Eduard Nikolaev won the prologue of the Dakar Rally 2022

Participants of the Dakar Rally spent the first day of the new year on the long road from Jeddah to Ha’il, where hundreds of kilometers of liaison were cut by a short prologue.

KAMAZ-master team arrived at the 44th edition of the Dakar as the reigning winner of the truck category and one of the favorites in the race. It is no secret that every year many rivals want to be ahead of the Russians in the final report. 2022 will not be an exception. Martin Macik spoke about his ambitions to victory, Ignacio Casale and other drivers dream to be in the top five.

A special feature of the Dakar 2022, which for the first time received the stage status of the World Rally-Raid Championship, was the choice of starting positions for the first stage of the marathon. This right was given to the first 15 riders in each category: it will start in reverse order - from 15th place to the winner of the prologue. Thus, the starting list for tomorrow’s stage will become known only by the evening of January 1.

On Saturday the rally organizers, trying to make the already difficult race even more difficult, invited the participants to compete in a 19-kilometer prologue, which was designated as "stage 1A" in official documents. The high-speed special stage passed along dirt roads and small dunes and did not cause serious problems for experienced riders to  pass it. This was evidenced by density of the results - 11 truck crews out of 55, that received admission to the race, settled down in only 50 seconds.

The best time of the day was shown by the driver of KAMAZ-master team Eduard Nikolaev. The five-time Dakar winner returned to the rally marathon after missing the 2021 edition. The race in 2020, when the legendary Dakar passed through the territory of Saudi Arabia for the first time, ended in failure (truck breakdown) for his crew. Nikolaev, who went to the start of the Dakar 2022 on the truck of a new generaton, showed 13 minutes 1 second at the finish of the prologue.

Eduard Nikolaev, driver of crew No 505: “The prologue was excellent, thanks to the organizers for the opportunity to roll into the race. It was unusual on the very first day to drive on dunes and release the tire pressure to almost one. It was interesting: there were jumping, “flying”, the track, turning a little into stones, small dunes. In many turnings, checkpoints were made so that the participants could not cut the track. We drove well along the route, co-driver did an excellent job."

Second in the protocol was Dmitry Sotnikov. The current winner, like Nikolaev, drives KAMAZ-435091 of the K5 family. He was seven seconds behind his teammate. The third result was shown by Andrey Karginov, the fourth was Anton Shibalov. These crews from Naberezhnye Chelny compete on KAMAZ-43509, proven over the years and tens of thousands of combat kilometers.

Dmitry Sotnikov, driver of crew No 500: “It was a short stage, not too fast, with sandy paths and dunes here and there. We were careful, we just needed to finish. However, I experimented a bit with the truck, because we don't have such sands in Russia. There will be even longer and more difficult stages ahead in the next few days.”

Today's start is just a warming-up before the two-week challenge for endurance. And in order to be at the finish of the Dakar in Jeddah on January 14, the riders and their crews should show all their skills and count on the good mood of fortune.

In the meantime, the rally caravan must reach Ha’il, where the starting podium takes place. On Sunday, 333 combat kilometers of the first special stage await everyone.

Truck category. Results of the prologue. Top-10

Photo by DPPI