Ayrat Mardeev won the first stage of the rally Dakar–2014.

January 5, San Luis. It seems that the organizers of the rally from the first stage intend to prove that their promise "Dakar 2014: longer, higher and tougher" is not a joke. Liaison of 809 kilometers led the participants from Rosario to the heart of the South American continent, in San Luis, a town with 110 thousand population, located in the foothills of the Andes at an altitude of 762 meters above sea level. The bivouac of the rally is set on a race track in the picturesque village of Potrero de los Funes, known by the fact that some stages of FIA GT were held there. The circuit was created by modifying the ring road that encircles Lake Potrero de los Funes, at the course's center. And the lake is in the crater of the extinct volcano! But the struggle at the Dakar-2014 began to look like active volcano.

The competitors woke up early to set off along the road in the region of Cordoba and started the race on some narrow tracks which require the utmost vigilance. Early awakening (the start of the first moto on liason at 04:20 am, first car at 06:22 am, first truck at 08:50 am) after yesterday's official podium ceremony, long liaison and an unbearable heat complicated task of the crews.

It's no secret that among those who want to test themselves on the extreme race there is quite a large percentage of those who don’t adequately qualify their performance. We can meet such participants in all categories, and they usually leave the rally after some first stages. But for the moment slow participants in terms of dust and narrow roads are a serious obstacle when overtaking. It won’t be a big problem while mixed start of cars and trucks is organized. But as it was said during the briefing in Rosario, there is no mixed start on the following stages: 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8.

Czech Aleš Loprais and his bonnet Tatra took the lead at CP1 (km 28.7) ahead of Dutchman Pieter Versluis and his Man. There was a gap of 1'08" between the two men. Later on the 115 km into today's special, Pieter Versluis stopped for roughly 12 minutes on the side of the course to change a tyre. On 128 km into the special stage another experienced pilot Czech Martin Kolomý loses 10 minutes.

"I'm a bit disappointed about losing to Mardeev by just 10 seconds, to be honest... But the special was trickier than I thought and we made a couple of mistakes which ended up costing us the win. However, it's always a satisfaction to finish on the podium of a Dakar special. This one's for my kid, who was born just a few days ago, and for his mom." - Ales Loprais said after the finish.

Gerard De Rooy agrees that the special was quite difficult: "It was a really tricky stage, very much like those in WRC, which isn't my favourite terrain. We caught up with the leading Kamaz, which wasn't going very fast either. We stayed behind it for about 30 km but, as soon as it became possible, I used the Sentinel device and he quickly pulled to the right to let me through."

The results of the day are successful for crews of the KAMAZ-master Team. Ayrat Mardeev was the fastest and showed the best time. Eduard Nikolaev finished fifth. Anton Shibalov sits in seventh place; it can be considered as a breakthrough of young pilot. Dmitry Sotnikov drove well enough for 18th result. "We stopped to change a tyre, and it is only the beginning of the race, everything will be ok", Andrey Karginov explains why he was 17" slower than today's winner.

Team leader Vladimir Chagin pleased with the results of the day and considers them the best gift for his birthday. Foat Bigashev is also the birthday person today. After all congratulations everyone set to work at the bivouac: pilots and navigators began to study road-books, mechanics went to work on race trucks. Dakar has just begun and let’s wait for its major events.