Al-Attiyah wins the opening stage of 2017 Dakar Rally

The 2017 Dakar Rally started on Monday and the winner of the 39 km long opening stage between Asuncion and Resistencia is the Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah. He won the opening stage driving the #301 Toyota Hilux Evo. Al-Attiyah set the time of 25 minutes and 41 seconds what was 24 seconds better than the time set by the Spanish driver Xavier Pons in Ford. The third was another Toyota driver Nani Roma from Spain, who finished the stage 29 seconds behind Al-Attiyah.

Carlos Sainz at 4th place was the best of Peugeot drivers in stage 1

The Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel (Peugeot), who won the 2016 Dakar Rally, finished 12th in the opening stage, 1.34 minutes behind the winner. Peterhansel was the slowest of four Peugeot Sport drivers – Carlos Sainz finished fourth, Sebastien Loeb was sixth and Cyril Despres was eighth. The best of Mini drivers was Yazeed Al Rajhi in the seventh place.

The Dutch twin brothers Tim and Tom Coronel are leading drivers in the UTV class after the first stage. Other stage winners are Juan Pedrero Garcia (moto), Marcelo Medeiros (quads) and Martin Kolomy (trucks).