Sousa and Faria win Dakar Rally first stage
Carlos Sousa and Ruben Faria scored a double for hosts Portugal as they won the car and motorbike sections respectively on the opening day of the 2007 Dakar Rally.
Sousa led a five-car lock-out by Volkswagen.
The 40-year-old Sousa and German co-pilot Andreas Schulz completed the 464km from Lisbon, 117km of which was timed, in 1hr 20min 38sec.
"It's thanks to the public that I won," said Sousa.
"In theory, on this type of stage you mustn't "play the fool," otherwise you risk losing everything. But I really wanted to win this for them."
South Africa's Giniel De Villiers was second at 2min 31sec and Spaniard Carlos Sainz third at 2:38.
"It was more difficult than I had thought," said De Villiers.
"It was a real trap, narrow, with a lot of stumps and increasingly slippery. We jumped about quite a bit. But we ran a tidy race and the car is working very well. In that type of sand, you have to have a good engine and great suspension."
Sainz added: "There was loads of sand on a very narrow track. This meant it was difficult to get past the riders, but everything is fine."
Earlier in the motorbike section Faria timed 1hr 22min 07sec to finish 0.16sec ahead of compatriot and fellow Yamaha rider Helder Rodriguez with Spaniard Isidre Esteve Pujol of KTM in third.
France's David Casteu had initially been classified third, 4:47 behind on his KTM, but had 20 seconds added to his time for an infringement, dropping him to fourth.
"I decided to go for all out attack, because I knew that today was my day to win the stage," said 32-year-old Faria.
"I had petrol problems at the end, and I reckon I could have ridden even faster. It was a very different route from last year: there was much more sand and I really like that. But it was exhausting: I had to overtake at least 80 other competitors."
The Dutch, meanwhile, led the way in the trucks category.
Ginaf driver Gerard De Rooy of the Netherlands was 20 seconds faster than compatriot Hans Stacey's MAN with Russia's Vladimir Tchaguine third fastest at 46 seconds for the normally dominant Kamaz team.
The race enters Spain on Sunday with the 545km second stage to Malaga including 67km of specials.
AFP
