Jan 4 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's ‌defending Dakar Rally champion Yazeed Al-Rajhi struggled on ‌Sunday's first full stage on home terrain, clocking ‌up 16 minutes of penalties as X-Raid Mini driver Guillaume de Mevius took the lead.

Al-Rajhi was penalised for missing a waypoint and ‍speeding and ended up nearly 29 minutes ‍off the Belgian's lead ‌with 12 more stages of the endurance event to ‍come over ​the next two weeks in Saudi Arabia.