Great victory for Joan Barreda in the first stage of the Merzouga Rally

The first loop was very good, but in the second one we lost a lot of time. We will see what happens, because we had some problems with some of the notes that the organization had modified. In any case, there is still a long way left to go.

After the third position in the prologue, I had a good starting position, but unfortunately I did not take advantage of it. I made a couple of navigation errors that made me quite late in qualifying today. With this difference, I do not know if I can do much, but I'll have to keep pushing over the next four days, clocking up the kilometres and improving my navigation skills.

The first stage was a complicated one with a lot of navigation and some traps which were difficult to get out of. We have managed to get a good result on this first day, but there is still a long way to go and we must keep working hard, stay focused on the navigation and at the same time, keep the pace on track.

Stage one is over. It was a pretty fast one with a lot of fesh fesh. Starting on loop A was okay, but when we got onto the second loop it was very tough. The side by side vehicles were still on the loop and had made it really, really dusty. We managed to make it through to the end of the special. We are going to push tomorrow and over the next four days.

This was the first stage of navigation and it was an entertaining one. You had to be very attentive to the roadbook and fast too. The first loop went quite well and I didn’t make any mistakes. In the second, we came across the UTVs and there was a lot of dust and it got quite dangerous. I had to slow down. I had a minor fall, but it was nothing. Let's see what's tomorrow has in store.