Robby Gordon is the 17th car to start instead of 5th as his race number indicated. Explanations will be forthcoming later. Despite the late start, Gordon will be hard charging as usual. With just 180Km of special today, not too much should be at stake but the Dakar is notoriously unpredictable.

BJ Baldwin (18th start), and Guerlain Chicherit (20th), the two members of Team Toyo Tires running in the EV Racing colours started on schedule but with fresh cars, untested in racing, will be hoping only to finish the first stage, using the short special as a mini shakedown for the race ahead.

The stage is still ongoing but first pictures of the cars in action are in the gallery below.

At waypoint 1, Chicherit leads the Team Toyo Tires drivers, with Baldwin 2nd and Gordon 3rd after his start issues. Even at 50th position in the stage, Gordon is only 4minutes 28 seconds behind the lead, an insignificant amount in a rally that took over 38 hours to complete last year.