Portugal’s Carlos Sousa, driving a Haval, and Honda motorcyclist Joan Barreda triumphed on the opening stage of the 36th Dakar Rally on Sunday.

Sousa finished the 180km special from Rosario to San Luis in 2-hours 20-min 36-sec with Argentina’s Orlando Terranova, in a Mini, 11 seconds behind and fellow Mini driver, Qatar’s 2011 champion Nasser Al-Attiyah, in third, 47 seconds back.

France’s double defending champion Stephane Peterhansel, in a third Mini, and seeking a 12th overall title (after six on motorcycles and five in cars), suffered a puncture and was down in sixth place, 4min 21sec behind Sousa.

Barreda clocked a time of 2hr 25min 31sec to take the motorcycle stage with Spanish compatriot Marc Coma, on a KTM, 37 seconds behind.

Frenchman Cyril Despres, the defending champion and seeking a sixth career title, was in third, 1min 40sec off the provisional leader.

“I’m really happy with the first stage. At the beginning I had some trouble easing into the race due to a slight problem with the suspension, but afterwards everything went smoothly,” said Barreda.

“We’ll work on it to ride even faster tomorrow. I’ll try to keep up this pace in the next few stages.”