2017 Dakar Rally Day One Results
Kit Palmer | January 3, 2017
2017 Dakar Rally Day One Results: The 2017 version of the Dakar Rally is up and running and Joan Pedrero (Sherco TVS Factory Rally Team) won the first stage between Asunction and Resistancia, in Paraguay. Spain’s Pedrero was the beneficiary of a one-minute penalty to Yamaha’s Xavier de Soultrait, who had the best scratch time overall before the penalty, which was slapped on him for going too fast through a speed-controlled section. As a result, he dropped from first to 10th.
2017 Dakar Rally Day One Results
Joan Pedrero leads the opening day of the Dakar Rally.
American Ricky Brabec, of the Monster Energy Honda Team, got off to a good start in the heat and humidity of Paraguay, at one point holding the outright lead, but he would finish out the day second, 12 seconds behind official leader Pedrero.
“The liaison section was pretty tough,” Brabec said of the day. “It was 354 kilometres and the special was only 39 km! I think that today was a bit of a shake-down for the riders, the machines and the crew. The racing hasn’t really begun yet. Tomorrow I think will be different. The humidity and the heat here are insane. You walk outside for 30 seconds and you think that you are melting. It’s taking its toll on the body and, for sure, on the machine too, as you are really pushing it. The heat is a really big factor. It will all come down to saving yourself and saving the machine, to get through the extreme heat and high elevation.”
It was a very hot and humid start to the Dakar, but American Ricky Brabec toughed it out and is currently second after the first day.
Brabec’s teammate Paulo Goncalves is third, 14 seconds behind Brabec.
“Today we had a short special stage but with a long day,” Goncalves said. “We were at temperatures over 110(F) degrees with only 40 kilometres of timed special but 500 in total. Now we’ve got a good look at how the Dakar is going to be. The important thing is that the sensations are good and we have started very well. This is an advance of what lies ahead. We have to keep pushing because we still have the whole race ahead of us.
Last year’s winner, Australian Toby Price, was 17th at the end of the day.
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