Vaidotas Žala: “I knew from the middle that our time should be okay”

Dakar 2025 | Prologue | BISHA > BISHA
January 3 ^rd 2025 - 19:15 [GMT + 3]

 After nine participations on the Dakar in the car category – for Seat, Toyota, Mini et Prodrive – Vaidotas Žala is tackling the legendary rally-raid behind the wheel of a Team De Rooy Iveco Powerstar. The Lithuanian has not taken long to get used to driving his truck. With second place on the prologue, behind Van den Brink but in front of title holder Martin Macík, Žala could upset the usual race hierarchy.

“It was a fast and fun day. At one point, we were really scared because we had to cross a massive river with a lot of water and it seemed like we were on the limit of getting stuck in the river, so we were happy to get through, because we saw some spectators’ cars just stuck in these massive wadis of water. That was unusual, to see so much water in the desert, but apart from that, it was quite a nice day. We caught up with a few cars and I knew from the middle that our time should be okay. We were the tenth truck to start, so we had some trucks already on the road so navigating wasn’t a problem. It was more the amount of water that was a bit of a challenge. The navigation was tricky in some places. One point was especially tricky and we circled a bit, but Paulo did a great job and we didn’t lose too much time there and I think some of the leaders must have got lost there”.