The 2024 Dakar is finally underway and the Prologue stage, which consisted of a 27km timed run largely on the sand, saw Honda take the stage win by Tosha Schareina in the two-wheeler class and Mattias Ekstrom drove his Audi RS Q e-Tron to victory in the four-wheeler category.
Starting with the two-wheeler class, Schareina was followed by GasGas factory rider Daniel Sanders in second and Hero Rally Team rider Ross Branch, AKA the ‘Kalahari Ferrari’ take third. Defending champion Kevin Benavides finished the stage in ninth while teammate Toby Price finished one up, in eighth.
Top riders usually take the Prologue stages easy, especially in the motorcycle class as the winner leads the way the next day, and without tracks from motorcycles ahead, navigation can get tricky. However, being just the first stage, there are two more weeks of racing until the overall standings can completely change.
Moving on to the cars, defending Champion Nasser Al-Attiyah driving the Prodrive Hunter for the first time managed to finish twelfth. Following stage winner Ekstrom was Seth Quintero in his first outing in the T1+ class, followed by nine-time WRC champion Sebastien Loeb in his BRX Prodrive Hunter.
With stage one done and dusted, it’s on to more serious racing on stage two tomorrow, from Al-’Ula to Al Henakiyah, a 414km long stage. Stay tuned for all the updates from the 2024 Dakar Rally.
2024 Dakar Rally Stage 1 results
| Motorcycles | Rider | Team |
| 1 | Tosha Schareina | Honda |
| 2 | Daniel Sanders | GasGas |
| 3 | Ross Branch | Hero |
| Cars | Driver | Make |
| 1 | Mattias Ekstrom | Audi |
| 2 | Seth Quintero | Toyota |
| 3 | Sebastien Loeb | Prodrive |
