On terrain with similar characteristics to those that the competitors will face in the first week of the rally-raid, Al-Attiyah completed the 19km Prologue section located between Jeddah and Ha’il in 10m56s as he kick-started his bid to win the Dakar for a fourth time.
The Qatari driver took the top spot from three-time Dakar champion Carlos Sainz, who finished just 12 seconds off the pace in a strong debut for Audi’s electric RS Q e-tron challenger.
However, while Sainz was able to show the raw speed of the new Audi on the opening day of the rally-raid, his teammates endured a less successful outing, with 14-time champion Stephane Peterhansel dropping 1m12s to finish 14th and Mattias Ekstrom ending up only 15th.
Brian Baragwanath was a surprise third for the Century Racing marque, leading Toyota’s Henk Lategan and WRC legend Sebastien Loeb.
Competing with new co-driver Fabian Lurquin following his split with long-time navigator Daniel Elena, the Frenchman clocked a time of…
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