The 48th edition of The Dakar Rally was the opening round of the 2026 World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) and featured one of the closest finishes in the event’s history.
The 2026 Dakar Rally concluded last weekend on January 17, in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.
The race had covered 13 stages, almost 8,000 kilometers and KTM took the race once again by a mere 2 seconds.
Insane?
You’d better believe it. This is absolute evidence of how tricky and fickle this event can be…
It feels as though all the bike action happened in the last couple of days of the Rallye…
The numbers: This is a mighty event:
On completion of the administrative and technical scrutineering, 317 vehicles were approved to participate in the 48th edition of the Dakar, amounting to a total of 564 riders, drivers and navigators, representing 49 nationalities.
115 motorbikes were invited to take starter’s orders for the prologue on Saturday morning, 15 Rally GP, 100 Rally 2, including 26 Original by Motul.
72 cars in the Ultimate class, 7 in the Stock class, 37 in the Challenger class, 41 in the SSV category and 45 trucks.
The Dakar bivouac is made up of 787 competitors.
Bikes:
We all said that Honda had it in the bag when Aussie rider and world champ Daniel Sanders came acropper breaking his collar bone and sternum. In the true spirit of Dakar camaraderie, rival Brabec paused his race to help the stricken Aussie, ensuring Sanders wasn’t in danger and helping him pick up his KTM. Amazingly, Sanders rode the remaining 200km through the dunes to complete the stage despite his injuries.He valiantly continued.
Anyway!
In case you missed it, Brabec and his Honda took control from there on and efficiently opened the gap, leading the field by just more than 3 minutes on the second last day.
That’s actually an insanely tiny lead after so much racing.
The last day dawned, Brabec opened the days racing and the gap – which is tough because you have no other vehicle tracks to follow and…
He made a mistake, opening the door for Luciano Benavides and his KTM to take him just 7 KM’s from the end.
Benavides claimed his first Dakar victory by a ridiculous two seconds.
Two seconds. Count. One….two.
After 8000 KM’s.
That’s absolutely nuts!
It took him nine Dakar Rally’s but he did it!
Big hats off:
I cannot believe it,” said Benavides at the finish. “I never stopped believing and trusting myself, that is the key to this success. I tried so hard, I missed the last two corners and almost died out there. This is my ninth Dakar and I never stopped believing and I never give up, never give up. Even though today I was losing time, and I could see Ricky was pushing, I thought it is not over until the last kilometre and in that last kilometre he made a mistake and I did it right and I can’t believe it.”
We get Brabec’s disappointment. He rode a great race on his Honda and Big Bed put two other bikes into the top 5 with Tosha Sharena in third and Skyler Howes in Fourth.
Astonishingly, that annoyingly tough Aussie Daniel Sanders finished fifth.
With his injuries. That’s just crazy stuff – you have to respect the grit.
SA favourites Ross Branch and Brad Cox both gave it their all – but racing often doesn’t play the game. After winning on the first day, Hero Racings Ross was penalised for speeding after being obstructed by a slower rider. This put him on the back foot for the rest of the race. He had some incredible days – but Dakar is Dakar – punctures and crashes were the order of the event.
He still soldiered his way to a great 8th place finish.
After a dream first week, Bradley was on a serious roll when bum fuel stopped his fuel pump in it’s tracks. It’s a great story: Italian rider Tiziano Interno somehow realised that Cox was the last Sherco in the race. He turned around, went back and towed Brad to the stage end and then to the bivouac.
Seriously cool sportsmanship.
He’ll never be short of a drink if he visits SA. Thanks to him, Brad opened wide and came in a brilliant 9th position for 2026. The only Sherco rider to finish this years Dakar rally.
Mason Klein on the new Hoto brand rounded out the top ten for 2026. Perhaps we should keep an eye on this new brand.
We have to talk about SA Sensation Michael Docherty who dominated, and we mean, dominated the Rally 2 class, winning every stage until a split Mousse put him out of contention and he was knocked out of the main race.
He continued despite all of this, flat taps, best times, but alas…
Rules are rules and it wasn’t to be.
