Sousa wins Dakar opener

Portuguese driver Carlos Sousa made the most of his home advantage to power into an early lead after the first stage of the 2007 Dakar Rally.

The crowd favourite, racing in a private Volkswagen Touareg, completed the route between Lisbon and Portimao in a time of one hour 20 minutes and 38 seconds, almost three minutes clear of the second-placed factory Volkswagen of Giniel De Villiers at the end of the 73-mile stage.

De Villiers' Volkswagen team-mate Carlos Sainz came home in third place, as the German marque's official entry filled four of the top five places.

The result marks a Dakar double for Sousa, who also won the 2006 opening stage on his way to an eventual seventh-place finish.

‘It's thanks to the public that I won. I did it for them,’ said Sousa.

‘In theory, on this type of stage you mustn't play the fool, otherwise you risk losing everything. But I really wanted to win this for them - it was amazing to see so many people.

‘The car is in top form. The stage was very technical and definitely not a sprint. It was essential to maintain the right trajectory. I've already driven on these tracks but the area has changed.’

Mitsubishi's hopes of securing a seventh straight Dakar win got off to a slow start, Nani Roma bringing the Japanese squad's first car home in seventh place, closely followed by team-mate Stephane Peterhansel in eighth.

Two-time winner Hiroshi Masuoka finished the first stage in 10th place, while last year's winner, Luc Alphand, was down in 17th after hitting problems.

Alphand said: ‘We had a flat tire around 40 kilometres into the race.

‘On such a small course, that's very costly. The day was difficult and it's a bit of a shame to start like that.

‘But it's just the first day and there is still a long way to go before Dakar.’

Elsewhere, 2001 winner Jutta Kleinschmidt lost almost 30 minutes during the first special stage as the BMW X-Raid team suffered electrical gremlins, while Ian Rochelle led the British charge, bringing his Bowler Wildcat home in 78th place.

Ruben Faria completed a Portuguese double on the opening stage as he finished the motorbike category in a time of 1:22.7 to pip Yamaha team-mate Helder Rodriguez by just 0.16secs.

‘I decided to go for all out attack, because I knew that today was my day to win the stage,’ said Faria.

‘I had petrol problems at the end, and I reckon I could have ridden even faster. It was a very different route from last year. There was much more sand and I really like that - but it was exhausting.’

Last year's winner on two wheels, Marc Coma, finished 13th on the KTM Repsol.

GINAF's Gerard de Rooy led the way in the truck class, 20 seconds clear of fellow Dutchman Hans Stacey in the MANS entry.

Sunday's second stage will take the competitors into their second country, going from Portimao to Malaga, Spain, over a total of 339 miles.