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Ford’s Dakar Rally team, partnered with M-Sport, got off to a great start in Saturday’s opening prologue to the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. Mattias Ekstrom (pictured above) and America’s Mitch Guthrie finished 1-2 in their Ford Raptor T1+ trucks on the 22 km (13.7-mile) loop to the north of Yanbu. Guillaume de Mevius matched Guthrie’s time, eight seconds behind the Swedish pace-setter, to place his X-Raid Mini third.
Nasser Al Attiyah was the quickest among the former winners of the event, placing fourth in his Dacia, ahead of America’s Seth Quintero in his factory Toyota W2RC. Defending champion Yazeed Al Rajhi, was 14 seconds down in sixth with his Overdrive Toyota, while veterans Carlos Sainz Sr. and Nani Roma struggled to 15th and 18th respectively.
“I like the car a lot. I think M-Sport and Ford have made a good evolution [from] last year,” said Ekstrom. “Already, for the first shot, I think the car was good but now I feel for my liking of driving this is very good car, it is very agile and the suspension is also great, so I don’t have any excuses!”
Henk Lategan, who won last year’s prologue and went on to finish second overall, suffered a puncture on his works Toyota just 2 km into the special. This will have no impact on his total time; in fact, it could even benefit the South African, as it means he will not be taking part in the start order selection for Sunday’s officlal opening stage and will therefore begin the next special behind some of his rivals.