Friday wins leave Al Attiyah, Brabec in control
Five-time Dakar Car winner, Qatari Nasser Al Attiyah and Belgian Fabian Lurquin, and three-time Bike winner Ricky Brabec put a firm hand on Nasser’s their next victories with a compelling penultimate stage wins in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia on Friday. Al Attiya’s Dacia Sandrider now leads Spaniards Nani Roma and Alex Haro’s Ford Raptor by a quarter of an hour in the Cars, while Brabec moved into a handy Bike lead over Argentine Kevin Benavides.
Thursday winners, Ford Raptor trio, German factory crew Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist, French privateers, Romain Dumas and Alex Winocq and Spanish double World Rally Champion and four-time Dakar winner Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz opened the way on Friday’s 311 km route starting with fast tracks before tightening into rocky tracks, dry river and a few dunes.
Overall leaders, Al-Attiyah and Lurquin set off well back in 14th while second men, Spanish former car and bike winner Roma and Haro started in eleventh behind third men overall, French nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger’s Dacia. Starting 23rd after losing over four hours when a tiny broken bolt required a major repair in the field on Thursday, former overall contenders Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings only sought victory to make up for their disappointment of falling out of the lead battle in their Overdrive Toyota Hilux.
Lategan, Cummings were quick early on
Lategan and Cummings were indeed quick early on, but not quite as quick as US factory Ford Raptor crew Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch, who led the Toyota by 25 seconds. The pace up front was frenetic but the Americans lost time, leaving Al Attiyah leading Loeb, Ekstrom and Lategan, all of them within fifteen seconds, with Aussie former bike winner Toby Price and Armand Monleon’s Overdrive Hilux and South African Guy Botterill and Spaniard Oriol Mena’s SVR version also within a minute of the lead.
It was all change at mid distance as Ekstrom led Attiyah by 44 seconds from Loeb, with Sainz up to fourth from Price, Roma, Botterill, American Seth Quintero and Andrew Short’s Overdrive Hilux and the luckless Lategan back to ninth. From there however, it was all about one man. Nasser Al Attiyah effectively put the finishing touches on his sixth Dakar victory with a crushing 50th Dakar day win on the penultimate stage over Price, who overhauled Ekstrom for second from Price, Polish privateers Eryk Goczal and Szymon Gospodarczyk’s Hilux, a resurgent Guthrie and Lategan, and Loeb.
South Africans, Botterill ended ninth, SVR Hilux teammates Saood Variawa and Frenchman Francois Cazalet fifteenth, and Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer 18th ahead of French Century Factory CR-7 teammates Mathieu Serradori and Loïc Minaudier.
Botterill was in the Car top ten again
Overall, Nasser Al Attiyah and his Dacia Sandrider’s almost quarter hour lead over Nani Roma’s Ford Raptor should be enough, even if the fat lady may not yet have sung. Mattias Ekstrom’s Ford moved to third, just 30 seconds cleat of Sebastien Loeb with Carlos Sainz a comfortable fifth from the ever impressive Serradori in his Century, who has just 18 seconds in hand over Brazilian Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz in another Dacia, Toyota men Price and Quinteiro with Guthrie’s Ford in tenth.
Of South African interest, Saood Variawa and Guy Botterill’s Toyotas lie 11th and 14th, Brian Baragwanath 16th and Henk Lategan 21st. Former SA Bike hero Stuart Gregory sits 52nd navigating for German amateur Jurgen Schroder and South African WCT Amarok.
In the other classes, Kevin Benavides led T3 Challenger where Pau Navarro’s similar Taurus led overall with Stellenbosch lass Puck Klaassen a fine fifth in her KTM. World Rallycross champion Johan Kristofferson appeared to be en route to a maiden T4 SSV win for Polaris with Brock Heger’s similar device in complete control overall, where South African navigator Denis Murphy rides 27th alongside US driver Lawrence Jalensky.
Brabec strikes in the bikes
Sarah Price led the regular Defender Stock 1-2-3 over Stefan Peterhansel and Rokas Baciuska who comfortably leads Price and Peterhansel overall, and Iveco top two overall Vito Zala led Ales Loprais in the Trucks. South African mechanic Grant Ballington in Czech Tomas Tomecek’s Tatra, two paces clear of Mozambican Paulo Oliveira navigating in Spaniard Alberto Herrero’s Scania.
On two wheels, 34-year-old Californian Ricky Brabec is on the verge of adding a third Dakar victory in eleven starts to his 2020 and 2024 wins for Honda after a decisive day in the saddle in Friday’s penultimate stage. Brabec started the day second behind Argentine Luciano Benacvides’ KTM but soon whittled his 23 second deficit down and powered on to a decisive stage 12 win to take an overall lead into Saturdays short 105 km sprint to the finish.
Effectively the start of a two-day sprint to the finish, Friday’s 311 km route began with fast tracks before tightening into rocky tracks, dry riverbeds, and some dunes. Thursday Bike winner, Utah man Skyler Howes, the 125th rider to ever win a Dakar stage, opened the way ahead of Honda teammate Adrien Van Beveren and KTM lad Spaniard Edgar Canet.
Benavides dropped to second Friday
All eyes were however on the dice for the overall lead, which started tighter than the fight of the day. Second overall, Brabec admitted to slowing towards the end of Thursday’s stage, to be sure to start behind leader Benavides. The Argentine led Brabec by 25 seconds at the opening waypoint and by 48 seconds overall, but Brabec was ahead by the second split as he sat just a second behind overall.
Over two minutes behind them, South African Michael Docherty led Rally 2 in third on the road on his BAS KTM from Honda trio, Spaniards Tosha Schareina and Rally 2 lad Martim Ventura, and Frenchman van Beveren. Motswana Ross Branch sat ninth on his Hero Moto, former leader and 2025 winner Daniel Sanders rode injured in 14th on his KTM ahead of South African Bradley Cox’s Sherco. Original leader Benjamin Melot’s KTM meantime shadowed no-service original challenger Josep Pedro.
Brabec had opened a minute and 24 second advantage over Benavides to lead by a minute at the mid-stage mark with the changing pack holding station behind. The Californian was over three minutes clear approaching the 200 km mark, but Benavides was riding tactically close to stage opener Howes to accumulate road-opening bonus seconds and keep the overall deficit to just over two minutes.
Seven 2026 Rally 2 wins for SA’s Docherty
That was nowhere near enough for Benavides as Brabec piled on the pressure to lead by four minutes on the road and closer to three minutes overall at three-quarter distance. The gap remained consistent from there to the finish to leave Brabec leading by 3 minutes 20 seconds. Schareina consolidated his third overall with third on the day from now seven-time Rally 2 winner Docherty, van Beveren and Ventura.
Ross Branch was seventh and retains eighth overall with Cox provisionally 12th and Sanders a steely 15th to end a close firth overall, ten seconds behind Howes. Mulec leads Rally 2 by just over 6 minutes from Honda rider Preston Campbell and Melot was won to move 19 minutes clear of Pedro in Original.
All that remains of Dakar 2026 is a short 105 kilometre loop around Yanbu on Saturday. Which is more than enough to change everything! Your Dakar Report is powered by Toyota Gazoo Racing and Tork Craft tools.
