Sainz wins Dakar first stage, bike champion Sunderland crashes out
Three-time winner Carlos Sainz took the overall lead in the car section of the Dakar Rally after winning the first stage despite suffering a puncture early on.
Sainz, 60, seeking to add this year's edition to his wins in 2010, 2018 and 2020 finished 23 seconds faster for his 42nd career stage win than fellow former world rally champion Sebastien Loeb of France.
Prologue winner and Sainz's Audi hybrid team-mate Mattias Ekstrom was third 47sec adrift.
However, Ekstrom was later slapped with a 15-minute penalty for missing a crossing point -- Saudi driver Yazeed Al Rajhi moving up to third in the stage just under two minutes slower than the winner.
Sainz leads Loeb by 10 sec in the overall standings.
"Everything went smoothly except for a puncture near the start of the special, which also meant I was extra cautious the rest of the stage," said Sainz.
There will be a new winner of the motorbike category as 2022 champion Sam Sunderland came to grief on the 52nd kilometre of the 368 km ride down the west coast of Saudi Arabia.
The 33-year-old Englishman suffered a concussion and a broken shoulder when he came off his GasGas bike.
"The only thing Sunderland recalls is he fell but he does not know why," said the team.
This year's Dakar stretches 8,549 km over 15 days of racing, including a four-day excursion into the as yet unexplored desert dunes of the vast Rub' al-Khali, or Empty Quarter.
