It’s the sun-soaked winter getaway that takes no prisoners: the Dakar Rally.
Motor sport’s most gruelling event has now got underway, and has immediately made its presence felt on an entry list which is already battered and bruised.
Some competitors simply will not be deterred though. Early last year, four-time Dakar-winning co-driver Mathieu Baumel had to have his right leg amputated after being involved in a serious road accident. The Frenchman had got out of his car to help stranded motorists on their way to the Monte Carlo Rally, before being hit by another vehicle himself.
Gallery
Dakar 2026: All the best shots so far
Dakar hero Baumel focuses on the start line
X-Raid
X-Raid
Dacia
Dakar/ASO
Toyota
Dakar/ASO
Dakar/ASO
Dakar/ASO
Dakar/ASO
11 months on and now Baumel is back in the winners’ circle. Navigating for Guillaume de Mevis and the X-Raid Mini team, the pair claimed a sensational Stage 1 victory, snatching the lead late on after Mattias Ekstrom had been ahead most of the way for Ford.
“What an achievement to win a stage, especially the very first one of the rally,” said Baumel after finishing third in the Prologue.
“The first victory was simply being at the start at all. Now it’s even better: stage win and rally lead.
Job done for Baumel and co – but there’s still a huge amount of action to come
X-raid
“We need to focus even more now, as we will be opening the road tomorrow — but from this point on, everything is a bonus.”
Baumel has been competing with a custom-made prosthetic which allows him to work on his knees easily if changing a puncture in the sand, with a longer one stored in the car too if needed. He also has a special seat and racing suit adapted to the needs caused by his injury.
Elsewhere though, others are feeling the heat already. Onboard footage of Daniel Schröder going into an expletive-laden meltdown after rolling his Volkswagen on the pre-event Prologue stage went instantly viral, his outpouring almost as spectacular as the crash itself.
“To start and end the rally like this is heartbreaking,” he said after calming down, slightly.
“I’ll hopefully, eventually, come to the point where I don’t blame myself so much.”
Meanwhile Chile’s Hernan Garces managed one of those nightmarishly comedic moments only Dakar seems to bring when he and co-driver Juan Pablo Latrach beached their Toyota Hilux on a rock. It took 40 minutes to get the Hilux off its new favourite perch.
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By
James Elson
The motorcyclists have been going through the mill already too. Suffering from a serious flu he’d caught 48 hours previously, Neels Theric was hit by repeated electrical issues which he had to fix himself in the glare of the desert sun. The Frenchman eventually had to push his bike over the line, meaning he finished 2hr down on prologue bike winner Edgar Canet.
“The heat and the sand took their toll on me,” the Kove rider said. “My bout of flu only made it worse, but I really wanted to finish the prologue. It’s the Dakar, you can’t just give up!”
Toyota’s Seth Quintero claimed Stage 2 in the ‘Ultimate’ cars category, but now Dakar legend Nasser Al-Attiyah has taken the overall lead of the event for Dacia. Quintero is second with de Mevius in third.
Scroll through for the best images from Dakar so far.
