Spain's Carlos Sainz won the opening stage of the Central Europe Rally in Taborfalva, Hungary ahead of American Robby Gordon and South African Giniel de Villiers.

Volkswagen driver Sainz's time of 39 minutes and 56 seconds was 41 seconds ahead of Gordon and 56 quicker than De Villiers.

Another Spaniard, Marc Coma, won the motorbikes race from Cyril Despres of France and Jordi Viladoms, also of Spain.

Coma's margin of victory was one minute and 40 seconds in the 40-minute race.

The Central Europe Rally is the maiden event of the Dakar Series, which was set up as a result of the enforced postponement of the Dakar Rally due to threats of terrorism.

There will be seven stages, taking in over 1,670 miles of terrain - both on closed circuits and public highways.

"This race does make up for the Dakar," Gordon said after the completion of the first stage, which was a timed closed event.

"I was disappointed because we have a lot of sponsors - and if there was no event, how do you explain to them that they still have to pay because we spent the money?

"By having this event this year, I believe they saved our team and maybe even some of the others."

Less than three minutes separated the top eight drivers at the 63km loop south-east of Budapest.

The field features several stars from the Dakar, as well as former World Rally champion Sainz.

Nine-times winner Stephane Peterhansel, his French countryman Luc Alphand and Spaniard Nani Roma are also competing.

Mitsubishi driver Peterhansel, fourth on the day, said of the course: "The ground was fairly sandy and the road quite narrow.

"The main feature of the stage, however, was the seemingly never-ending succession of small jumps. You could never quite predict how difficult each jump would be.

"We need to start fast and take more risks because of the short stages. If you want to have a chance to win, you need to push fast from the first kilometre to the last."

The next stages are at Baia Mare in Romania on Monday and Tuesday before the race returns to Hungary.

Jonathan Symcox / Eurosport