The 46th edition of the world’s most prestigious rally-raid kicked off with a short 27km timed run in Al’Ula in the western part of Saudi Arabia on Friday, with the entire section run on sandy terrain.
The Prologue, a common feature of Dakar over the years, once again served as a qualifying session of sorts, with the top 10 finishers getting to choose the starting positions of their own choice for the opening stage.
In a category comprising 70 cars, Ekstrom drew first blood as he set an impressive time of 16m30s in his Audi RS Q e-tron, even going faster than the top RallyGP entry in the bikes class.
The Swede, competing in Dakar for a fourth year in succession following his 2021 bow with Yamaha, beat the factory Toyota Hilux of Seth Quintero by 23 seconds.
Quintero, who won the T3 class of the World Rally-Raid Championship last year, led the Toyota contingent on a day his works team-mates lacked the pace to break inside the top 10.
Third place in Prologue went to nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb, who finished another three seconds adrift in the Prodrive Hunter run under the Bahrain Raid Xtreme banner.
Loeb, who is still searching for a maiden overall victory in Dakar after seven previous attempts, set an identical time to fourth-placed Marcos Baumgart in his Team X-entered Hunter.
Source: Autosport