Madryn. One of the tricks is that they will not have a connection prior
to the actual timed stage. The first part will be fast before they hit
the sandy track where navigation will be crucial. If they make any
errors, it will cost them and they could go round and round in a circle
trying to find the way to the finish. The connection route is 600 km,
making the total ground covered the longest one in the rally in one day.
Stayed tuned to Motorsport.com for daily coverage of the Dakar rally.
