Al Attiyah heads Dakar cars, Sanders tops the bikes
Five-time Dakar winner, Qatari Nasser Al Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin’s Dacia Sandrider emerged from the dust of a wild week of Toyota versus Ford fighting to dominate Friday’s running and lead after the first week of Dakar 2026. South Africans Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings sit second for Toyota ahead of Ford Factory Raptor crew Nanai Roma and Alex Haro. In a week where the previous day’s winners suffered the task of opening the road, the advantage swung wildly between the Ford Raptor and Toyota Hilux crews throughout. But Al Attiyah struck to steal the lead form the lot of them on Friday.
Twenty-time winners in the 46 years of Dakar Rally history, and with an incredible eighteen of those victories on the trot, Austria’s KTM once again has the Bike category under control after the first week. Halfway through this year’s 5000 kilometres of racing, 2025 winner and World Rally Raid Moto Champion, Australian KTM rider Daniel Sanders has built up a 6 minute 45 second advantage over Californian Honda star Ricky Brabec.
The action started with the Prologue on Saturday. Ford Raptor crews, German Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist and US duo Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch earned first dibs on starting positions for Sunday’s opening day. Al-Attiyah and Lurquin’s Dacia had third choice before fourth placed Americans, Seth Quintero and Andrew Short’s Overdrive Gazoo Hilux, and 2025 winners, Saudi home hero Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk. South Africans, Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings’ Overdrive Hilux suffered a puncture, while German Daniel Schröder with SA navigator Henry Köhne rolled their WCT Amarok out of the race.
Sanders, KTM are in charge of the bikes
In an as-ever dramatic first Bike week, Spanish rookie and 2025 Dakar Rally 2 winner Édgar Canet sounded a warning as he became the youngest ever Bike day winner on the Prologue. Botswana rider Ross Branch was second for Hero Moto with Czech Martin Michek third on his new Chinese Hoto Factory 450 Rally. South African privateer Michael Docherty led Rally 2 on his BAS KTM and Uruguayan Emanuel Gyenes held the no-service Original lead on his similar device.
Belgians Guillaume de Mevius and Mathieu Baumel came out of nowhere to win Sunday’s first Car stage. Their Mini had fallen off the car timing sheets due to a transponder glitch, but re-emerged at the finish to demote Al-Attiyah to second ahead of Raptor privateers Martin Prokop and Viktor Chytka, German factory Ford duo Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist and Polish Hilux privateers Marek Goczal and Maciej Marton. South African Guy Botterill and Spaniard Oriol Mena’s SVR Gazoo Hilux was eighth. Elsewhere, new Defender trio Sara Price, Stéphane Peterhansel and Rokas Baciuska ruled the Stock class.
Tork Craft rider Ross Branch and his Indian Hero dominated Sunday’s first 305 km Bike loop around Yanbu. Only to be docked six minutes for speeding and hand the win to Edgar Canet from KTM teammate Sanders. Honda duo, Californian Ricky Brabec and Spaniard Tosha Schareina, Spaniard Luciano Benavides’ KTM and the penalised Branch followed. Spanish Honda rookie Martim Ventura made Docherty work for the Rally 2 win as Uruguayan Emanuel Gyenes led no-service Original.
Toyota dominated Monday
Toyota Gazoo Hiluxes then dominated Monday as Quintero and Short led Lategan and Cummings and Australian former bike winner Toby Price and Armand Monleon to an Overdrive 1-2-3. Portuguese SVR crew Joao Ferreira and Felipe Palmeiro and Al Rajhi and Gottschalk to make it a Hilux top five as Al Attiyah led Quinteiro by six seconds from De Mevius’ Mini and a resurgent Lategan overall. Further back, Peterhansel won as Baciuska led Stock and Martin Macic’s MMT won the trucks, where teammate Mitchell van der Brink led overall. Chilean Lucas Del Rio’s Taurus led T3 Challenger with Pau Navarro’s Odyssey ahead overall and Xavier de Soultrait was in charge of the T4 Side by Sides.
On two wheels, Sanders led Canet home with another orange 1-2 on the day and overall on Monday. Honda riders, Brabec, Schareina and Utah rider Skyer Howes followed as Martim Ventura thought he’d claimed Honda’s first ever Dakar Rally 2 victory. He was however penalised for speeding to hand another win to Rally 2 leader Michael Docherty on a plate.
It was all change at when Ford dominated Tuesday. American Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch’s factory Raptor led Czech privateers Prokop and Chytka with Botterill’s Hilux third. Guthrie shot from fourteenth to lead, while overnight leader Al Attiyah slumped to tenth. The big Tuesday story was however Stellenbosch lass Puck Klaassen making history as the fifth woman ever to win a Dakar stage in her T3 KTM alongside Argentine Augusto Sanz. Yasir Seidan led T3 overall, Brock Heger’s Polaris won the T4 Side-by-Sides, which de Soultrait led. Peterhansel led Baciuska and Price to a Defender Stock 1-2-3 and Ales Loprais’ Iveco beat overall winner Macik’s MMT in the Trucks.
Honda struck back Tuesday
Honda men Schareina and Brabec fought back to a memorable red 1-2 on Tuesday’s tough 422 km loop around Al’Ula on the Bikes. Benavides and Howes followed from Sanders in fifth despite opening the road, Branch, Canet, and van Beveren. So Sanders retained the overall lead over Schareina, Benavides and Branch. Docherty led Rally 2 and Spaniards, and Javi Vega’s Kove and Josep Pedro on a Husqvarna took over the no-service Original battle.
