Having won the 19km Prologue on Saturday, Sanders elected to start the first stage in Ha’il from 15th place, minimising the risk of getting lost in the desert without the tracks left behind by other riders.
The strategy immediately paid dividends as he carved up a small 21-second lead at the first waypoint, before more than doubling his advantage to 46 seconds at the 160km mark.
Quintanilla managed to close the gap back down to 18s in the next 40km, but the Australian rider put the hammer down in the final part of the day, winning the 333km stage by an impressive margin of 2m07s.
This gives the 27-year-old a healthy 3m07s advantage heading into the second stage of the rally-raid from Hail to Al Artawiya on Monday.
Honda rider Quintanilla wasn’t always Sanders’ closest challenger in the opening stage, dropping as low as fourth in the early sections of the stage, but he mounted a strong comeback to retain second place in the overall standings.
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