X-Raid Mini driver Guillaume de Mevius took the Dakar Rally lead after Sunday’s first full stage, while Qatar's five-time winner Nasser al-Attiyah was in second place for the Dacia Sandriders team, 40 seconds behind the Belgian.
Al-Attiyah had mixed feelings saying he "could have lost it all" on the challenging route and lamented that he had been ahead of the day's winner for most of the stage. "We had a good pace and could have pushed harder, but when we saw (Dacia teammate) Sebastien Loeb with two flat tyres, we decided to be cautious and avoid puncturing ourselves," said al-Attiyah.
For De Mevius co-driver Mathieu Baumel it was "enormous triumph" as just a year after having his leg amputated he won the opening stage with his Belgian driver.
Navigator Baumel was back at the race just 11 months after his right lower leg was amputated after being run over while helping someone who had broken down on the road in France.
Last January it had looked as if life behind the wheel was in the past for the successful co-driver and navigator. "Just being here is an enormous triumph," said the 49-year-old, who got into his car Sunday carrying his prosthetic limb.
Driving a mini the pair won the perilous 305km first stage at Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. Baumel had previously won the Dakar Rally four times as co-pilot to al-Attiyah, most recently back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023.
De Mevius, sitting top of the heap at the finish line, admitted he was surprised. "It wasn't particularly the objective to win today, but we said to ourselves with Mathieu (Baumel) that we wanted to at least win one on the Dakar stages," he said after a stoney and dusty ride.
Czech driver Martin Prokop was in third place for the Orlen Jipocar team, with Sweden's Mattias Ekstrom fourth in a Ford Raptor. French driver Sebastien Loeb came 10th in his Dacia losing three minutes with a puncture after also leading the field.
Reigning Dakar champion Yazeed al-Rajhi was the big loser of the day as the Saudi was slapped with a 16-minute penalty due to a missed crossing point and ended up nearly 29 minutes off de Mevius with 12 more stages of the endurance event to come over the next two weeks in Saudi Arabia.
In the motorcycle category, Spain's Edgar Canet, already winner of the prologue, benefited after Botswana's Ross Branch received a six-minute penalty for speeding in a restricted zone. Canet leads Australia's Daniel Sanders by just over a minute.
Today, the competitors will tackle a first big day of racing, heading towards Al Ula after more than 500km, 400 of which are individually timed.
