Al Attiyah back ahead of Lategan on a mad day to Bisha
Frenchmen Mathieu Serradori and Loïc Minaudier utterly dominated the tenth stage of Dakar 2026 aboard their South African built Century Factory CR-7. On another day that saw the leaderboard chop and change, Nasser Al Attiyah enjoyed a relatively untroubled day to second to return to the overall lead from South African Henk Lategan, while Ford trio Nani Roma, Carlos Sainz and Mattias Ekstrom dropped down the order.
Argentinian Luciano Benavides benefited KTM teammate Daniel Sanders crashing to jump into a slender Dakar 2025 Bike lead over Honda rider Ricky Brabec on Stage 10 Wednesday. French Honda rider Adrien van Beveren sped to victory while South African Michael Docherty romped to a sixth Rally 2 win. Sanders dropped to fourth overall after limping home. SA riders Ross Branch and Bradley Cox also hobbled to the line.
A dune-rich 371 km run, Stage 10 headed from the second desert no-service Marathon bivouac to Bisha. Starting fourteenth among the cars, Qatari five-time Dakar winner Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin’s Dacia initially led Serradori and Minaudier and German factory Ford Raptor men Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist. Ekström was in front at the next waypoint from Serradori and Brazilian Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz’s Sandrider as Attiyah slipped into the chasing bunch. Serradori and Minaudier then blasted ahead in their relative minnow Century.
Al Attiyah is back in the car lead
Unlike on previous days, the French crew increased their initial advantage all the way to storm home a most impressive 6 minutes and 12 seconds clear of Al Attiyah. But behind them, it was drama all the way. First Ekström ground to a halt with a mechanical issue before limping on. At the same time, Al Attiyah swept past Roma to lead the virtual standings, with South Africans, Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings’ Overdrive Hilux up to second overall.
By mid-distance, Serradori led Attiyah, Moraes, and Lategan on the road. Lategan passed Moraes and closed down on Nasser but later slipped back. Up front, Serradori stormed home to a mammoth victory over Dacia Sandrider trio, Al Attiyah, resurgent French nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger, and Moraes and Zenz.
South African Toyota drivers, SVR crew Guy Botterill, and Spaniard Oriol Mena in sixth from another Kyrgyzstani independent Ford Raptor crew Denis Krotov and Konstantin Zhiltsov, who pipped and Lategan and Cummings in eighth. South African Champion Saood Variawa and Frenchman Francois Cazalet’s SVR Hilux were 15th, while Ekstrom came home 22nd and SA crew Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer Century Factory CR-7 provisionally 40th.
Lategan clings onto second
Overall, Nasser Al Attiyah leads Henk Lategan’s Toyota by a relatively comfy 12 minutes. Ninth on the day, Nani Roma’s Raptor sits just 50 seconds further back in third, ten minutes clear of Sebastien Loeb, and incredibly Mattheu Serradori’s Century another ten adrift on fifth. A splendid effort by the small South African team. Ekstrom and Ford teammate Carlos Sainz drop to sixth and seventh, while South Africans, Variawa lies tenth, Botterill eleventh and Baragwanath 17th.
Elsewhere Dutch driver Paul Sperings took his second T3 Challenger win on the trot with Yasir Seidan in a healthy class lead, while Brock Heger further consolidated his T4 SSV advantage with another win. Rockas Baciuska headed another Defender 1-2-3 in Stock to open his lead there, and Ales Loprais headed Iveco teammate and overall leader Vitor Zala to the Truck day.
On two wheels, third overall, Benavides set the opening checkpoint ablaze as he led Honda men, Californian Ricky Brabec and Frenchman Adrien van Beveren, Rally 2 leader Michael Docherty, Chilean Ignacio Cornejo’s Hero, and overall leader Daniel Sanders KTM.
Benavides vs. Brabec on the bikes
Van Beveren led Benavides, Brabec and Docherty 100 kilometres later, but there was huge drama when leader Sanders crashed heavily. With a little help from Brabec, Sanders hobbled back onto the bike. He struggled to keep pace from there plummeting down the day order. At 200 km, van Beveren led Benavides and Cornejo, with Docherty in a 3-way Rally 2 duel with Slovenian Toni Mulec’s KTM and Italian Paolo Lucci’s Honda.
Further back, Sanders had lost 20 minutes and the overall lead to the duelling Benavides and Brabec. Also struggling, patched up Motswana Ross Branch and his patched up Hero Moto lost time as he made steady progress following his two Tuesday crashes and no service overnight. Fellow former South African champion Bradley Cox was slowed with a clutch issue on his Sherco.
Up front, van Beveren took over from Benavides, Cornejo, Rally 2 leader Mulec, Brabec and Docherty. The Frenchman duly took the day from Benavides, Howes, Brabec, Cornejo and Docherty, who recovered to take yet another Rally 2 day win from Mulec. Branch rode home a provisional tenth with Sanders losing 27 minutes to 13th between Original men Ben Melot 12th, and Josep Perdo 15th and ahead of the struggling Cox.
Another day win for Docherty
Overall Luciano Benavides’ KTM leads Ricky Brabec by all of 41 seconds with Honda teammate Tosha Schareina third, 16 minutes adrift. Daniel Sanders is just 17 seconds further back in fourth from Howes, van Beveren, Cornejo, Branch and Cox ninth in Rally GP. Despite not winning a stage, Honda’s Preston Campbell leads Rally 2 by three minutes from Toni Mulec and Ben Melot leads Josep Perdo by eight minutes in Original.
Three days and just shy of 800 km of racing remain of Dakar 2026, starting with Thursday’s 347 km ride to Al Henakiyah. Your Dakar Bike Report is powered by Tork Craft tools and Toyota Gazoo Racing.
