Prologue winner Tosha Schareina had to retire from the motorcycles following an accident on Saturday. The Spanish Honda driver broke his wrist. His first aider Ross Branch from Botswana received time credit and is the overall leader with a lead of more than ten minutes. The best KTM factory rider is last year’s winner Kevin Benavides from Argentina, 16:14 minutes behind in eighth place.
The cars started the 414 kilometers between Al-Ula and Al Henakiyah around an hour late. According to the organizers, an incident occurred with a fan around 200 meters following the start line. He was treated by medical staff and taken to the nearest hospital – apparently following a collision with Frenchman Lionel Baud’s car.
The day’s victory and thus the lead surprisingly went to the Belgian Guillaume de Mevius in a Toyota, 1:44 minutes ahead of Carlos Sainz in the Audi. The favorites Sebastien Loeb (18th) and Nasser Al-Attiyah (21st) reported problems. Some of the very sharp volcanic rock required a lot of feeling. The Qatari Al-Attiyah, who is aiming for his sixth overall victory and third in a row, suffered two punctures in the early stages. On Sunday there will be 463 kilometers of classification from Al Henakiyah to Al Duwadimi.
