Dakar Rally 2015 - 1st stage

Cars

At 10:32 a.m. the time has come: The winner of the 2014 Dakar Rally, Spaniard Nani Roma, starts the 2015 Dakar Rally as defending champion in the Cars category, three minutes ahead of the second Mini driver Nasser Al-Attiyah from Qatar, who immediately sets a best time on the first stage. However, defending champion Nani Roma is soon in trouble and has to leave his Mini with technical problems and wait for help. At the end of the day he passes the finish line as the last driver of the day with a delay of about 4 hours. Nasser Al-Attiyah, on the other hand, does almost everything right on this day. He crosses the finish line as the fastest driver with his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel. As the two were going too fast at a checkpoint, they receive a 2-minute penalty, much to their annoyance, and end up in 7th place on the stage, moved back.

Rank	No.	Driver	Vehicle
1	305	TERRANOVA (ARG), GRAY (ARG)	MINI
2	308	GORDON (USA), CAMPBELL (USA)	GORDINI
3	303	DE VILLIERS (ZAF), VON ZITZEWITZ (DEU)	TOYOTA
4	307	HOLOWCZYC (POL), PANSERI (FRA)	MINI
5	316	SPATARO (ARG), LOZADA (ARG)	RENAULT
6	315	TEN BRINKE (NLD), COLSOUL (BEL)	TOYOTA
7	301	AL-ATTIYAH (QAT), BAUMEL (FRA)	MINI
8	304	SAINZ (ESP), CRUZ (ESP)	PEUGEOT
9	314	VAN LOON (NLD), ROSEGAAR (NLD)	MINI
10	302	PETERHANSEL (FRA), COTTRET (FRA)	PEUGEOT

Bikes

In the motorcycle category, last year's winner and winner of the 2011, 2009 and 2006 rallies, Spaniard Marc Coma on KTM opened the 2015 Dakar Rally as a Red Bull KTM Factory Team rider, closely followed by his teammate Jordi Viladoms, who started with plenty of ambition as the runner-up in the 2014 Dakar Rally. Britain's Sam Sunderland, also from the Red Bull KTM Factory Team, is able to pull away and quickly establishes a 17-second lead over Marc Coma. On this day he is unbeatable and takes the victory of the first stage. He takes 1 minute and 12 seconds off third-placed Marc Coma to the finish. Only Portuguese rider Paulo Gonçalves on Honda is able to follow the Briton and takes second place, 5 seconds behind.
Dutch rider Humphrey Sennvanbasel crashed during today's stage and was delivered to the medical bivouac with a concussion.

Rank	No.	Driver	Vehicle	Travel time	Difference
1	006	SUNDERLAND (GBR)	KTM	001:18:57
2	007	GONÇALVES (PRT)	HONDA	001:19:02	00:00:05
3	001	COMA (ESP)	KTM	001:20:09	00:01:12
4	002	BARREDA BORT (ESP)	HONDA	001:20:38	00:01:41
5	014	DUCLOS (FRA)	SHERCO TVS	001:21:05	00:02:08
6	012	ISRAEL ESQUERRE (CHL)	HONDA	001:21:13	00:02:16
7	009	CASTEU (FRA)	KTM	001:21:33	00:02:36
8	027	WALKNER (AUT)	KTM	001:21:39	00:02:42
9	031	QUINTANILLA (CHL)	KTM	001:21:55	00:02:58
10	011	FARIA (PRT)	KTM	001:21:59	00:03:02

Quads

Defending champion Ignacio Casale from Chile on Yamaha from the Tamarugal XC Rally Team opens the 2015 Dakar Rally in the quad category. Casale seems hell-bent on showing the rest of the quad field who's boss in the ring. By the end of the 1st stage, he takes 1 minute and 7 seconds off second-placed Radal Sonik from Poland.

Rank	No.	Driver	Vehicle	Travel time	Difference
1	250	CASALE (CHL)	YAMAHA	001:37:08
2	251	SONIK (POL)	YAMAHA	001:38:15	00:01:07
3	252	LAFUENTE (URY)	YAMAHA	001:38:31	00:01:23
4	273	ALMEIDA (URY)	YAMAHA	001:39:49	00:02:41
5	253	ABU-ISSA (QAT)	HONDA	001:40:11	00:03:03
6	261	GONZALEZ FERIOLI (ARG)	YAMAHA	001:40:57	00:03:49
7	256	SANABRIA GALEANO (PRY)	YAMAHA	001:42:32	00:05:24
8	255	HALPERN (ARG)	YAMAHA	001:42:48	00:05:40
9	262	KARYAKIN (RUS)	YAMAHA	001:43:52	00:06:44
10	254	GALLEGOS LOZIC (CHL)	HONDA	001:43:53	00:06:45

Trucks

The trucks are the last category to start the race. Disappointed by his 7th place last year, Dutchman Hans Stacey goes into this year's Dakar Rally with plenty of motivation and a new Iveco and delivers a neck-and-neck race with his compatriot Marcel Van Vilet on MAN, which he wins in the end with a 35-second lead.

Rank	No.	Driver	Vehicle	Travel time	Difference
1	504	STACEY (NLD), BRUYNKENS (BEL), DER KINDEREN (NLD)	IVECO	001:30:43
2	508	VAN VLIET (NLD), PRONK (NLD), KLEIN (DEU)	MAN	001:31:18	00:00:35
3	503	LOPRAIS (CZE), MARCO ALCAYNA (ESP), VAN DER VAET (BEL)	MAN	001:31:30	00:00:47
4	506	KOLOMY (CZE), KILIAN (CZE), KILIAN (CZE)	TATRA	001:31:30	00:00:47
5	513	VAN DEN BRINK (NLD), WILLEMSEN (BEL), MOUW (NLD)	RENAULT TRUCKS	001:31:41	00:00:58
6	507	MARDEEV (RUS), BELYAEV (RUS), SVISTUNOV (RUS)	KAMAZ	001:32:26	00:01:43
7	502	NIKOLAEV (RUS), YAKOVLEV (RUS), AKHMADEEV (RUS)	KAMAZ	001:32:30	00:01:47
8	511	VAN GINKEL (NLD), KUPPER (NLD), VAN DONKELAAR (NLD)	GINAF	001:32:39	00:01:56
9	501	DE ROOY (NLD), RODEWALD (POL), DAMEN (BEL)	IVECO	001:32:40	00:01:57
10	504	STACEY (NLD), BRUYNKENS (BEL), DER KINDEREN (NLD)	IVECO	001:30:43