2017 Dakar Rally - Stage 1: A Half-Hour in Paraguay

Short and sweet, that’s how the opening day of the 2017 Dakar Rally went down. The stage may have been 454km long, but the timed special was a paltry 39km. This means not much separates the top riders, with many treating the day as a shakedown before the long to come.

The weather was hot and humid, showing just one of the extremes that riders can expect from this year’s edition of The Dakar. Thankfully, the 39km special only took about half an hour for riders to complete, limiting their exertion.

With a bit of confusion from the ASO about who finished where, it seems that Stage 1 belongs to an unexpected name, with Joan Pedrero taking the top honors on his Sherco TVS Rally Factory bike, once the day’s times had been calculated.

The reason for that confusion comes down to Yamaha’s Xavier de Soultrait. Despite being the fastest during the timed special stage, the Frenchman will finish 10th for Stage 1, 58 seconds back, as he was a bit too fast through one of the speed-controlled sections, and suffered a one-minute penalty for his carelessness.

For the rest of the top riders, Toby Price finished 17th overall – a 1’23 behind – despite leading the charge out of the starting gates in Paraguay. Meanwhile, Honda’s Joan Barreda was thirty seconds back, 5th overall, with Husqvarna’s Pablo Quintanilla finishing 12th, a minute and one second back.

Top 15 from Stage 1 – Asunción to Resistencia

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Time
1	PEDRERO Joan	SPA	Sherco TVS Rally Factory	Sherco	00:28’22
2	BRABEC Ricky	USA	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	+00’12
3	GONCALVES Paulo	POR	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	+00’26
4	SUNDERLAND Sam	GBR	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	KTM	+00’28
5	BARREDA Joan	SPA	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	+00’30
6	WALKNER Matthias	AUT	KTM Factory Racing Team	KTM	+00’40
7	FARRES Gerard	SPA	Himoinsa Team	KTM	+00’46
8	METGE Michael	FRA	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	+00’46
9	CERVANTES Iván	SPA	Himoinsa Team	KTM	+00’54
10	DE SOULTRAIT Xavier	FRA	Yamaha Racing	Yamaha	+00’58
11	VAN BEVEREN Adrien	FRA	Yamaha Motor Europe	Yamaha	+01’00
12	QUINTANILLA Pablo	CHI	Husqvarna Factory Rally Team	Husqvarna	+01’01
13	BOTTURI Alessandro	ITA	Yamaha Motor Europe	Yamaha	+01’11
14	SVITKO Stefan	SLO	Slovnaft Team	KTM	+01’14
15	DUPLESSIS Martín	ARG	MED Racing Team	KTM	+01’19