Gazoo Hiluxes fill Car top 5, KTM rules on two wheels
Toyota Gazoo Racing Hiluxes and KTM motorcycles utterly dominated Monday’s second day of the 2026 Dakar Rally. American Seth Quintero and Andrew Short led an Overdrive Racing 1-2-3 over South Africans Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings and Australian former bike winner Toby Price and Armand Monleon. On two wheels, 2025 winner, Aussie Daniel Sanders took control of the Bike race with victory on Tuesday’s 400 kilometre race. Sanders relieved rookie teammate Edgar Canet of the overall lead as KTM remains unbeaten so far this year with Sanders and Canet also 1-2 overall.
For good measure in the cars, 2025 winners, home hero Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk and SVR crew João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro make it an all-Toyota top five. Qatari Nasser Al Attiyah meantime took the overall lead for Dacia, albeit by just seconds over Quinteiro.
Al Rajhi mixed it with factory Hiluxes
When Dakar organisers insert a service point along the route, competitors can expect the going to really be tough. And Tuesday did not disappoint over the rocky tracks across the Hedjaz Mountains before tackling the fast and sandy broad plains. And then a sting in the tail with a few small dunes into Al-Ula. Ferreira and Palmeiro sounded the early Toyota warning as the SVR crew led Sebastien Loeb and Al Attiyah’s Dacias and young South African champion Saood Variawa and Frenchman Francois Cazalet’s SVR Gazoo Hilux through the opening waypoint.
That became a Toyota 1-2-3-4 by the next point as Variawa led Overdrive Hilux crews, Quintero and Al-Rajhi’s similar machines. It soon became a Toyota 1-2-3-4-5 and then the top six, as Quintero led Al Rajhi, Variawa, South African Overdrive duo, Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings, Aussie former bike winner Toby Price and Armand Monleon, and Ferreira and Palmeiro. The focus was by then an inter-Toyota team fight as the European-based Overdrive cars battled the South African SVR versions. With Al Rajhi in the thick of it for good measure.
The status ebbed and flowed as the six Toyota crews led into the final sector. Quinteiro headed Lategan, Al Rajhi, Ferreira and Price as Variawa slipped back. Price however leapfrogged Ferreira and Al Rajhi to make it a splendid Overdrive 1-2-3 and a Gazoo Toyota Hilux top five. Best of the rest, Simon Vitse and Max Delfino’s SMD buggy was sixth from Dacia duo Loeb and Al Attiyah in seventh fand eighth. Three more Toyotas, a disappointed Variawa in between Polish brothers Goczal, Marek and Eryc, rounded off a resounding eight-Toyota rout in the top eleven.
Ferreira led early on for SVR Gazoo Toyota
Sunday winners, Belgian Mini men Guillaume de Mevius and Mathieu Baumel’s were twelfth from the best of the literal army of Ford Raptors, Mattias Ekstrom in an unlucky 13th despite stopping with an issue early on. South African Century Factory CR-7 crews, Frenchmen Mathieu Serradori and Loïc Minaudier and SA duo Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer followed ahead of a line of Raptors and Dacias straddling the top 20 mark. Another South African, Guy Botterill’s SVR Hilux lost half an hour to a puncture.
That has significantly shaken up the overall Dakar 2026 Car order. Ever consistent Al Attiyah’s Dacia now leads, but by just six seconds from Seth Quinteiro’s Toyota, De Mevius in the Mini and the resurgent Lategan. Loeb in fifth remains within two minutes of the lead from Ferreira, Price, Ekstrom, Variawa and Carlos Sainz’ Ford Raptor.
Further back, Mr. Dakar, Stéphane Peterhansel was enjoying a better day ahead of the Stock class pack in his Defender, from virtual class leading teammate Rokas Baciuska and Ronald Basso’s Toyota Land Cruiser. Chilean Taurus driver Lucas Del Rio surprised to lead the T3 Challengers from local hero Yasir Seidan’s similar machine and virtual overall leader Pau Navarro’s Odyssey. Xavier de Soultrait was once again in charge of the T4 Side by Sides in his Polaris from Chaleco Lopez’s Can Am and Goncalo Guerrero’s Polaris. And Martin Macic’s MMT led Vaidotas Zala’s Iveco and overall leader Mitchell van der Brink’s MMT in the Trucks.
KTM is back in Control of the Dakar
Moving on to the Bikes, twenty-time winners in Dakar’s 46-year history, and with an incredible eighteen of those on the trot, Austria’s KTMs once again seem to have it all under control in Saudi Arabia. 2025 winner, Sanders led Canet home with the orange machines also 1-2 overall. Honda riders, Ricky Brabec, Tosha Schareina, Skyer Howes and *Martim Ventura followed the KTMs home as Ventura significantly claimed Honda’s first ever Dakar Rally 2 victory. South Africans, Rally 2 leader Michael Docherty, Ross Branch and Bradley Cox also all enjoyed positive days in the saddle.
Californian Brabec opened the day quickest to the first checkpoint on his Honda Factory CRF450 ahead of World Champion Sanders’ Factory KTM 450 Rally. The Rally 2 top three, Factory Rally 2 Honda duo US rider Preston Campbell and Portuguese rookie Ventura followed each side of South African Rally 2 leader Michael Docherty’s BAS KTM, Motswana Tork Craft rider, Ross Branch’s Hero Moto 450 and Durban Sherco Factory Rally ace Bradley Cox.
Sanders then moved ahead of Brabec, Spanish Honda teammate Tosha Scharena, Ventura and Docherty overall, as Branch and Cox lost time towards mid-distance. Then Schareina and Brabec’s Hondas took turns to lead as Branch fought back. Sanders however kept the best for last and aided by four and a half minutes of road opening bonus, he led Spanish KTM teammate Edgar Canet, with even more opening assistance, home ahead of Honda trio Brabec, Schareina and Utah rider Skyer Howes.
Ventura took Honda’s first Rally 2 win
Ventura pipped Docherty to Honda’s first ever Rally 2 victory in sixth overall with Ross Branch slipping back a few minutes once again to end seventh between them for the day. Argentine Luciano Benavides’ KTM and Frenchman Adrien van Beveren’s Honda closed off the top ten ahead of Chilean Hero Moto rider Ignacio Cornejo, Slovak KTM privateer Stefan Svitko and Brad Cox. Uruguayan Emanuel Gyenes was once again well ahead in the no-service Original class on his KTM.
Sanders thereby moves into a 30 second overall Dakar 2026 lead over KTM teammate Canet. He is the first previous year winner to lead since 2021. Honda men Brabec and Schareina sit third and fourth, with Branch up to fifth from Benavides. Ninth overall, Docherty Leads Rally 2 by all of 19 seconds, with Cox a steady 13th.
Dakar Day 3 comprises a 422 kilometre loop around Al-Ula on Tuesday. Find the Dakar Day 2 Car report here later today. Your Dakar Daily Report is powered by Tork Craft tools and Toyota Gazoo Racing.
*Martim Ventura suffered a penalty to drop behind Branch, and significantly, Michael Docherty, who picked up the Rally 2 win and thus remains unbeaten in class with a hat trick of wins.
