The first day of the rally proper saw competitors travelling by road to Razeen before taking to the sand for 260kms of fast-paced desert driving on Special Stage One – sponsored by Yas Marina Circuit.
This was the only time this week that we had a) a good spot to film (and for me to take photos) b) good weather and c) that I had a fully working camera. Here’s the best of the action from 14kms south of SS2 Refuel.

Bikes

#11 Pablo Quintanilla

#7 Mohammed Al Balooshi

#1 Marc Coma and #6 Ruben Faria

#12 Ricky Brabec

#14 Jakub Piatek

#22 Matthew Hart

#45 Jose Cornejo

#35 Ben Smith

#21 Gabor Saghmeister

#21 Gabor Saghmeister

#15 Pawel Stasiaczek

#25 Damien Rischitelli

#18 Stephan Preuss

#69 David Mabbs

#34 Tony Land

#76 Alan Boyter

#31 Jan Zakto

#39 Lee Salt

#32 Keith Patstone and #33 Kurt Burroughs

#13 Anastasiya Nifontova #26 Charlie Ball #36 Ian Ganderton

#80 Ibrahim Bugla

#84 Jacobus Ernst Potgieter

#20 Ferdinand Kreidl

#38 Rob Smits

#30 Tim Trenker

#10 Juan Carlos Salvatierra

#3 Bort Joan Barreda

#9 Matthias Walkner
Quads

#100 Rafal Sonik

#100 Rafal Sonik

#104 Nelson Augusto Sanabria

#105 Kamil Wisniewski

#103 Kees Koolen

#102 Mohammed Abu Issa

#106 Aleksandr Maksimov
And finally the cars

#202 Nasser Al Attiyah

#202 Nasser Al Attiyah

#212 Khalid Al Qassimi

#212 Khalid Al Qassimi

#208 Luvio Alvarez

#206 Erik Van Loon

#205 Yazeed Al Rajhi

#209 Marek Dabrowski

#201 Vladimir Vasilyev

#223 Harry Hunt

#210 Adam Malysz

#203 Reginaldo Varela

#204 Miroslav Zapletall

#204 Miroslav Zapeltal

#214 Yayhya Al Helei

#222 Kanat Shagirov

#222 Kanat Shagirov

#211 Stephan Schott

#221 Yurly Sazonov

#224 Andrey Cherednikov

#251 Saeed Al Maktoum

#235 Ali Alk Ketbi
Results for the stage can be found here.
If any of the competitors would like full size file of any of my photos please email me on fullemptyquarter at gmail dot com.
quarksire says:
right on right on! 😎