‘National Puzzle Day in Saudi Arabia’

Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco keeps damage limited

Stage information

Press release

HA’IL – The first real stage in the Dakar Rally has immediately caused significant differences in the classification of the trucks. In the test around Ha’il, many truckers had trouble not only with the heavy sand, but even more with looking for one of the waypoints.

Today was like ‘National Puzzle Day in Saudi Arabia’.

Janus van Kasteren managed to limit the damage and finished seventh at 22 minutes and 16 seconds. Martin van den Brink, Mitchel van den Brink and Vick Versteijnen finished around 50 minutes behind in batting order.They finished eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth respectively in today’s stage
“It was a very nice test. It was tough because of the sand, but we drove well. The truck was great. We only lost a lot of time looking for a waypoint after 120 kilometers,” said Janus van Kasteren immediately after his special stage.

The search for the mandatory checkpoint on the route cost Janus a lot of time. The driver from Veldhoven decided after consultation with navigator Marcel Snijders and mechanic Darek Rodewald to stop the search. “I think 80% of all riders missed the waypoint. We’ll have to wait and see if we get a penalty for that.”
In the Iveco Powerstar, Janus and the crew finally gave up a few minutes on numbers four (Shibalov), five (Karginov) and six (Macik). “The backlog of the winners is quite considerable. But otherwise we have to be satisfied with the small gap with the drivers in front of us”.

The men of Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco had to cover another 120 kilometers after the test to the bivouac in Ha’Il. “We had a lot of rain this morning but on the stage it was dry. We are happy that we were in the bivouac on time and tomorrow we will go full throttle again”, said a satisfied Janus van Kasteren.

The second Team De Rooy driver to report was Martin van den Brink. The man from Harskamp, the Netherlands looked back on the difficult first stage with mixed feelings. “It was a tough day. A nice special with a lot of sand. The biggest problem, however, was that I drove all day with severe abdominal cramps. That started last night and it bothered me all night. I hope it goes a little better tonight.”

Martin and his co-pilots also had trouble finding the waypoint. “We lost a lot of time there,” said Martin. “We finally found him. But if you’re smart, you’ll let it go and get a 15-minute penalty. Now we lost more time, but I think we should always try to find the waypoint.”

Video

Another episode of “Bivak Brabant Dakar” by Omroep Brabant

Photos

Stage results

Stage Rank	Number	Driver	Time	Gap to first
6	515	Vick Vertseijnen	1h48m05s	+5m24s
9	506	Martin van den Brink	1h50m00s	+7m19s (+2m00s penalty)
10	524	Mitchel van den Brink	1h51m30s	+8m49s
13	504	Janus van Kasteren	1h55m52s	+13m11s