2026 Dakar victory changes hands on final stage in dramatic finish

The 2026 Dakar Rally has been decided by just two seconds in the RallyGP class, with the leadership changing hands in the final stage.

Honda’s Ricky Brabec led going into Saturday’s 13th and final stage of the 2026 Dakar. His gap was 3’20’’ over KTM’s Luciano Benavides, who had only 105km of special on Saturday to close that margin.

Benavides was successful in his quest, though, finishing second in the stage, six seconds behind his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing teammate Edgar Canet, who ended his first Dakar in the RallyGP class 32nd overall having picked up six hours of penalties late in the first week.

It was not a spectacular time from Benavides, but it gave him the difference over Brabec he needed to clinch victory, thanks to a navigational error just 7km from the finish by Brabec, who finished the stage ninth and 3’28’’ off the winning time of Canet. What looked to be a nailed on second Dakar win for Brabec after Friday turned into a maiden victory on the rally for Benavides in that single error.

Tosha Schareina was third on the stage and finished the rally third overall, meaning two Hondas on the podium with himself and Brabec .

Behind, Skyler Howes took fourth place and Daniel Sanders held on to a top-five spot by just over 90 seconds despite riding the previous three days with a broken sternum and collarbone.

Adrien van Beveren was sixth, ahead of Nacho Cornejo, the Hero rider completing as the top-placed rider from neither KTM nor Honda. Ross Branch, Toni Mulec, and rookie Preston Campbell completed the top-10.

The Ultimate class saw substantially less drama: Dacia driver Nasser Al-Attiyah held on to the lead he took on Friday and winning his sixth Dakar by 9’42’’. Second was Nani Roma, while his Ford teammate Mattias Ekstrom was third overall, meaning the second Dacia of Sebastien Loeb missed out on the podium by 37 seconds in the end.