Daniel Sanders back in 2026 Dakar Rally lead after Marathon conclusion

Daniel Sanders is back in the lead of the 2026 Dakar Rally in the RallyGP class following the conclusion of the fifth stage.

Stage 5 marked the end of this year’s Marathon Stage which began with Wednesday’s Stage 4. 

Wednesday saw Sanders slip behind the Honda duo of Toscha Schareina and Ricky Brabec on the overall Dakar classification, the Spanish-American pair tied on time but with Schareina ahead thanks to his six-second win on Stage 4.

However, on Stage 5 Sanders regained the initiative. He was only fourth-fastest on the stage itself, but that time was enough to give him back the lead by 2’02’’ over Brabec.

The stage was won by Luciano Benavides ahead of Nacho Cornejo by 3’51’’. The Argentinian was 5’50’’ faster than his Red Bull KTM teammate Sanders and is now only 5’55’’ off the lead.

It was a performance good enough to put Benavides into the podium positions in third place, thanks also to a 10-minute penalty for Schareina for failing to leave the Bivouac in the morning between the exit flags. It’s a very costly penalty for the HRC rider who was classified 12th in the stage and dropped 19’13’’ to Benavides, including his penalty time. Schareina, leader after Stage 4, is now fourth after the fifth stage and almost 12 minutes off the leading Sanders.

Cornejo’s strong performance on Stage 5 has seen him climb to fifth overall ahead of Skyler Howes who was only 15th in the stage and dropped almost 22 minutes to the fastest time.

In the Ultimate class, Mitch Guthrie rebounded from his disappointing Stage 4 performance to win the Al-Ula – Hail stage by just over a minute ahead of Nani Roma. Roma was the fastest through the stage but picked up a 1’10’’ penalty for speeding. Martin Prokop made it an all-Ford top-three in the stage, two minutes down on Guthrie’s time. 

Henk Lategan had taken the lead on Wednesday, and held onto it on Thursday despite dropping almost 13 minutes to Guthrie and finishing down in 16th on the stage after having to open the stage for the first time this week. His lead is now 3’17’’ over Nasser Al-Attiyah who was only one place better than him in Stage 5.

Mattias Ekstrom remains the leading Ford driver in the overall rankings, now third and 5’38’’ off the lead. Behind him are the three other factory Ford drivers of Roma (6’59’’ off the lead), Carlos Sainz (8’33’’ off the lead), and Guthrie (16’23’’ off the lead).

Behind the Fords come the Dacias of Lucas Moraes and Sebastien Loeb, 17’11’’ and 17’55’’ off the lead, respectively. Mathieu Serradori and the aforementioned Prokop complete the top-10 now and are both within 20 minutes of the lead.

Friday’s sixth stage is set to head from Hail to Riyadh over a route of more than 900km in total, split between 589km of liaison and 331km of special.