De Mevius, who sat a distant 32nd after Friday’s Prologue, made rapid gains over the course of the 414km test between Al-’Ula and Al Henakiyah to overhaul Mattias Ekstrom and then Carlos Sainz Sr (both Audi) to claim his first-ever stage victory in Dakar.
It was overnight leader Ekstrom who held the top spot in the early part of the first special, building a lead of over two minutes by the fourth checkpoint at the 170km mark.
However, he began to come under pressure from a rapid Sainz in the middle part of the special, losing eight minutes relative to the Spaniard in the 56km stretch between checkpoints five and six.
Mevius was also able to take advantage of Ekstrom’s trouble to jump to second position, before surging ahead of Sainz at the next timed marker to seize the lead.
The Belgian’s margin at the finish line was 1m44s, as he celebrated a stage victory in only his second appearance in Dakar and first in the Ultimate class.
Sainz had to settle for second spot on a day Audi looked to have the stage win in the bag, although he was the only driver to finish anywhere close to Mevius.
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
#207 Team Audi Sport Audi RS Q e-tron E2: Mattias Ekstrom, Emil Bergkvist
Third-place Giniel de Villiers was classified nearly 10 minutes behind the Overdrive driver at the end of the day’s run, such was the difference between the leading duo and the rest of the field.
De Villiers, a works Toyota driver, catapulting himself from seventh with a fine run in the last 100km stretch to the finish line to finish third.
Fourth place went to Vaidotas Zala in the X-Raid Mini, while former Le Mans 24 Hours winner Romain Dumas completed an unusual top five in the Rebellion-entered Toyota Hilux.
Dumas led factory Toyota duo Lucas Moraes and Guy Botterill, who finished just 14 seconds apart in sixth and seventh, while local hero Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Overdrive) made it six Hilux pick-ups inside the top 10 with a time identical to Botterill.
Behind Al-Rajhi, Mathieu Serradori was a solid ninth for the Century Racing Team, while Ekstrom’s troubles saw him slip to 10th in the provisional timesheet as he haemorrhaged 15 minutes to winner de Mevius.
However, the big losers of the day were Loeb and Al-Attiyah, who both ran into problems in a major upset for their Prodrive team.
Both Loeb and Al-Attiyah were losing time to the frontrunners from the beginning of the stage, dropping outside the top 10 just 87km…
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