Daniel Sanders continues to lead 2026 Dakar Rally after gruelling sixth stage

Daniel Sanders continues to lead the 2026 Dakar Rally after Stage 6, which stretched for over 900km in total.

Of those, only 326km were special, and Sanders was only third-fastest through, dropping 1’17’’ to Honda’s Ricky Brabec who won the stage, after picking up six minutes in penalty time for speeding.

Brabec is now 45 seconds behind Sanders in the overall ranking, and 9’30’’ ahead of Luciano Benavides who retains third place.

Toscha Schareina was second-fastest on the stage and is now less than two minutes behind Benavides in the battle for third place into which Schareina was dumped on Thursday when he picked up a 10-minute penalty.

Nacho Cornejo remains fifth after Stage 6, and is now almost half-an-hour off the win and nearly 20 minutes behind Schareina ahead. He’s just over two minutes ahead of Skyler Howes in sixth, the American with 24 minutes behind him to his HRC teammate Adrien van Beveren.

The fifth HRC bike is ridden by US rookie Preston Campbell, now ninth overall as he approaches the end of the first week of his first Dakar.

In the Ultimate class, Nasser Al-Attiyah has now taken the lead by over six minutes from Henk Lategan who led at the end of the previous two days. 

Al-Attiyah won stage six by almost three minutes ahead of his Dacia teammate Sebastien Loeb who is now up to sixth overall and less than 10 minutes away from the podium (and 17’36’’ off the lead of Al-Attiyah).

Loeb’s ascent to sixth has disrupted the 3-4-5-6 Ford held in the overall standings after Thursday, with Mitch Guthrie dropping to seventh after setting the 11th-best time on Stage 6.

The Fords ahead of Loeb have also changed order, with Mattias Ekstrom dropping to fifth and Nani Roma jumping up to third, with Carlos Sainz fourth. Roma remains within 10 minutes of the lead, while Sainz is 11’49’’ back, and Ekstrom is 12’11’’ adrift.

Saturday will be this year’s rest day. The 2026 Dakar will resume on Sunday with an almost-900km (462km of special) stage from Riyadh to Wadi Ad Dawasir.