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The Dakar Rally will have a new winner in the motorcycle category this year after reigning champion Sam Sunderland crashed out with a broken shoulder in the rocky opening stage in Saudi Arabia.
The Briton, who also won the event on two wheels in 2017, has now failed to finish the endurance rally six times out of 10 starts.
The 33-year-old GasGas rider was 10th fastest in Saturday's prologue and fastest at the first checkpoint on Sunday before falling at the 52km mark in the 368km special stage inland and along the shores of the Red Sea.
Suffering from back pain, he was flown to Yanbu for medical attention.
In an Instagram post, Sunderland thanked people for sending messages of support.
"I am more or less OK, a broken shoulder blade, big haematoma on my back and a concussion, I feel quite embarrassed to be laid here typing this out, being out of Dakar on day one is a tough pill to swallow," he wrote.
"I felt really good this morning and was leading for the short part of the stage I rode then I have missed a stone under the sand in a river bed and had a pretty violent crash.
Sunderland thanked fellow competitor, Austrian Matthias Walkner, for stopping to check if he was alright, and to the race medical crew for making sure he was safe.
His exit leaves Daniel Sanders as the sole GasGas rider in this year's event.
The Australian was the provisional winner of stage one before a two-minute time penalty for speeding left him 45 seconds behind leader Ricky Brabec, riding a Honda, in fifth place overall.
His fellow countryman, Toby Price, winner of Saturday's prologue, finished third behind Red Bull KTM teammate Kevin Benavides.
Racing for the first time since crashing out of the 2022 Dakar Rally, Sanders was delighted to be back in the saddle.
"It was a long year without racing in rallies, so I got my rhythm back," he told dakar.com.
"I spent the first part of the day getting the lowdown on the bike, as I'd never ridden it before.
"I didn't make any blunders. It feels good to be back, especially in the Dakar.
"I went under the knife several times this year, so I'm approaching the race with caution."
In the car category, Spaniard Carlos Sainz took his 42nd career stage win to lead for Audi, 10 seconds clear of France's nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team.
"It was a good stage, a clear stage for us. No mistakes, no punctures," Loeb, 48, said.
Qatar's reigning champion Nasser al Attiyah was sixth overall for Toyota.
The 45th edition of the Dakar is being held entirely in Saudi Arabia for the fourth time and ends in Dammam on the Gulf coast on January 15.
AAP / Reuters