The New Year's Eve fireworks still have the afterimage of the air, and the annual Dakar Rally has begun. The 2017 season – the world's toughest rally – is about to begin on 2 January. Whether it is the 13-day hellish journey or the 13-day most exciting journey, everything is up to the driver. Rally drivers from all over the world are once again gathering in South America to challenge this top-level race, as the Dakar Rally challenges not only the car and physical fitness, but also the psychology of the drivers.
Schedule
First, let's take a look at the schedule of the 2017 Dakar Rally. The 39th Dakar Rally will depart from Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. This is the first time Paraguay has hosted the Dakar Rally and the 29th country to host the Dakar Rally since its inception in 1979. A total of 13 days of the race are divided into two stages. The first half of the six-day race, from Asunción in Paraguay to La Paz in Bolivia, is a 4,000-kilometer journey where riders challenge the technical track, the experimental stage, the cross-country stage and the high-altitude dune stage of the Bolivian Altiplano Plateau. After a day of rest, prepare to depart for argentina.
The second half of the race is almost 4,800 kilometers away and riders will face more dunes, shoals and more complex off-road stages. The 9th stage is the highest in the 2017 Dakar Rally, with a longest stage of nearly 1,000 km and the most challenging, with a special stage of 400 km being very competitive.
On January 14, all the drivers will arrive in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
Dragons fight tigers
Driving the No. 1 motorcycle this year is defending champion Toby Price, the first Australian driver to win the Dakar Rally, 40 minutes to the top last year. Price's leading KTM team-mates this year are Matthias Walkner and Sam Sunderland. Honda sent five CRF450 rally bikes, joan Barreda Bort, Paulo Gonçalves, Michael Metge, Ricky Brabec and Kevin Benavides.
In the automotive category, 12-time Dakar Rally winner Stephane Peterhansel will be the first to fly the all-new Peugeot 2008 DKR16 car, with teammates including two Dakar rally winners Carlos Sainz and Cyril Despres, as well as WRC nine-time winner Sebastien Loeb. the second time to participate. The Peugeot Four are aggressive, while the mini camp is also a master, with Mikko Hirvonen and Yazeed Al-Rahji, the runner-up in last year's Dakar Rally car group, Nasser Al-Attiyah, representing Toyota this year, and the Qatari's teammate Giniel De Villiers.
On the quad side, the Yamaha camp is still dominated by two brothers, Marcos Patronelli and Alessandro Patronelli, with the former conquering the Dakar Rally three times and the latter twice. Challenging the two brothers include numerous former champion drivers Ignacio Casale, Rafale Sonik, Jeremías González Ferioli and Marcelo Medeiros.
In the trucking group, Iveco made four appearances this year, with riders including Gerard de Rooy, Federico Villagra, Ton van Genugten and Wuf van Ginkel. Last year, the Druids led Iveco to the top, and rivals Camas vowed to shame, bringing with them a brand new Camas car and two-time Dakar rally champion Eduard Nikolaev.
Significant changes
This year's Dakar Rally has placed more emphasis on the importance of navigating, making the Pilot the core of the Dakar Rally again. Therefore, this year's GPS system has limited functionality. Hidden monitoring points in the stage are also replaced by control points. Control points are activated only when the car passes.
(Editor: Yao Fan)