The China Mail - Bike rookie Canet enjoys dream Dakar start

The KTM factory rider ended the 22km ride around Yanbu three seconds clear of teammate and defending champion Daniel Sanders with Honda's American rider Ricky Brabec, the 2024 winner, five seconds adrift.

"I was super fast and super happy with this feeling. It's the best way to start the rally," said Canet.

Sanders was relieved to get his title defence up and running.

"Happy to be here at the start line and get the prologue done. It was a lot faster than expected, but not so technical, so it was hard to make up time," the Australian said.

"It was full gas the whole time, so I'm sure there were really close times. It's good to get that out of the way and get into a stage tomorrow."

Swede Mattias Ekstrom took the first day honours in the car category by eight seconds from American Mitch Guthrie, both driving for Ford Raptor.

Multiple winner Nasser al-Attiyah of Qatar did the best of the big names, crossing eight seconds adrift in fourth.

Defending champion Yazeed al-Rajhi of Saudi Arabia was 14sec off the pace.

After taking his tally of Dakar stage wins to six, Ekstrom said: "I had a very good prologue, it was much more difficult than I expected from navigation and stones and, for me, this was a small stage and we did a very good job."

Sunday's first stage, also around Yanbu, is a 305km mix of rocky and sandy terrain.

G.Fung--ThChM