The first stage of HunGarian Baja brought real fight. Although the stage was 175 km long, at the end only 14 seconds separated the leader of the cars, Nasser Al-Attiyah and the chaser, the Dutch Bernhard Ten Brinke (who in real started before him according to the Friday night starting position selection).
‘There is something wrong with the back of the car, the rear wheel is moving and knocking very strangely. The team is working on the solution, we hope it will succeed. I like the stage, it was very surprising that I remembered some sections from last year or 6-7 years ago’ said 2-times Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah who was not disturbed by the heat at all, since he get used to it either at home, in Qatar, or at several desert races where he has participated during his career. The second-placed Ten Brinke admitted that it had not been easy to start foremost and to open the stage, but luckily they also could have set good pace.
‘The beginning of the stage was very rough, but later we used to it and from the 40th km we could even go fast. I liked most the end of the track, the forest part, because I also live in the middle of a forest, so it was familiar, so-called home field for me. I am satisfied with the result, particularly if we say that I have not raced since the Dakar’ said Ten Brinke.
Marek Dabrowski and Miroslav Zapletal (they were third and fourth) had problems not only with heat, but also with dust. The former one, according to his telling, spent 30-40 minutes in Antal Fekete’s dust, while the former Hungarian champion Zapletal got caught after Erik Korda for more than 100 km. They were both very upset, because they pushed the Sentinel for nothing, they could not overtake.
The best Hungarian is the defending champion, Antal Fekete, who can wait the second stage from fifth position. ‘The track is very technical and it took its toll, lots of cars fell out before and after us. We were driving continuously in dust, but luckily the car works well’ said Fekete. Among riders the leader of the point table Adrien Maré was the fastest at the first stage, he collected more than 2 and a half minute lead over Damian Rajczyk racing with quad and more than 4 minutes over Portuguese Rui Oliveira.
‘I am here for the second time and I do enjoy the whole race. However it is a bit too hot, but this is cross-country rally. My motorbike has worked perfectly until now’ said Maré. ‘The average speed is very high, but the humps can cause danger, so you should be concentrated’ added Oliveira.
As of the fastest quad racer Rajczyk he had some problems with the rear brake, but except for this he liked the fast track filled with stones and jumps. For Nicola Dutto the stages were familiar, since he was here in 2008. ‘I do not have any problem with the heat. The nature does what it wants’ said Dutto who used the rear brake a lot, so it ran down a bit.
For Pedro Bianchi Prata, the leader of the European Championship race the heat and dust also caused difficulties. ‘It was a long and difficult stage with lots of stones and humps, but it became very fast by the end. This track is a big challenge, but I pulled the gas as I could.’ The Hungarian Richárd Hodola did not let him unsettled, he rode in his own rhythm, he could even overtake. ‘The motorbike works well, but the track has eaten the tyre more than I thought’ said Hodola.
