Edgar Canet might be the new guy at Red Bull KTM Factory Racing and making his Dakar Rally debut, but he looked like a veteran when he set the fastest time for Rally2 in Friday’s Prologue by a wide margin.

Canet, who only announced his partnership with KTM in late December, recorded a time of 17:03.6. Michael Docherty was the only other Rally2 rider to set a time below 18 minutes, and even then was 35 seconds behind Canet.

Not only did he beat his fellow classmates, Canet’s time was quicker than all but two RallyGP riders including defending winner Ricky babec, whom he edged out by six seconds. Reigning W2RC champ Ross Branch only barely beat Canet by a mere four-tenths of a second.

KTM teammate Daniel Sanders led the way with the only sub-17 time of 16:51.

“It was super fast and that’s what I like,” said Canet. “I caught a rider in front and I think I made a good job.”

Although the Prologue was only 29 kilometers long in timed sections, a mistake as a bike rider (where Prologue times count, unlike in the FIA) could be costly in the big picture. Branch’s Hero colleague José Ignacio Cornejo finished 20th in RallyGP after making a “small mistake and lost some time,” so he’s hoping to make a “strong comeback” in Stage #1.

Harith Noah was an even more brutal case of things going wrong in the Prologue. The defending Dakar Rally2 winner crashed and fractured his wrist, already ending his hopes of repeating.

While the Prologue is not factored into the FIA’s overall results, getting to pick your start position for Stage #1 could go a long way. Thus, Henk Lategan was very relieved to get first pickings when he beat Mattias Ekström by just one second. Nasser Al-Attiyah’s Dacia Sandrider was third and 20 seconds back of Lategan.

Lategan opted to start 11th for Stage #1, while Guillaume de Mévius will be the first one out after finishing 60th in Ultimate.

Americans impressed in the UTV classes. In Challenger, Corbin Leaverton led a Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team 1–2 finish over Gonçalo Guerreiro; Leaverton was the highest finishing non-Ultimate car. Brock Heger, also a Dakar debutant, topped SSV for Polaris.

Juan Morera’s Porsche 959 was the fastest Dakar Classic car, after which he decided to switch from Group H2 (moderate average speed) to H1 (low average speed). Christophe Berteloot, Francisco Benavente, and Dirk van Rompuy also did the same.

In Mission 1000, Benjamín Pascual’s Segway electric bike was the only entry to beat the baseline time by 10% to earn an extra ten bonus points.

Prologue winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	211	Henk Lategan	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	15:28.6
Challenger	33	325	Corbin Leaverton	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	17:17.5
SSV	44	425	Brock Heger*	Sébastien Loeb Racing	17:40.8
Stock	129	500	Akira Miura*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	20:24.5
Truck	57	602	Mitchel van den Brink*	Eurol Rally Sport	18:03.5

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	16:51.7
Rally2	3	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	17:03.6

Other

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Points
Dakar Classic	702	Juan Morera	Momabikes Raid Team	16
Mission 1000	1000	Benjamín Pascual	Segway Racing	20

Featured image credit: Marcelo Maragni / Red Bull Content Pool