Just when it appeared Nasser Al-Attiyah had started his journey for his second Dakar Rally title in style in stage one, a penalty to the Qatari has dropped him from the top. The winner of the 2011 Dakar Rally was handed a two-minute penalty dropping him to seventh. His Mini teammate and Argentine Orlando Terranova gets the stage one victory with Robby Gordon finishing second, 42 seconds back. South African Giniel de Villiers was 50 seconds back in third with Pole Krzystof Holowczyc 54 seconds back in fourth. Another local Argentine, Emiliano Spataro finished stage one in a surprise fifth position, 56 seconds back of Terranove.
Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke finished sixth, a minute and 16 seconds back with Al-Attiyah a minute and 38 seconds behind his teammate. Carlos Sainz was the top Peugeot driver in eight, a minute and 44 seconds back. Erik Van Loon finished a minute and 58 seconds behind Terraova in ninth and Stéphane Peterhansel rounded out the top ten, two minutes and 13 seconds back.
Defending Dakar winner Nani Roma had a disastrous first stage and his title defense very well might be over. The Spaniard finished last, seven hours, 25 minutes and 45 seconds back after being towed to the finish by his assistance truck.
In the bike class, British KTM rider Sam Sunderland won stage one by five seconds over Honda rider Paulo Gonçalves. Defending Dakar winner Marc Coma finished in third, a minute and 12 seconds behind his fellow KTM rider Sunderland. Joan Barreda finished 29 seconds behind Coma in fourth position. Sherco TVS rider Alain Duclos rounded out the top five, two minutes and eight seconds back.
Other notable finishers from the bike class: Ruben Faria finished tenth, three minutes and two seconds behind Sunderland. Hélder Rodrigues finished twelfth, thirty seconds behind Faria. Olivier Pain came home in thirteenth, two seconds behind Rodrigues with Jordi Viladoms finishing fourteenth, 11 seconds behind Pain. Antonio Narino was the lone American to make the start in the bike class. Marino finished 153rd, 49 minutes and 30 seconds back of Sunderland.
Ignacio Casale started off his Dakar defense with a stage victory. The Chilean defeated Rafał Sonik by a minute and seven seconds with Sergio Lafuente making it a Yamaha 1-2-3, a minute and 23 seconds back. Uruguayan Mauro Almeida made it a Yamaha sweep of the top four as he finished two minutes and 41 seconds behind Casale. Mohammed Abu-Issa was the top non-Yamaha in fifth as his Honda came home three minutes and three seconds back.
Hans Stacey won in the truck class with Marcel Van Vilet making it a Dutch 1-2 after finishing 35 seconds back of Stacey's Iveco. Czechs Aleš Loprais and Martin Kolomy finished tied for third, each finishing 47 seconds back of Stacey. Martin Van Den Brink rounds out the top five, 58 seconds behind Stacey.
The top Kamaz was Ayrat Mardeev in sixth, a minute and 43 seconds back. Eduard Nikolaev finished four seconds behind Mardeev in seventh. Gérard de Rooy finished in ninth, a minute and 57 seconds back of Stacey with defending truck winner Andrey Karginov finishing 11th, three minutes and 16 seconds back.
Stage two will take the competitors from Villa Carlos Paz to San Juan.
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