Former champion Carlos Sainz claims Dakar opener

The Spaniard, who won the grueling race in 2010 in a Volkswagen, drove his Buggy to victory in a time of 7 minutes and 40 seconds, beating Argentina's Lucio Alvarez, in a Toyota, into second, with French driver Guerlain Chicherit, in an SMG, claiming third.

Sainz enjoyed an 8-second advantage over Alvarez and a 10-second gap on Chicherit.

His Qatari teammate, Nasser al-Attiyah, who was the 2011 champion, also in a Volkswagen, but was forced to retire in a Hummer 12 months ago, finished fourth.

The two Buggys, backed by the financial might of Qatar but prepared in California, gave an early glimpse of their strengths.

That was bad news for defending champion Stephane Peterhansel whose bid for an 11th Dakar title, after collecting four wins in the auto section and six on two wheels, got off to a disappointing start.

The French driver was down in sixth place in his Mini, 34 seconds behind Sainz.

“It feels great to be racing after spending so much time on test drives. So I'm quite happy just to start the Dakar with this car,” said al-Attiyah.

“I put the pedal on the metal from the start and I'm happy with the time I posted in such a short special. Of course, everyone drove really hard today, but I think we're well placed for tomorrow's stage.”

America's Robby Gordon, who was fifth last year after coming close to a disqualification, was in 87th place in his Hummer after experiencing trouble with his vehicle's GPS.

Peterhansel said his Mini would improve as the race progressed towards its Jan. 19 finish.

“The special was quite fun, with nice dunes and high speeds, but it wasn't easy because it's been a few months since the last time we drove a race car, so we need two or three days to get used to all this again,” he said.

“We hit the brakes for no good reason at the top of the dunes quite a lot, which cost us some time. We're going to ease into the rally.”

Chile's Francisco Lopez, riding a KTM, won the opening motorcycling stage.

Dutchman Frans Verhoeven, on a Yamaha, was second, with another Chilean, Pablo Quintanilla, claiming third place for Honda who are making their Dakar return after a 24-year absence.

Lopez covered the 13km stage in 7 minutes and 51 seconds, with Verhoeven a second further back and Quintanilla 5 seconds off the pace.

French rider Cyril Despres, the defending champion, was in fifth place, 13 seconds behind Lopez.

In all, 449 vehicles (183 motos, 153 autos, 38 quads and 75 lorries), left the starting line on Saturday.

Sunday's second stage is a 327km (242km timed) stage in and around Pisco.

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