First day of competition

First 4 a.m. wakeup call! First 5 a.m. briefing. And first 6 a.m. start, signalled by event partner Afriquia. This will be the Gazelles’ daily routine until the final leg.

After yesterday’s Prologue, the Rallye can begin in earnest! Here we go, this first leg counts towards the rankings. At the morning briefing, sport director Ludovic Taché comments on yesterday’s Prologue: “The Iritrack isn’t for chatting, it’s a safety device. I received 30 calls yesterday. I encourage you to re-read your safety instructions. Starting today, any unjustified calls will be penalized.” The mechanical problems were disproportionate to the difficulty of yesterday’s terrain. “If you keep driving like that, you won’t finish the Rallye so be kind to your vehicle!”

This first day of competition consists of a loop with an ideal distance of 117 kilometres and an estimated time of 8:45. This time, every extra kilometre counts. The Gazelles have seven checkpoints to reach, and the leg closes at 7 p.m. “A CP is verified at the flag. It’s up to you to go see the CP official and get your checkpoint validated. CP7 is a Cœur de Gazelles checkpoint, shared by all teams (CP6 for the electric vehicles). If you want to visit Cœur de Gazelles, park a little further on or there will be quite a traffic jam with 165 vehicles. Fred and the team will be happy to welcome you.”

Today’s playing field is wide and flat, but the first difficulties will slow the competitors down. Under the watchful eye of Amada du Guir on one side and the monumental Erg Chebbi on the other, the Gazelles will make their way across wide plains and low hills and get their first taste of sand. “Watch out for cultivated land. In Morocco, you won’t see big fields of wheat; it might be an embankment with a few furrows. It looks like nothing, but there are seeded crops just waiting for water. Don’t drive across them to save a few metres. You will be penalized. It costs the farmer a lot to plant again.”

Teams are sure to make navigation or driving errors and get stuck in the sand, even though “I am convinced that this Leg 1 is easier than last year. It’s not extremely difficult: it will build to a crescendo but for the moment we’re not yet in the thick of things.”