Honda takes control of 2026 Dakar Rally with dominant Marathon performance

Toscha Schareina now leads Ricky Brabec on the 2026 Dakar Rally in the RallyGP class after a second consecutive stage win on Wednesday.

Schareina won Tuesday’s Stage 3 to close the gap to Daniel Sanders in the overall Dakar standings despite a crash. On Wednesday, he won by six seconds in the first half of the two-day Marathon Stage over Brabec while Sanders was only fifth and 2’37’’ off the winning pace of the Spaniard.

The six-second difference between the victorious Schareina and second-placed Brabec means the teammates are now on equal time at the top of the overall standings. Schareina takes the lead courtesy of his faster time on Stage 4.

The third HRC rider, Skyler Howes, was third-fastest on Stage 4, making it a Honda 1-2-3 on the stage, and is now seventh overall, 14 minutes off the lead having picked up two minutes of penalties.

Sanders is now third overall and 1’24’’ off the lead after the fourth stage. His teammate Edgar Canet remains fourth overall and now over 11 minutes off the lead, the 20-year-old having finished Stage 4 eighth-fastest. Luciano Benavides now completes a KTM 3-4-5 in the overall standings, just under two minutes behind Canet and 13 minutes off the lead.

Hero had its best showing of the rally so far on Stage 4 thanks to Ross Branch’s fourth-best time. The Botswana native is now sixth overall and 50 seconds behind Benavides.

In the Ultimate class, there were more substantial changes in Stage 4. Ford held the top-five positions after Stage 3, but now Toyota’s Henk Lategan leads by almost four minutes from Dacia’s Nasser Al-Attiyah, Lategan beating Al-Attiyah by 7’03’’ on Stage 4. 

The leading Ford is now Mattias Ekstrom in third, 13 minutes off the lead. Carlos Sainz is now fourth and a further 2’53’’ back.

Century’s Mathieu Serradori completes the top-five and is 16’53’’ off the lead.

Mitch Guthrie won a stage and led for the first time in his career on Tuesday, but dropped 43 minutes on Wednesday and dropped to 13th overall with almost half-an-hour separating him from Lategan.

Between the two halves of the Marathon Stage, there is no work allowed to be done on the machines by anyone other than the riders and drivers, and the overnight bivouac is extremely barebones. Thursday’s 356km of special from Al-Ula to Hail will complete the Marathon.