Buenos Aires  - Qatari driver Nasseer al-Attiyah claimed the first stage of motorsport's Dakar Rally on Saturday, ahead of Spaniard Carlos Sainz, one of the pre-race favourites.

Al-Attiyah in a BMW X3 of the German X-Raid team finished the 371-kilometre stretch from Buenos Aires to Santa Rosa de la Pampa with a time of 2:36.15 hours.

He enjoyed a lead of 2 minutes 17 seconds over Sainz in a Volkswagen Touareg. VW also had South African driver Giniel de Villiers third, 2:40 back, and Mark Miller of the United States fourth, 4:21 behind al-Attiyah.

Best performance for Mitsubishi, which is looking for its 13th Dakar triumph and its eighth in succession, came from 2006 winner Luc Alphand of France with a deficit of 4:41.

French team-mate Stephane Peterhansel, nine-time winner of the rally and champion from the last edition in 2007, followed 10 seconds further back.

Spaniard Marc Coma won the motorcycle stage with a 22.05-minute lead over Polish KTM team-mate Jacek Czachor.

The race has been switched from Africa to South America after last year's was called off amid fears of terrorist attacks.

A total of 539 cars, motorcycles, quads and trucks are driving across 10 Argentine provinces and three Chilean provinces over 15 days. (dpa)