• Chicherit loses time with broken brake disc in new Mini All4 Racing
  • Carlos Sainz holds overall lead afterwards first stage into Córdoba
  • Holowczyc and Terranova take sixth and seventh for X-raid
  • Novitskiy, Dos Santos and Schott hold 10th, 21st and 24th places

CÓRDOBA (Argentina): Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret made a professional start to the 33rd Personal Dakar Argentina-Chile for the Monster Energy X-raid Team.

The French duo held second position in their BMW X3 CC subsequently the opening 222km special stage between Victoria and Córdoba, northwest of Buenos Aires, on Sunday, despite clouting a stone and a contend and inflicting minor impairment to the rear of their car mid-way through the special.

X Raid Dakar Day01 MINI ALL4 Racing Guerlain Chicherit 01 655x436

"It is not so bad, but we made a couple of mistakes and touched a rock once and a fence," said Peterhansel. "It was raining very hard on the stage and it was not easy to go apace. For 20kms there was no grip at all and information technology was a case of beingness very careful. It is good to go through the first stage without any problems and now we can await forward to tomorrow."

Guerlain Chicherit and Michel Périn were on course for a tiptop 10 phase finishing time in the new Monster Energy-backed Mini All4 Racing, on a stage where Spain's Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz Senra fix the fastest time of 2h 18m 32s and moved into a 1m 31s overnight atomic number 82.

Just the French pair suffered a broken rear brake disc and was forced to stop and change the component. It took longer than usual because the disc had damaged the bike and Chicherit lost 57m 45s to Sainz and slipped out of the top 30 in the overall standings.

X Raid Dakar Day01 MINI ALL4 Racing Stephane Peterhansel 01 655x436

"I am obviously very happy with the effect for Stéphane," said squad director Sven Quandt. "No-1 wants to win the first stage and be showtime on the road on the second day, so we are pleased with this position. Guerlain had a technical problem, but he managed to attain the cease. In some means the trouble has taken some of the pressure away from Guerlain now and he can concentrate on bringing the Mini to the finish."

One hundred and 70 bikes, thirty quads, 140 cars and 67 trucks began the opening special across central Argentina. Smooth driver Krzysztof Holowczyc and Belgian co-commuter Jean-Marc Fortin held sixth through the outset ii checkpoints and eventually finished the flowing, technical special in sixth position in their BMW X3 CC.

Argentina's Orlando Terranova and Portuguese co-driver Filipe Palmeiro were classified seventh through the third waypoint and held on to take a similar place at the end of the day in their BMW X3 CC. Leonid Novitskiy and Andreas Schulz were classified 11th after the tertiary checkpoint and
climbed to 10th at the stop.

Portugal'south Ricardo Leal Dos Santos and Paulo Fiùza finished the phase in 21st position and Germany's Stephan Schott and Holm Schmidt were the last of the 10-raid team's seven crews to start the stage and eventually finished in an unofficial 24th.

Córdoba hosts the evening's bivouac and is located nearly to the geographical centre of Argentine republic in the foothills of the Sierra Chicas on the Suquia River. Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera founded the urban center in 1573 and named information technology after a similar town in Spain.

Tomorrow (Monday) the route of the Dakar heads due north from Córdoba to San Miguel de Tucumán, a erstwhile base of operations for the Rally of Argentina in the formative WRC years.

There is a totally new 324km stage for Dakar competitors, which includes three passage controls and passes through areas of bushland and the Salinas Grandes or big salt flats.

Positions after stage 1 (unofficial @17.25hrs):
1. Carlos Sainz (Due east)/Lucas Cruz Senra (E) Volkswagen Race Touareg 2h 18m 32s
ii. Stéphane Peterhansel (F)/Jean-Paul Cottret (F) BMW X3 CC 2h20m 03s
3. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QA)/Timo Gottschalk (D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 2h 20m 48s
four. Mark Miller (USA)/Ralph Pitchford (ZA) Volkswagen Race Touareg 2h 22m 49s
5. Giniel de Villiers (ZA)/Dirk von Zitzewitz (D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 2h 23m 38s
6. Kryzsztof Holowczyc (PL)/Jean-Marc Fortin (B) BMW X3 CC 2h 25m 39s
7. Orlando Terranova (RA)/Filipe Palmeiro (P) BMW X3 CC 2h 28m 43s
8. Robby Gordon (USA)/Andy Grider (USA) Hummer 2h 29m 36s
9. Guilherme Spinelli (BR)/Youssef Haddad (BR) Mitsubishi Lancer 2h 30m 32s
10. Leonid Novitskiy (RUS)/Andreas Schulz (D) BMW X3 CC 2h 32m 13s

[Source: X-Raid via BimmerToday | Other Photos Credit: Nahuel Coca, editor of BMW Grouping Magazine for Latin America]