All change as Ford, Honda dominate, SA lass Puck wins
It was all change at Dakar 2026 on Tuesday as Ford and Honda fought back to control on Tuesday’s Car and bike Day 3. It was however Stellenbosch lass Puck Klaassen who made history to become the fifth woman ever to win a Dakar stage on the day that American Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch and their factory Raptor led Czech duo Martin Prokop and Viktor Chytka’s privateer version with the best of the Toyotas, South African Guy Botterill, and Spaniard Oriol Mena’s SVR Gazoo Hilux third.
Dacia crews, Brazilian Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz and Spanish lady star Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno were fourth and fifth with seven Fords in the top eleven. Frenchmen Mathieu Serradori and Loïc Minaudier’s South African made Century Factory CR-7 impressed in eighth behind two more Fords in the hands of Spanish crews, former car and bike winner Nani Roma and Álex Haro.
Guthrie made good for Ford on Day 3
Another factory crew German Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist’s Ford Raptor and independents, Kazakhstan crew Denis Krotov and Karel Zhiltsov and Frenchman Romain Dumas and Alex Winocq followed from the next of the Toyota horde, Polish privateers Eryk Goczal and Szymon Gospodarczyk in twelfth. Spanish Lady heroine Llia Sanz and Marco Gerini followed in another Century.
Another three independent Toyotas, Lithuanians, Benediktas Vanagas and Aisvydas Paliukenas were twelfth from Saudi Shaikh Al Qassimi and Khalid Alkendi, and 2025 winners, home hero Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk, with South African Champion Saood Variawa and Frenchman Francois Cazalet were the next factory Gazoo finishers, seventeenth in another SVR version seventeenth.
In what can be seen as the perfect response to Toyota’s dominance the previous day, five Fords now top the overall rankings with Guthrie leading privateer Prokop, Ekstrom, Sainz and Roma. Moraes and Guttirez’s Dacias sit sixth and seventh from Serradori’s Century and Variawa in the top Toyota. Overnight leader Al Attiyah slumped to tenth, eleven minutes off the pace in what is proving to be the most dramatically changing Dakar leaderboard most can remember.
Toyota’s Botterill delivered the drive of the day
Fords dominated all the way as Ekstrom, Roma and finally Guthrie took turns to lead with the rest all close behind. Variawa’s Toyota took the challenge to them running second early on before fading. The drive of the day came from Botterill, who rose from 21st to third, running well back in the pack. Of the factory Toyotas, Overdrive trio Henk Lategan, Toby Price, and Seth Quintero, as well as SVR man Joao Ferreira were all in the early chase but each found problems to sink out of the top twenty. Similar fates befell Dacia stars Al Attiyah and Loeb, and Century man Brian Baragwanath.
In amongst all of them, Dutch-South African lass Puck Klaassen made history to become the fifth woman ever to win a Dakar stage after Jutta Kleinschmidt, Cristina Gutiérrez, Sara Price, and Dania Akeel. Puck and Argentine Augusto Sanz in their KTM T3 Challenger left Pau Navarro to fight overall leader Yasis Seidan for second. American Brock Heger’s Polaris led the Side-by-Sides from Portuguese men João Monteiro’s Can-Am and Gonçalo Guerreiro’s Polaris as leader Xavier de Soultrait looked on.
Defender was back in charge of the Stock class. Mr. Dakar, Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel and Michaël Metge led overall leaders, Lithuanians Rokas Baciuska and Oriol Vidal and US lady star Sara Price and Sean Berriman. Ronald Basso’s Toyota Land Cruiser however remains a thorn in their sides in second overall. And in the trucks, Ales Loprais narrowly led 2024 and ’25 winner and overall Martin Macik and Mitchel van den Brink’s similar Ivecos.
Schareina’s red Honda revenge
Moving ion to two wheels, Honda riders Tosha Schareina and Ricky Brabec fought back against dominant KTM to take a memorable red 1-3 on a tough third Dakar bike day around Al’Ula in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. It was not enough to wrest KTM rider Daniel Sanders’ overall lead away on a day where Botswana rider Ross Branch was consistent, and South African Michael Docherty remains unbeaten in Rally 2.
The day’s stage comprised treacherous 422 kilometre loop through Al’Ula’s postcard landscape. A mix of sandy tracks and rocky formations with challenging navigation and extreme terrain, would Stage 3 throw the cats amongst the pigeons?
Tuesday already started without two of the three Factory Shercos after a disastrous Monday for the little French bike maker. Both 2024 class winner, Indian Rally 2 rider Noah Harith and Spaniard Lorenzo Santolino’s Rally GP version retired hurt. They were joined by South African amateur Ronald Venter, who called it quits for similar reasons on his Rally 2 KTM. Slovak Rally GP KTM privateer Stefan Svitko and Rally 2 men, British Kove rider James Hillier and Austrian Hero man Tobias Ebster’s races also ended early.
Another consistent run for Ross Branch
That did not deter Durbanite Bradley Cox from fighting on aboard the remaining Sherco on the fringes of the top ten. Chilean Hero rider Ignacio Cornejo meanwhile led the way through the first waypoint from Argentine Luciano Benavides’s KTM and Honda trio, Californian Ricky Brabec, Frenchman Adrien van Beveren and Spanish rider Tosha Schareina.
Benavides led Schareina and Cornejo by a third distance, before Schareina took over up front from Benavides and Brabec. Americans Skyler Howes’ Honda and Mason Klein Factory Hoto, Motswana Ross Branch’s Hero and South African Rally 2 leader Michael Docherty’s BAS KTM were on the move with Branch and Dochery up to fifth and sixth by the two thirds mark, behind leader before Schareina Benavides, Brabec and Howes.
Overnight leader, 2025 Dakar winner and World Champion Aussie Daniel Sanders sat seventh as he struggled opening the road, with teammate Edgar Canet a couple of positions further back as the leaders entered the final racing section. Ricky Brabec was the big mover in the final sector as he passed Benavides for second from Howes, a resurgent Sanders, Branch, Canet and van Beveren. Nobody would however stop Schareina from delivering a blistering stage win.
Mike Docherty DID South Africa proud. again
Mike Dochery once again did South Africa proud to make it four Rally 2 day wins out of four aboard his BAS KTM from Honda Factory duo, Martim Ventura and Preston Campbell. Overall, Sanders’ comeback means that he retains the overall lead now over Honda duo Brabec, just over a minute back, and Schareina.
Luciano Benavides makes it three KTMs in the top six ahead of Branch, Honda duo Howes and van Beveren and Rally 2 leaders Docherty and Ventura. 13th on the day, Brad Cox remains 13th, while Spaniards, and Javi Vega’s Kove and Josep Pedro on a Husqvarna battled over the no-service Original lead as the dominant Uruguayan Emanuel Gyenes appeared to be in trouble with his KTM.
Wednesday’s race is the first part of the opening of two Marathon stages that heads deep into the desert’s no service refuge bivouacs. Your Dakar Bike Report is powered by Tork Craft tools and Toyota Gazoo Racing.
