The young Spaniard Edgar Canet, who claimed the Rally2 title last season, followed up his prologue win in Yanbu with another barnstorming performance in his debut at the top level. The KTM rider bagged stage 1 and tightened his grip on the overall lead.

"It was a very fast stage with lots of rocks and ríos, and crazy navigation with sections where you really had to be careful not to get lost. I'm very happy with the speed and the confidence I have on the bike. The rally is still long and this is the best way to start, but I need to stay focused, be careful and not push more than necessary. For now, though, I want to thank everyone who sent me messages yesterday and keep on dreaming."

The title holder Sanders dropped a minute to the winner of the prologue, his teammate Edgar Canet. "Chucky" expected such slim margins and is now looking forward to tougher challenges.

"It was quite basic. I was expecting something more difficult. It's hard to make a difference in these conditions. I slipped up a few times with tricky notes and lost some time, but I'm happy not to lose more because I wasn't feeling great today. It was windy and rocky. The terrain was hard to read. My helmet was getting buffeted by the wind, so I had a hard time focusing on the road book. It was the same terrain on which I won stage 1 in 2023. I remembered it as basic navigation on easy terrain, so I knew the margins would be slim. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and a stage that's more than just twisting the throttle all the way back, like today. I didn't go into the red today, I hope we can push harder tomorrow."

Ross Branch was the fastest competitor in the 305 km special, but a 6-minute penalty for speeding cost him victory. The stage podium is a carbon copy of yesterday's, but featuring wider margins. Canet defeated the last two winners of the Dakar, putting 1′02″ into his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing teammate Daniel Sanders and 1′32″ into their Monster Energy Honda HRC rival Ricky Brabec.

The Rally2 special saw the prolific Michael Docherty claim his eleventh win in the class on his KTM, beating the rookie Martim Ventura and his Honda, who had spent most of the stage in the lead but came up short in the final dash to the line, by 1′28″.

The two-time Dakar winner Brabec (2020 and 2024) finished third behind the same two KTMs as yesterday. The most experienced factory rider in the RallyGP field alongside Adrien Van Beveren (both in their eleventh appearances) is happy to shadow the leaders.

"I think KTM had a strategy in place today and I found myself a bit caught in the middle of it all. But it's only the first day. There are plenty more stages to push. I'm happy to cross the finish line in one piece. I don't want to hit the front or the back before time and get caught in the yo-yo effect. Staying in between would be ideal, and for now, I think that's exactly where I am."