Ricky Brabec takes control of 2026 Dakar Rally with one stage to go

Honda’s Ricky Brabec leads the 2026 Dakar Rally after the 12th and penultimate stage of the event.

Brabec went into Friday’s Stage 12 having purposely given up time on Thursday in order to position himself better in the start order for the penultimate stage. It was a tactic that paid off on Friday, with Brabec taking the stage win by 3’43’’ ahead of Luciano Benavides.

It’s a result that means the two go into Saturday’s final stage separated by 3’20’’ in the overall standings with just 105km of special left to run.

Toscha Schareina was third-fastest on the stage and remains third overall, increasingly clear of fourth place which is now held by Skyler Howes, the American making it three Hondas in the top-four positions after overhauling the injured Daniel Sanders, the Australian now fifth overall and only eight minutes ahead of the next Honda of Adrien van Beveren.

In the Ultimate class, Nasser Al-Attihas has seemingly put himself out of reach on the penultimate day, the Qatari driver winning Stage 12 by 1’04’’ over Mitch Guthrie to have an overall lead of 16 minutes now over Nani Roma. Mattias Ekstrom is now third after he and Roma overhauled Sebastien Loeb on Friday, the Frenchman now 23 minutes off the lead, but only 29 seconds behind the final podium spot occupied by Ekstrom.

Even with the disadvantage of opening the road on Saturday, it would surely take a monumental error or mechanical issue to see that 16-minute lead of Al-Attiyah’s erased before the end of the short final stage, which will end this year’s Dakar where it started in Yanbu.