Unloading from the ferry and border formalities passed quickly, the organizers have worked very effectively. Start of the stage took place exactly at the appointed time. The first high-speed section was announced by the organizers, as typical for Morocco, with a rocky surface and a lot of navigation tasks.
The day seemed perfect for the crews - sunny, cool, moist soil, relieving of dust and keeping traces of leaders. But in fact, competitors could not call this SS as an easy one.
Already on the road to the start it was visible, how seriously rains passed here: wide, deep gullies in the most unexpected places which strongly changed a natural relief and turned banal deepenings into dangerous obstacles.
Almaz Khisamiev, mechanic of the crew 401: "SS was not as fast as expected, many obstacles, ruts, ditches. Navigation was difficult because it was necessary to choose from a variety of the implicit directions which were registered, but were difficult to distinguish. We had no breakdowns, however already on a bivouac we found out a serious cut of a back left wheel, now we are changing a wheel, we carry out planned works. Generally, for the first day everything is quite good".
Anatoly Tanin, mechanic of the crew 404: "SS was very various and interesting, we went in such crew for the first time. It was hazardous and fascinating".
Sergey Kupriyanov, pilot of the crew 404: "Very various stage –rocky roads, and courses, high-speed sections. Navigation was difficult, and concerning piloting as we didn't seek to keep highest pace, it was easier. We passed the stage keeping a stock of reliability and speed. The main difficulty was to get used to the manner of presentation by the author of road-book. It was necessary to get used to understand what he saw when wrote this work".
Anton Shibalov, pilot of the crew 401: "All places are familiar; we passed the liaison more than once. First SS is good, rather short, various. Short high-speed sections. Short length played against us, we didn’t manage to win back the time wasted on orientation. We lost about fifteen minutes, but anyway it was not boring. The route allows to overtake rather safely. By the way, competitors give way very orderly, you only give a signal. In the morning on border we met Tomas Tomecek, he friendly wished us good luck".
At the evening briefing René Metge confirmed that it was the stage, very difficult on navigation. Even the most difficult. He promised that there will not be such a stage anymore, at least on the race of 2015.
