The first stage of the 2016 Dakar Rally has been cancelled due to heavy rain, with organisers taking no chances over road safety after a horrific crash blighted the prologue stage on Saturday.
Competitors had been due to set off from Rosario to Villa Carlos Paz but will now start this year’s race from the start of the second stage, which starts on Monday. Drivers will instead drive in convoy on the highway to Villa Carlos Paz, starting their 5,000-mile journey from there – the race travelling through Argentina and Bolivia before finishing back in Rosario.
Crucially the helicopters that fly overhead the motorcycles, quad bikes, cars and trucks – providing safety assistance to the racers – were not able to fly in the conditions.
The cancellation follows a horrific incident on Saturday in the prologue race, where a horrific crash left more than 10 people hurt, including five children and a pregnant woman. Driver Guo Meiling lost control of her Mini Cooper approximately half way through the short 11km (6.8 mile) warm-up, careering off a straight road and into spectators.
A 34-year-old man and his son, aged 10, were the two most serious cases and had to be rushed to hospital with head and chest injuries, race director Etienne Lavigne explained.
The last accident to result in a spectator fatality at the Dakar Rally was in 2011 but competitor Michal Hernik died last year in unknown circumstances after his body was discovered 300 metres from the track on the stage from San Juan to Chilecito in Argentina.
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