YANBU: Frenchman Mathieu Baumel hailed an “enormous triumph” as just a year after having his leg amputated he won the opening stage of the Dakar Rally alongside Belgian driver Guillaume De Mevius on Sunday.
Navigator Baumel was back at the race just 11 months after his right lower leg was amputated after being run over while helping someone who had broken down on the road in France.
Last January, it had looked as if life behind the wheel was in the past for the successful co-driver and navigator.
“Just being here is an enormous triumph,” said the 49-year-old, who got into his car on Sunday carrying his prosthetic limb.
Driving a mini, the pair won the perilous 305km first stage at Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.
Baumel had previously won the Dakar Rally four times as co-pilot to Nasser Al-Attiyah, most recently back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023.
On Sunday, Qatari Al-Attiyah in a Dacia was 40 second down in second with Czech Martin Prokop of Ford third at 1min 30sec.
De Mevius, sitting top of the heap at the finish line, admitted he was surprised.
“It wasn’t particularly the objective to win today, but we said to ourselves with Mathieu (Baumel) that we wanted to at least win one on the Dakar stages,” he said after a stoney and dusty ride.
Al-Attiyah had mixed feelings saying he “could have lost it all” on the challenging route and lamented that he had been ahead of the day’s winner for most of the stage.
French driver Sebastien Loeb came 10th in his Dacia losing three minutes with a puncture after also leading the field.
Reigning Dakar champion Yazeed Al-Rajhi of Saudi Arabia was hit with a 16-minute penalty due to a missed crossing point.
In the motorcycle category, Spain’s Edgar Canet, already winner of the prologue, benefited after Botswana’s Ross Branch received a six-minute penalty for speeding in a restricted zone. Canet leads Australia’s Daniel Sanders by just over a minute.
On Monday, the competitors will tackle a first big day of racing, heading toward AlUla after more than 500km, 400 of which are individually timed.
