The Swede completed the 28km special in AlUla in a time of 16:35s in his RS Q e-tron, while 2023 Dakar champion Nasser Al-Attiyah ended up 12th in his first event in a Prodrive Hunter.

Al-Attiyah’s replacement at Toyota Gazoo Racing, Seth Quintero, was second on the day in his Toyota Hilux, 23 seconds slower than Ekstrom, with Sebastien Loeb third at another 15 seconds off the pace in a Bahrain Rain Xtreme Hunter.

Al-Attiyah’s relatively slow start was due to a navigational error although, in the case of the Cars, Prologue results do not count towards the overall time this year and hence it could be a blessing in disguise.

The Qatari is likely to start Stage 1 in 12th position whereas he may have been opening the road had he set the 10th-quickest time, given the top 10 choose their starting position.

“It’s a good start,” he said.

“I’m so happy with the performance, the handling was great. We lost some time when we missed one junction, but we still managed to finish strongly.”

Rounding out the top five on the Prologue were Marcos Baumgart and Cristian Baumgart, the former on an identical time to Loeb’s, and both in Prodrive Hunters run out of the X Rally Team.

‘Mr Dakar’, Stephane Peterhansel, set the seventh-fastest time in his RS Q e-tron, 45 seconds slower than that achieved by team-mate Ekstrom.

In the other Team Audi Sport entry, Sainz was just 48th fastest and hence will be running in the pack on Stage 1, with the three-time Dakar champion admitting to “several mistakes.”

The opening stage proper takes the field from AlUla to Al Henakiyah, a 541km distance including a 414km special.

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Prologue: Cars Top 10