2024-01-08 05:52:00
At the start of Dakar, one name is on everyone’s lips: Guillaume de Mévius. We knew that Brabançon was going to be closely followed during the 2024 edition. But it exceeded the expectations of the most optimistic from the first stage. By showing himself to be the fastest, Grégoire’s son forced several historians to dust off the statistical books of the most famous rally-raid.
The last time a Belgian scored a scratch on a special stage of the event created by Thierry Sabine was in Sharm El Sheikh in 2003, when the caravan arrived in Egypt. Stéphane Henrard had everyone in agreement on his Volkswagen. As for seeing a Belgian leader in the car rankings, we have to go back to his father Grégoire de Mévius who achieved this performance in 2002.
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Overall it’s going well, the car is great, easy to handle.
The performance of the 29-year-old driver has created its small effect among national followers who are desperately looking for a successor to Jacky Ickx, the only Belgian winner on four wheels. It was 1983. A lifetime ago. “A great introduction,” comments Guillaume. To be honest I’m quite surprised, we rode intelligently, we didn’t have a puncture and I think that was the key today. But I’m quite surprised to be ranked so well. Overall it’s going well, the car is great, easy to handle, it’s my second race behind the wheel so I’m starting to get some miles with it. And with my co-driver Xavier Panseri, things are going very well, it’s very calm in the car, very zen”.
Stage 2 was unfortunately not the same for Guillaume who was weighed down by navigation errors and punctures. If he falls from 1st to 5th place in the general classification, he knows that many things can still happen in Saudi Arabia. “We started well, the first 200 kilometers went well,” he adds. “After 215km we made a small mistake, Carlos Sainz overtook us, we got dusty and then we got lost several times before puncturing. But we are here. Of course opening was difficult”.
The important thing for Grégoire’s youngest son is now not to make mistakes and let the favorites kill each other. The finish is still far away.
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