Dakar 2024 – Stage 1: Guillaume de Mevius takes the first victory, the favorites struggle

The Dakar is a ruthless race, and this first stage of the 2024 edition has once again proven it. Despite their track records and almost perfect knowledge of the desert, Sébastien Loeb, Nasser Al-Attiyah, and Stéphane Peterhansel suffered from multiple tire punctures and lost several minutes right from the first kilometers of the rally, between Alula and Al Henakiyah.

Respectively 18th, 21st, and 23rd, the Qatari and the two French finished more than twenty minutes behind the winner of the day, and even more than half an hour for the Audi driver, in a stage that included 541 kilometers, of which 414 were special stages. Forced to slow down after being victims of several punctures, the three men did not want to take any risks to reach the finish line.

The man of the day is named Guillaume de Mévius. The Belgian driver, behind the wheel of his Toyota Hilux prepared by Overdrive Racing and co-piloted by Frenchman Xavier Panseri, claimed his first stage victory in the Ultimate category, which includes various T1 categories. The 29-year-old driver succeeds his father, Grégoire, in the record books, who had won several stages during the 2002 Dakar edition.

The Toyota number 221 is ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Audi and another Toyota, the one driven by the winner of the 2009 edition, Giniel de Villiers. Therefore, it is the same trio that we find at the top of the overall standings at the end of this first stage.

Stage 1 Ranking

Overall ranking