From a press release issued by Yamaha Racing:

Yamaha Motor France rider David Frétigné is leading the 26th Dakar rally after taking the the honours in day two, a muddy 25km special, on his two-wheel-drive WR450F 2-Trac.

After yesterday’s prologue – used only to decide the start order – the competitors attacked today their first timed special stage of the 2004 event. Frétigné won the day – his first ever Dakar special by seconds from current world rallye-raid champion Cyril Despres, with Nani Roma in third (at 0m57) and last year’s winner Richard Sainct fourth.

Commented the ecstatic Frenchman: “I’m delighted to have won the very first Dakar special I have ever ridden. I also have to say that I’m quite surprised by the result as I was a little bit nervous before the start and rode the first part quite cautiously – the last thing I wanted to do was crash out of my first Dakar. Obviously though the conditions were a little bit special – I don’t think the going will be quite as twisty or muddy when we get to Africa. Still I was very impressed with how well the two-wheel drive system performed here. It allowed me to come out of the corners much quicker than I would normally have been able to and gave me much more stability on the straights.”

At the end of the stage all the motorcycle competitors once again had the luxury of loading their bikes into trucks for the long 563km liaison to Castellon in Spain where tomorrow they will race the last European special before heading off to the deserts of Africa, where the event starts in earnest.