Of course, Eurol is again strongly represented as the technical partner of a number of top teams. At the top of the list are the Gazoo Racing teams with big names such as dual F1 world champion and 24H Lemans winner Fernando Alonso with 5-times winner Marc Coma as navigator, Nasser Al-Attiyah (winner 2011, 2015 and 2011) with navigator Mathieu Baumel and 2009 winner Giniel de Villiers with Alex Haro as navigator. All Dutch eyes are on Bernhard ten Brinke with Belgian navigator Tom Colsoul,  a win is a real option for the team with combined nationalities.

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That is not all, because Eurol also supports Peter van Merksteijn and his British co-driver Michael Orr in the Overdrive Toyota, Tim & Tom Coronel in The Beast-buggy and Kees Koolen and Jurgen van den Goorbergh in the increasingly popular SSV class of the Side-by-sides.

In addition, there are the mighty trucks with many experienced “Dakar Legends” behind the wheel. Mammoet Rally (Mammoth) is up for a good result with father & son Van den Brink and Wouter de Graaff in the cabin. Riwald Dakar Team is also at full strength with no fewer than three teams: Gert Huzink - Rob Buursen - Martin Roesink in the unique Renault MKR hybrid truck and Pascal de Baar - Jan van der Vaert - Stefan Slootjes in a conventional truck of the same brand . Ed Wigman - Joël Ebbers - Dirk Schatorie are in the same team in a MAN.

The day started off fine for Al-Attiyah, but with three flat tires in fifteen minutes the lead quickly disappeared. In the end the Qatari was still pretty fourth, with Bernhard ten Brinke only one minute behind him. Already after 35 kilometers, Ten Brinke got the first dunes to choose. “Very soft sand and quite high dunes. We took it easy for the first section, so that we could get into the rhythm for a while. ”In his very first official Dakar stage, Alonso was very deserving of eleventh, while De Villiers started relatively quietly, he finished fourteenth.

The Coronel brothers came in 36th just within the hour of the winner, while Kees Koolen and "VdG" came in 23rd in the SSV class.

For the trucks it was an immediate full pull. Pascal de Baar was the first Renault at fifteen, half an hour after the fastest Russian. The “Mammoth’s” Renault Sherpa came in as twentieth after running three flats in a row, they could carry on after being helped by a competitor, a great show of the Dakar’s comradery. Gert Huzink accelerated amazingly quickly from the starting line with his hybrid race-truck, but could not hold on to that good start. After begin helped by Ed Wigman's quick assistance, they are still on their way on this time of the day.