Joan Font is now fully immersed in the toughest motorsport event on the planet. After a positive first outing in the prologue contested the previous day, he completed on Sunday—without major difficulty—the first full stage of the race, a day that offered no respite and tested the vehicles’ mechanics from virtually the first kilometre.
The route, a 517-kilometre loop starting and finishing in Yanbu—with 305 km making up the timed special—was defined by the harshness of the terrain and, in particular, by the sheer amount of rock. Those conditions resulted in two punctures for the BE Racing driver: the first just a few kilometres into the special, and the second only five kilometres from the finish. Even so, Font managed the situation well and brought the car home without further drama.
In the end, Font stopped the clock at 4h 53m 43s—1h 20m 53s behind the stage winner—a time that secured him 30th place in the Challenger category.
“It was a tough first stage, with so many rocks; I’d never seen that many stones! I’m taking home two yellow cards, two punctures, which honestly doesn’t feel good when you’re taking every possible precaution,” the Catalan driver said. “Luckily, we had two spare wheels and the car behaved brilliantly.”
Font also praised his cockpit partner Adrià Guillem: “Without a doubt, the most positive thing is that Adrià did a great job with the navigation and we managed to pass all the waypoints.” Guillem was more modest: “I’m happy. We only had one moment of doubt—we backed up a bit and quickly found the right way again.”
This Monday, the Dakar caravan will leave Yanbu—its headquarters for these opening days—and head north towards Al Ula. The scheduled stage features 400 kilometres of timed special and two clearly different sectors: a first section of winding, very rocky tracks, followed by a more varied second part with fast sections, off-piste terrain and the presence of at least one narrow canyon.
Source: Joan Fonte official press release
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