To that point, Price had been running inside the top 10.

Price was the quickest of the Toyota drivers. Henk Lategan was 16th after suffering two punctures, while Seth Quintero was 17th having also punctured one of his tyres.

“The morning part was going really well, and we were comfortably in the top 10,” said Price.

“Even though there were a lot of stones and rocks, we got to the pit stop zone without any issues.

“As a precaution, we changed the rear tyres and, as we drove away, I tried to build some temperature in the tyres.

“I didn’t feel anything, but all of a sudden, we had a flat tyre.

“We changed that, but the guys behind caught up and then we got stuck behind.”

Mini driver Guillaume De Mevius was the surprise packet on Sunday, putting his X-Raid team on top of the pile in the cars division.

It was a triumphant return for De Mevius and his co-driver Mathieu Baumel. They sat out the 2025 edition after Baumel lost his right leg in an accident.

De Mevius was 40s clear of factory Dacia driver Nasser Al-Atiyah, while Martin Prokop wound up 1m27s adrift in third for Jipocar.

“Winning a stage always feels good, but it wasn’t really our strategy for the day,” said De Mevius.

“Still, it’s a positive sign because we didn’t feel we had the outright pace to take the stage. Tomorrow, Mathieu and I will be opening, and I’m very happy about that.

“Our approach is different from the others. We’re a bit on our own in this Dakar.

“We’ll ride our way and, if we win stages, all the better, and we’ll manage to have the best possible day the next stage.

“With Mathieu on my right, I’m not worried about opening a special. But of course, there is strategy involved, and we’ll need to stay mindful for what comes next.”

Mattias Ekstrom, who won the prologue, was fifth overall for Ford.

Last year’s winner Yazeed Al Rajhi was only 20th in the first stage and has his woes compounded by a 16-minute penalty for missing a waypoint and speeding. From 20th, he plummeted to 38th.