Rallying - Dakar Rally - Stage 1 - Bisha to Bisha - Saudi Arabia - January 4, 2025 X-raid Mini JCW Team's Guerlain Chicherit and Alexandre Winocq in action during stage 1 as a helicopter is seen REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
(Reuters) -American Seth Quintero led the two-week Dakar Rally on Saturday as race favourites in the car category slowed to secure better conditions for Sunday's 48-hour Chrono stage in the Saudi Arabian desert.
French Mini driver Guerlain Chicherit was fastest in the 413-km first stage around the southwestern town of Bisha but Toyota's Quintero, who finished 50 seconds behind, was promoted hours later.
Quintero was credited with 95 seconds to make up for time lost when he stopped to assist Spaniard Laia Sanz, who had crashed.
Defending champion Carlos Sainz went against the flow by moving up to seventh but five-times winner Nasser Al-Attiyah dropped to 20th, nine-times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb was 24th and local contender Yazeed Al-Rajhi ended the day 21st.
Setting off first through the sea of dunes and over rough and rocky desert tracks is a disadvantage for a driver compared to those who follow.
"The goal was not to do the best time, so we decided to stop for a few minutes at the end to lose a bit of time and not to be first on the road tomorrow," said Frenchman Loeb. "Everyone played the same game."
Fellow Dacia driver Al-Attiyah agreed tactics had played a big part in the day's classification and said he had taken the stage easy, stopping for 15 minutes after a puncture to secure a more favourable position for Sunday.
"Maybe we lose a lot of time... but it's very important for tomorrow. If I start 50th, that would be nice," said the Qatari.
"Last year, we took a risk but we learned. We don't need to learn this year, we need to be smart, and I'm really quite happy to manage today without any problems."
BUCKING TREND
Chicherit also stopped when a small fire broke out around the exhaust but he decided to adopt a different strategy to rivals.
"I predicted that all the top guns would follow the same strategy, so I asked myself, 'Should I stay with the herd in a low-risk, low-reward approach, or should I do the exact opposite?'," he explained.
"Winning tomorrow is virtually impossible. I need to limit the damage to 15 minutes or less. If I can pull it off, I'll still be within five minutes of the rest."
In the motorcycle category, prologue winner Daniel Sanders made it two out of two and the Australian is now more than two minutes clear of defending champion Ricky Brabec of the United States.
Hero rider Sebastian Buehler's rally ended after the German crashed and injured his shoulder.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Clare Fallon)
