Defending Dakar Champion Toby Price got his defence off to a great start in the deserts of Saudi Arabia today by winning the opening day of Dakar 2020.
Red Bull KTM mounted Price won the day with a 2min-05secs advantage over Monster Energy Honda’s Ricky Brabec. The American had led early on in the stage before being overhauled by Price.
KTM’s Matthias Walkner was 35-seconds further adrift in third place but the Austrian was almost two-minutes ahead of fourth placed Kevin Benavides (Honda) and fellow KTM pilot Sam Sunderland.
Pablo Quintanilla was sixth ahead of Joan Barreda Bort and Luciano Benavides while Andrew Short and Adrien Van Beveren rounded out the top ten.
After a few years riding with the Factory Yamaha Team in primarily a supporting role to their main starts Queensland Yamaha dealer Rod Faggotter is running his own show this year and finished an encouraging 19th place on the opening day of competition.
Dakar 2020 Results
Stage One
| Pos | Rider | Team | Time/Gap/Pen |
| 1 | TOBY PRICE | RED BULL KTM FACTORY TEAM | 03H 19′ 33 |
| 2 | RICKY BRABEC | MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2020 | + 00H 02′ 05 |
| 3 | MATTHIAS WALKNER | RED BULL KTM FACTORY TEAM | + 00H 02′ 40 |
| 4 | KEVIN BENAVIDES | MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2020 | + 00H 04′ 31 |
| 5 | SAM SUNDERLAND | RED BULL KTM FACTORY TEAM | + 00H 05′ 15 |
| 6 | PABLO QUINTANILLA | ROCKSTAR ENERGY HUSQVARNA FACTORY RACING | + 00H 05′ 36 |
| 7 | JOAN BARREDA BORT | MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2020 | + 00H 07′ 51 |
| 8 | LUCIANO BENAVIDES | RED BULL KTM FACTORY TEAM | + 00H 08′ 56 |
| 9 | ANDREW SHORT | ROCKSTAR ENERGY HUSQVARNA FACTORY RACING | + 00H 09′ 03 |
| 10 | ADRIEN VAN BEVEREN | MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA RALLY TEAM | + 00H 09′ 52 |
| 11 | JOSE IGNACIO CORNEJO FLORIMO | MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2020 | + 00H 10′ 15 |
| 12 | PAULO GONÇALVES | HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY | + 00H 10′ 17 |
| 13 | Xavier De Soultrait | MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA RALLY TEAM | + 00H 10′ 42 |
| 14 | Ross Branch | BAS DAKAR KTM RACING TEAM | + 00H 10′ 58 |
| 15 | Adrien Metge | SHERCO TVS RALLY FACTORY | + 00H 13′ 02 |
| 16 | Daniel Nosiglia Jager | TEAM HONDA NOSIGLIA | + 00H 14′ 12 |
| 17 | Franco Caimi | MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA RALLY TEAM | + 00H 16′ 03 |
| 18 | Skyler Howes | KLYMCIW RACING | + 00H 19′ 49 |
| 19 | Rodney Faggotter | YAMAHA MOTOR AUSTRALIA | + 00H 20′ 54 |
| 20 | Stefan Svitko | SLOVNAFT RALLY TEAM | + 00H 22′ 07 |
| 21 | Laia Sanz | GAS GAS FACTORY TEAM | + 00H 23′ 45 |
| 22 | Johnny Aubert | SHERCO TVS RALLY FACTORY | + 00H 23′ 52 |
| 23 | Antonio Maio | YAMAHA FINO MOTOR RACING | + 00H 24′ 48 |
| 24 | Jacopo Cerutti | SOLARYS RACING | + 00H 25′ 40 |
| 25 | Juan Pedrero Garcia | LS2 AVENTURA TOUAREG | + 00H 25′ 42 |
| 26 | Lorenzo Santolino | SHERCO TVS RALLY FACTORY | + 00H 29′ 52 |
| 27 | Sebastien Lagut | NOMADE RACING | + 00H 31′ 46 |
| 28 | Milan Engel | MOTO RACING GROUP (MRG) | + 00H 31′ 55 |
| 29 | Maciej Giemza | ORLEN TEAM | + 00H 33′ 26 |
| 30 | Maurizio Gerini | SOLARYS RACING | + 00H 33′ 41 |
| 31 | Martin Michek | MOTO RACING GROUP (MRG) | + 00H 33′ 47 |
| 32 | Sebastian Bühler | HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY | + 00H 35′ 13 |
| 33 | Adam Tomiczek | ORLEN TEAM | + 00H 36′ 34 |
| 34 | Jamie Mccanney | MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA RALLY TEAM | + 00H 36′ 40 |
| 35 | Aaron Mare | MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2020 | + 00H 36′ 45 |
| 36 | Jan Brabec | BIG SHOCK RACING | + 00H 37′ 22 |
| 37 | Carl Johan Bjerkert | HT RALLY RAID HUSQVARNA RACING | + 00H 40′ 45 |
| 38 | Jaume Betriu | FN SPEED TEAM | + 00H 42′ 39 |
| 39 | Santosh Chunchunguppe | HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY | + 00H 43′ 57 |
| 40 | Arunas Gelazninkas | ARUNAS GELAZNINKAS | + 00H 46′ 46 |
| 41 | Mario Patrao | KTM FACTORY TEAM | + 00H 47′ 47 |
| 42 | Garrett Poucher | KLYMCIW RACING | + 00H 48′ 40 |
| 43 | Mohammed Balooshi | DUUST RALLY TEAM | + 00H 48′ 46 |
| 44 | Loic Minaudier | TEAM ALL TRACKS | + 00H 49′ 42 |
| 45 | Cesar Pardo | KTM PERU RALLY TEAM | + 00H 50′ 47 |
| 46 | Olivier Pain | TEAM JOG – NOMADE RACING | + 00H 52′ 53 |
| 47 | Ivan Jakes | JAKES DAKAR TEAM | + 00H 53′ 04 |
| 48 | Patricio Cabrera | KAWASAKI CHILE CIDEF | + 00H 55′ 42 |
| 49 | Emanuel Gyenes | AUTONET MOTORCYCLE TEAM | + 00H 57′ 09 |
| 50 | Abdullah Al Shatti | DUUST RALLY TEAM | + 00H 57′ 54 |
| 51 | Paul Spierings | HT RALLY RAID HUSQVARNA RACING | + 00H 58′ 44 |
| 52 | Anthony Boursaud | ANTHO MOTO SPORT – DRAG’ON RALLY TEAM | + 00H 59′ 45 |
| 53 | Fausto Mota | XRAIDS TEAM | + 01H 03′ 28 |
| 54 | Benjamin Melot | BENJAMIN MELOT | + 01H 07′ 34 |
2020 Dakar Calendar
Source: MCNews.com.au