By Tuesday, two of the three Factory Shercos; Indian Rally 2 rider Noah Harith and Spaniard Lorenzo Santolino’s Rally GP version, Slovak Rally GP KTM privateer Stefan Svitko and Rally 2 men, British Kove rider James Hillier and Austrian Hero man Tobias Ebster and South African amateur Ronald Venter’s races had all ended early. And in the cars, home hero, 2025 winnerAl Rajhi ran out of tyres to retire his Hilux.
If Tuesday was a wild change, then Wednesday was even more of a swing as South African Toyota crew Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings dominated to jump from eleventh overall to lead the race with no less than seven Toyotas in the top ten and the best of the Fords only eleventh. Ever consistent Al-Attiyah was third from Polish brothers Goczal, Eryk and Szymon Gospodarczyk and Marek and Maciej Marton as leading crews on the road struggled to open the way. Lategan led Al Attiyah by four minutes overall from Ford men Ekstrom and Sainz and Variawa’s Toyota. Heger won T4, Cavigliasso T3, Peterhansel Stock and Martin Macik the Trucks.
Rally 2 leader Docherty broke a wheel
Wednesday’s first half no service Bike Marathon stage 4 saw just fourteen seconds separate the top four, Honda trio Schareina, Brabec and Howes, and Hero rider Branch. Even more remarkable, Schareina and Brabec were tied in the overall lead. In Rally 2, a broken wheel put paid to dominant Michael Docherty’s overall hopes, leaving Frenchman Niels Theric’s Chinese Kove to claim a maiden win and prevent new leader, US rider Preston Campbell from finally scoring Honda’s maiden class win. Pedrero once again won the Original class.
Thursday once again favoured the late-starting Fords. Roma and Haro pipped Guthrie and Walch only to be relegated back to second on a penalty. Prokop and Chytka made it a Ford 1-2-3 ahead Lucas Moraes, and Dennis Zenz’ Dacia Sandrider as Ekström and Sainz made it five Raptors in the top six. Lategan and Cummings put in the drive of the day opening the road without bike tracks to follow, to retain the overall lead over Attiyah. Elsewhere, Saudi heroine Dania Akeel won T3 where Seaidan led, Kyle Chaney beat overall leader Heger in TW Sara Price won Stock as Baciuska still led and van den Brink beat overall leader in the Trucks.
Day 5, Thursday’s demanding Bike 357 km run from the Marathon bivouac to Ha’il proved another KTM benefit. Luciano Benavides won from Hero rider Ignacio Cornejo, South African Brad Cox’s Sherco, Schareina, Brabec, Rally 2 winner Theric and Sanders. Among the frontrunners, Ross Branch lost an hour with a broken wheel, Édgar Canet stopped for half an hour and Honda rider Adrien van Beveren lost 20 minutes. Overall, Sanders was back into a two-minute overall lead from Schareina, Brabec and Cornejo. Campbell led Rally 2 and Melot Original after Pedrero won the day again.
Roma is the best Ford in third
And then came Friday. Nasser Al Attiyah and Dacia teammates Sebastien Loeb and Eduard Boulanger took their turn to dominate ahead of Toyota trio Quinteiro, Price and Ferreria with Roma the best of the Fords in sixth. Overnight leader Lategan was only twelfth, but that was enough to hang on to second overall, six minutes behind Attiyah and ahead of Roma with three different makes in the top three. His Ford teammates Sainz and Ekstrom follow from Loeb and Guthrie and Matthieu Serradori and Luc Minaudier’s South African Century CR7 at the halfway mark.
Ignacio Casale won the T3 Challenger day where Pau Navarro leads over Nikolas Cavigliasso’s similar Taurus and a resurgent Puck Klaassen, who lost time after her stage win. Xavier de Soultrait took the T4 Side by Side win to close down Broch Heger’s class lead with Kyle Chaney third. Sarah Price beat Stefan Peterhansel and Rokas Baciuska in Friday’s Stock race where the three Defenders now sit in that reverse order overall. Alais Loprais’ Iveco won the Truck day from Mitchel van der Brink, who leads the behemoth race from Vaidotas Zala’s Iveco and Loprais.
Daniel Sanders demolished the Bike opposition to win Friday’s sandy 340 km run to Riyadh ahead of Saturday’s well-earned rest day. Despite his unfavourable starting position, Chucky added almost five minutes to his overall advantage as he stormed home to beat Brabec and Schareina, while a rejuvenated Rally 2 winner, Michael Docherty bounced back in fourth from Honda Rally GP men Howes and van Beveren.
Branch has had a tough two days
Which leaves Daniel Sanders leading the Dakar 2026 Bike race by almost seven minutes from Ricky Brabec’s Honda, Luciano Benavides’ KTM, Tosha Schiarena’s Honda, Ignacio Cornejo’s Hero, and Skyler Howes’ Honda. His teammate, Adrien van Beveren rides in seventh from Durban lad Brad Cox’s Sherco, Rally 2 leader Preston Campbell’s Honda and Botswana Hero Ross Branch in tenth after another tough run on Friday.
Dakar 2026 resumes with the longest special of 2026 so far in a 462 kilometre run to Wadi Ad Dawasir on Sunday. Your Dakar Week 1 Report is powered by Toyota Gazoo Racing and Tork Craft tools.
