At just 20 years old, Canet became the youngest ever winner of the prologue.

“I’m super happy with my rhythm,” said Canet, who clinched the warm-up by three seconds.

“I was following 100 percent the road book. I braked before the dangers, I avoided other risks. I was super fast and super happy with this feeling. It’s the best way to start the rally.”

Sanders labelled the Saturday warm-up a flat-out affair, with little let-up in the 95km stage.

Canet and Sanders were trailed by Honda’s Ricky Brabec, while Luciano Benavides on the third factory KTM was fourth.

Having won the prologue, Canet had the added advantage of picking where he would start Stage 1 of the rally.

Despite that, Canet elected not to take the last starting position, which he instead gave to Sanders, who will chase after the Spaniard on Sunday.

“Happy to be here at the start line and get the prologue done,” said Sanders.

“It was a lot faster than expected. It wasn’t so technical, so it was hard to make up time.

“It was full gas the whole time, so I’m sure there were really close times.

“It’s good to get that out of the way and get into a stage tomorrow.”

Australia’s other interest in the bikes, David Brock for Joyride Race Service, was 81st out of 115 competitors with a time 4m30s off the top time.

In the four-wheel division, Toby Price was 16th for Toyota Gazoo Racing. He ended the prologue 31s in arrears of pace setter Mattias Ekstrom.

The Swede led a Ford one-two, with Mitch Guthrie eight seconds back.

“I had a very good prologue, it was much more difficult than I expected from navigation and stones and, for me, this was a small stage,” said Ekstrom.

“Emil did a very good job and we had a clean stage, so if someone goes quicker now, I can only say well done because we cannot go quicker than this, that was [the] maximum for us.

“I like the car a lot. I think M-Sport and Ford have made a good evolution last year. Already, for the first shot, I think the car was good, but now I feel for my liking of driving this is very good car.

“It is very agile and the suspension is also great, so I don’t have any excuses of the car or the team so it’s more up to me and Emil to drive as quick as we can, and that’s what we try and do.”

Stage 1 of the 2026 Dakar Rally includes a 213 liaison and a 305km stage, beginning on Sunday.