Off the hook Attiyah leads Ekstrom, Roma & Lategan into Week 2
German Factory Ford Raptor duo, Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist benefited last sector dramas for South Africans Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings’ Overdrive Toyota Hilux to win the seventh stage of the 2026 Dakar Rally. KTM meantime tightened its grip on the Dakar 2926 Bike race when Argentine Luciano Benavides dominated Monday’s seventh stage and the first day of the second week on Sunday.
Lategan and Cummings’ had dominated the day to move ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin in to the virtual overall lead, but the Toyota duo lost time with a damper failure in the final 50 kilometres to allow Ekstrom to take the day and pass them overall, and Attiyah back into the race lead. On the Bikes, Defending champion and Benavides’ teammate Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders put in an epic ride to come in third and triple his overall lead margin.
65 of the 72 Ultimate, and 187 of the original 202 four wheelers that started the race on Saturday 3 January, lined up to commence the second week of the 2026 Dakar Rally. They faced a varied 459 kilometre day of fast and sandy tracks as well as third of the distance across the dunes en route to Wadi ad-Dawasir on Sunday.
Lategan and Ekstrom battled early on
Friday winners and overall leaders, Qatari five-time Dakar winner Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin’s Dacia Sandrider led the field away, but there was a pleasant surprise as Frenchmen Mathieu Serradori and Loïc Minaudier were quickest through the first waypoint in their Made in SA Century Factory CR-7. German Raptor duo Ekström and Bergkvist and two Overdrive Gazoo Toyota Hiluxes, American Seth Quintero and Andrew Short and Lategan and Cummings followed.
Lategan and Ekstrom then fought over the lead with Quinteiro in chase before Lategan opened a gap. Aussie former bike winner Toby Price and Armand Monleon were up to fourth in another Overdrive Hilux from at 100 km. Lategan relentlessly piled on the pace to grab the virtual lead at the 339 km eighth waypoint but hit damper trouble in the final sector to plummet down the field.
That left Ekstrom to take the day and become the first driver to win more than once in 2026, from Portuguese SVR Hilux crew, João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro, US Factory Ford Raptor men Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch, Price’s Hilux, French nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulangers’ Dacia and Quinteiro’s Hilux. Serradori followed in eighth in the Century from Spanish Ford Raptor crews Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz and Nani Roma and Álex Haro.
Serradori continues to impress for Century
Lategan’s delay allowed Al Attiyah to regain the overall advantage by almost five minutes from Ekstrom and Roma. Lategan now rides seven minutes adrift in fourth from, Sainz, Loeb, Guthrie and Serradori. South Africans, Guy Botterill and Saood Variawa’s Toyotas were 14th and 15th, and Brian Baragwanath 22nd in his Century. Variawa sits 12th, Botterill 17th and Baragwanath 21st overall.
Bike convert Kevin Benavides led overall leader Dani Akeel and Ignacio Casale in T3 Unlimited, while T4 Side by Sides overall leader Brock Heger was ahead of Chaleco Lopez and Joao Monteiro in the. Stock overall leader Rokas Baciuska once again led a Land Rover Defender 1-2-3 over teammates Stéphane Peterhansel and Sara Price, and overall leaders Ales Loprais and Vaidotas Sala’s Ivecos led the way in the trucks.
Sunday’s In the Bike race, Honda Factory CRF450 duo Californian Ricky Brabec and Spaniard Tosha Schareina and defending champion, Sanders’ KTM set off at the head of the remaining 99 of 115 Bike starters. Affected by running up front on the road, Schareina was 14th, Brabec 19th and Sanders 21st through the first control.
Benavides dominated the Bike race
Benavides led the way from Portuguese Rally 2 leader, rookie Martim Ventura’s Factory Honda, Botswana Tork Craft rider Ross Branch on his Hero Moto 450 Rally, Frenchman Adrien van Beveren’s Factory Honda and Chilean Ignacio Cornejo’s second Factory Hero Moto. It was all change behind Benavides 100 km later, with van Beveren up to second from a fast recovering Sanders, Branch, Cornejo and South African Michael Docherty, who popped up as the Rally 2 leader with compatriot Bradley Cox’ Sherco on the fringes of the top ten.
First on the road, Brabec languished in 16th as Benavides made off up front, leaving Sanders and van Beveren scrapping for second with Branch, Docherty and Cornejo in chase. Benavides duly scored his second stage win of the race with van Beveren second from Sanders, who did well to minimise the effect of opening the road. Behind them, Edgar Canet was fourth on the third Factory KTM from US rider Skyler Howes’ Honda, Rally 2 winner Docherty, Ross Branch, Schareina and Cornejo.
Further back, Ricky Brabec lost nine minutes opening the road en route to a provisional tenth as he slipped three minutes to 4m 25 seconds behind overall leader Daniel Sanders with Luciano Benavides now just fifteen seconds adrift in third. Ignacio Cornejo sits fourth from Adrien van Beveren, fifteenth on the day, Durban lad Bradley Cox’s Sherco, Ross Branch and new Rally 2 leader, Slovenian Toni Mulec’s KTM in tenth, while Spaniard Josep Pedrero’s Husqvarna continued to lead no-service Original class.
Chucky leads the Bike race for KTM
Monday brings the longest special of Dakar 2025 in a 481 km loop around Wadi ad-Dawasir Your Dakar Report is powered by Toyota Gazoo Racing and Tork Craft tools.
