04/01/2026

Mini snatches win from Ford as Mattias Ekstrom drops back

X-raid Mini’s Guillaume de Mevius topped the opening stage of the Dakar Rally on Sunday, overhauling long-time leader Mattias Ekstrom in a dramatic late turnaround.

Ford driver Ekstrom controlled much of the day’s 305km stage around Yanbu in Saudi Arabia, grabbing the lead at the second checkpoint on 70km before stretching out an advantage of over a minute in his Ford Raptor.

De Mevius was Ekstrom’s closest challenger with about 120km left to run, 53s adrift off the top spot, before disappearing from the leaderboard due to a transponder issue.

This left Ekstrom with a lead of 1m20s over Nasser Al-Attiyah at the penultimate checkpoint, with Energylandia’s Marek Goczal and MD Sport stalwart Martin Prokop trailing in third and fourth respectively.

However, the complexion of the stage changed in the final 45km stretch, which featured a mix of dunes, sand and rocky terrain, with Ekstrom rapidly dropping down the order.

This allowed de Mevius to take a surprise win by 40s, marking Mini’s second opening-stage win in two years.

Dakar results: Top 10 after Stage 1:

Pos.	Crew	Brand	Team	Time/difference
1	Guillaume de Mévius Mathieu Baumel	Mini	X-Raid Team	3:07.49
2	Nasser Al-Attiyah Fabian Lurquin	Dacia	Dacia Sandriders	+00.40
3	Martin Prokop Viktor Chytka	Ford	Orlen Jipocar	+01.27
4	Mattias Ekström Emil Bergkvist	Ford	Ford Racing	+01.38
5	Marek Goczal Maciej Marton	Toyota	Energylandia Racing	+01.38
6	Carlos Sainz Lucas Cruz	Ford	Ford Racing	+01.54
7	Guy Botterill Oriol Mena	Toyota	Toyota Gazoo Racing SA	+02.03
8	Nani Roma Alex Haro	Ford	Ford Racing	+02.37
9	Mitch Guthrie Kellon Walch	Ford	Ford Racing	+02.50
10	Sébastien Loeb Edouard Boulanger	Dacia	Dacia Sandriders	+03.01