Spain's Canet makes Dakar history as 2026 Saudi edition gets underway

The 2026 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia kicked off on Saturday with Spain's 20-year-old Edgar Canet delivering a landmark win in the motorbike prologue, while Sweden's Mattias Ekstrom topped the car category in Yanbu.

Riding for KTM, Canet claimed his maiden Dakar special and, according to available records, became the youngest winner of a motorbike stage in the rally's history. He finished three seconds ahead of teammate Daniel Sanders, with Honda's Ricky Brabec two seconds further back. KTM rider Luciano Benavides placed fourth, 11 seconds off the lead.

South Africa's Michael Docherty won the Rally2 class with a 26-second margin over Tobias Ebster and Konrad Dabrowski. Docherty was sixth overall, 19 seconds behind the outright pace, while rookies Preston Campbell and Ruy Barbosa completed the Rally2 top five.

In the car prologue, Ekstrom guided his Ford Raptor to victory, edging teammate Mitch Guthrie by eight seconds. Guillaume de Mevius of Mini was third on the same time as Guthrie, while five-time winner Nasser Al-Attiyah was classified fourth, also eight seconds adrift.

Dakar organizers said prologue times are not taken into account for the overall rankings for FIA crews, while the clock is already running for the bikes.

The 48th edition of the Dakar Rally, the seventh staged in Saudi Arabia, runs from Jan 3 to 17, starting and finishing in Yanbu. Organizers say the rally features 787 competitors across 421 vehicles, with the route spanning 7,994 km including 4,840 km of timed special stages.