A great day for South Africa in the dunes of Dakar
South Africans Saood Variawa and French Navigator Francois Cazalet, and Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings fought back to a Toyota 1-2 on Monday’s eighth stage of Dakar 2026. Lategan and Cummings also clawed back to third overall. Their rivals, German Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist’s Ford Raptor in second overall, and leaders, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin Dacia Sandrider followed the Overdrive Toyota Hilux duo home, while Stellenbosch lass Puck Klaasen won again in T3 Challenger.
Luciano Benavides meantime delivered a brilliant day of navigation to rack up over seven minutes of road-opening bonus to win Monday’s Bike stage. His victory moved the Argentine into a ten second overall Dakar 2026 lead over Factory KTM teammate Daniel Sanders.
Monday’s longest 483 km special of Dakar 2026 started fast before a series of dunes and then quick tracks to the north for a little rocky running, before winding back to the service bivouac. US crew Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch were quick off the mark in the Cars their Ford Raptor to lead Frenchmen Mathieu Serradori and Loïc Minaudier, once again fast through the opening sector in their Century Factory CR-7.
Lategan & Cummings took control
Second overall, Ekström and Bergkvist’s Raptor followed from American Seth Quintero and Andrew Short’s Overdrive Gazoo Toyota Hilux, a resurgent Belgian Guillaume de Mevius and Mathieu Baumel in their Mini John Cooper Works and Brazilian Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz’ Dacia Sandrider. Fourth overall, Lategan and Cummings followed from third men, Spaniards, former car and bike winner Nani Roma and Álex Haro’s Ford Raptor, two places clear of overall leader, Qatari five-time Dakar winner, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin’s Dacia Sandrider.
Just twelve seconds separated the entire top twelve. Lategan then took advantage albeit by just five seconds from Guthrie, Roma, French nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger, Al Attiyah and Moraes’ Sandriders all within 30 seconds. Once again, Lategan commanded the pace as he opened up the gap up front, passed Roma and closed down on Erickson in second in the virtual overall standings.
On the road, Guthrie was second from Loeb, Al Attiyah, Roma and Quinteiro. Lategan however lost almost a minute in the following sector as Guthrie moved ahead of Loeb, Roma, Lategan, Attiyah, Quinteiro and Ekstrom with the top end of the virtual leaderboard swapping places as quickly as the live action. Guthrie then hit a glitch to drop behind Loeb, Lategan back on the charge, Ekstrom, Quinteiro, Guthrie, Attiyah and Roma all within 40 seconds.
Baragwanath was tenth for Century Racing
Lategan was back into the lead by the next waypoint and opened up the advantage to Loeb until Al Attiyah and then Ekstrom moved up to second on the road in defence of his second overall. The top three overall ultimately ended the day in reverse order, Lategan 28 seconds clear of Ekstrom with Attiyah third and a minute thirteen seconds off the pace. Only for the lot of them to be eclipsed by South African Champion Saood Variawa and Frenchman Francois Cazalet’s Gazoo Toyota Hilux .
The rival SVR Hilux duo had run strong well within the pack and sat sixth with a sector to go, but they surprised their rivals by leapfrogging to Saood’s maiden stage win. Quintero likewise clutched his way back to fourth on the day ahead of Attiyah in the end, with Spain’s four-time Dakar winner Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz Ford Raptor sixth from de Mevius in the Mini, Loeb and Roma.
South Africans, Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer ended tenth in their Century Factory CR-7 ahead of teammate Serradori, who lost time after a navigation error in the second segment. They were followed by and Guthrie’s Raptor, while another South African, Guy Botterill and Spaniard Oriol Mena’s SVR Hilux was 18th.
Benavides snuck to bike victory, race lead
Overall, Al Attiyah’s Dacia leads Ekstrom’s Ford by just four minutes with Lategan another two minutes back in third. Roma is nine minutes behind in fourth with Sainz and Loeb close behind. Serradori is eighth, Variawa 143h, Botterill 17th and Baragwanath 18th.
Further back, Stellenbosch lass Puck Klaasen won her second T3 Challenger stage with Pau Navarro still in the overall lead, while Brock Heger consolidated his T4 Side by Side advantage with a win. Sarah Price led Stock leader and Defender teammate Rokas Baciuska as Peterhansel hit trouble, and Martin van der Brink’s MMT was in charge of the Trucks.
Moving over to the Bikes, running tenth on the after suffering the responsibility of opening the road on Sunday, Californian Ricky Brabec took charge from the get-go on his Honda Factory CRF450.
Ross Branch soldiers on
Main rival, 2025 Dakar winner and World Champion, Aussie Daniel Sanders chased as hard as he could to pass the first waypoint second quickest and fourth on the road on his Factory KTM 450 Rally. Honda trio, Utah rider Skyler Howes, Frenchman Adrien van Beveren and Spaniard Tosha Schareina squabbled over third.
Frenchman Neils Theric’s Kove passed South African Michael Dochery for the Rally 2 lead early in the day while compatriot Brad Cox’ Sherco and Botswana rider, Ross Branch’s Hero Moto ran 14th and 15th. Nothing much changed through the next third besides Sanders halving his deficit to Brabec in front and Docherty reclaiming the Rally 2 lead. Joao Pedrero’s Husqvarna controlled his overall Original no-service class lead out front on the day’s stage.
Luciano Benavides then emerged as the dark horse of the day, riding alone up front to benefit maximum relief from the leader’s bonus and shadow teammate Sanders on the stage leaderboard. And overall. That dark horse shone through as Benavides gathered over seven minutes of road opening bonus to take 4 minutes 50 seconds out of teammate Sanders and not only win the day, but to move into a ten second overall lead, too.
Bradley Cox bounced back
Brabec faded to end third as he consolidated what is now third overall, a minute behind the KTMs. Honda teammates, Schareina, van Beveren and Howes followed ahead of Édgar Canet on the third factory KTM. There was late drama in Rally 2 as Dochery wrong slotted to allow Neels Theric to take a third win tor Kove in ninth overall, once again denying Martim Ventura’s Honda a maiden win in the class. Ross Branch rode home 11th, Brad Cox 14th.
Overall behind Benavides, Sanders and Brabec, Schareina sits fourth 20 minutes adrift from Howes, Ignacio Cornejo’s Hero, van Beveren, Branch and Rally 2 leader, Preston Campbell’s Factory Honda, with Brad Cox back up to twelfth after his Sunday issues.
Tuesday is another big day with 418 kilometres of racing to the second no-service Marathon stage bivouac in the middle of the Arabian Desert. Your Dakar Report is powered by Toyota Gazoo Racing and Tork Craft tools.
