That opening a stage takes time is widely known. But the fact that today’s entire top five did not include a driver who started as one of the first 15 drivers is pretty special. Seth Quintero (started 26th) won the first stage in the Toyota Hilux. Guerlain Chicherit (started 30th) was second in the MINI JCW and Saood Variawa (started 16th) was third in the Toyota.
Martin Prokop was fourth in the Ford Raptor and fifth place was for Cristina Guttierez in the Dacia Sandrider. The winner of the prologue, Henk Lategan, finished 10th. At first glance, it looked like the favorites took a stab at the first stage, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Towards the end of the stage, however, they took some gas to avoid opening in the 48-hour stage scheduled for tomorrow. Thus, Al Rajhi finished 20th, Al-Attiyah 21st and Loeb 22nd. The only one of the top favorites who got a little carried away: Sainz. The reigning champion finished 7th, which is the best choice, we will know on Monday.
The fastest Dutchmen were again Tim and Tom Coronel with the 35th time. Ronald van Loon was 41st, improving his starting position considerably. Maik Willems was 49th, Rik van den Brink 50th and Dave Klaassen 51st, a nice group of Dutchmen together. Stefan Carmans finished 56th.
Challengers
Among the Challengers, the fastest time went to Nicolás Cavigliasso in the Taurus. He beat Guerreiro and Al-Kuwari, both in a Taurus. Paul Spierings seemed to be on his way to a time in the top 5 for a long time, but in the end did not get beyond the tenth time.
Puck Klaassen recorded the 15th time in her OT3. Lex Peters was 25th. Marinus Streppel recorded the 30th time, Richard Aczel came in 32nd and Gert-Jan van der Valk came in 33rd.
SSV’s
Xavier de Soultrait showed who the reigning champion is and took victory by a wide margin. He did so ahead of Lopez Contardo and Heger, the winner of the prologue.
Sander Derikx was 19th, making him the fastest Dutchman in the SSV. Richard Grouwels finished 24th.
Photos: Red Bull Content Pool