If the tyre issue had not happened, we all reckon that he would have comfortably won the class. He won a total of nine stages including the prologue and often finished in the top five in the elite class.
That’s racing for you.
Someone give this man a factory ride. He’s earned it.
Hats off to Slovenian rider Toni Mulec who rode a solid race to take the Rally 2 win on his BAS World KTM.
1st in Rally2 class, marking his first-ever Dakar class victory, He won by 4 minutes and 37 seconds over Honda’s Preston Campbell. Despite a difficult start with navigation mistakes, he mounted a strong comeback in the second week to take the lead. He finished 9th overall in the motorbike category and claimed the second Rally2 title for the BAS World KTM team.
There was much happiness when Benjamin Melot finally took the Original By Motul win after hitting the podium no less than four times in the past. This man is an Yster.
It was a major redemption after a near-win in 2025, solidifying his place as a top privateer. He secured a decisive victory in the challenging “no service” class, overcoming tough competition and delivering strong stage performances, including a stage win on Stage 12, to claim the overall title.
Kove Motorcycles puts on a show with 9 bike entries.
This was KOVE’s fourth appearance at the legendary rally, with their self-developed 450 Rally Ex.
– #66 Neels Theric After a tough start in the Prologue, surged from P115 to P24 on SS1. He claimed three R2 stage wins: SS4, SS5, and SS8, with SS4 being the first-ever R2 victory for a Chinese brand.
– #45 Sunier Sunier finished P35 overall.
– Nine KOVE Riders
9 riders raced on the KOVE 450 Rally Ex. Beyond their two factory riders, 7 privateers from different countries took on Dakar, including Dakar legend #27 Milan Engel (10+ Dakar finishes) and Isle of Man TT winner #50 James Hillier who retired after a crash on SS3.
CARS: SOUTH AFRICAN COMPETITORS AMONG TOP TEAMS:
From a South African point of view, the records will show SA competitors delivered outstanding performances and locally manufactured vehicles are on par with the best in the world.
In the end, Dacia claimed its first overall victory with the experienced Nasser Al-Attiya who took his sixth victory in the Car Category. Al-Attiya and Fabian Lurquin finished less than 10 minutes ahead of Nani Roma and Alex Haro in their Ford. Another Ford team, Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist rounding off the overall podium. Three Fords in the top five with yet another former winner, Carlos Sainz with Lucas Cruz, finishing fifth, just behind Sebastien Loeb and Edouard Boulager also in a Dacia.
SA’s Midrand manufacturer, Century Racing, made history when the French team of, Mathieu Serradori and Loïc Minaudier won Stage 10 with the CR7. It was a see-saw race for the privateer team who finished sixth overall.
There were good results for Toyota Gazoo Racing SA / SVR as the newly crowned SARR champion, twenty year old Saood Variawa and his French navigator, Francois Cazalet finished 10th overall. Variawa also claimed his second stage victory with the team showing good pace and proving that the locally built Toyota Hilux IMT EVO can successfully compete on the world stage. Variawa made it three out of three Dakar Rally finishes and topped his previous results of 17th ins 2024 and 28th in 2025. Variawa is the youngest driver in the top 10 and complimented the figure of three Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux vehicles to finish in the top 10.
Aussie bike legend Toby Price and Armand Monleon ,and Seth Quintero and Andrew Short were eighth and ninth respectively – adding to to the three Dacias, three Fords and one Century Racing.
Everything that could go wrong went wrong for SA’s Guy Botterill and his Spanish navigator, Oriol Mena, from mechanicals to fuel issues. They eventually finish 14th overall. The team finished on the podium after Stage Three, but punctures and mechanical issues saw them dropping to 25th place. They fought back and battled their way into the overall top 10 after Stage 11, but a mishap during the penultimate stage, saw them losing time and valuable positions. It was Botterill’s third Dakar attempt and his second finish.
Another TGRSA Hilux IMT EVO in the hands of the Portuguese team, Joao Ferreira/Felipe Palmeiro, were 18th putting all three the SA built and prepared Toyota Hilux vehicles in the top 20.
All three the European TGR Overdrive vehicles also reached the finish line of the race in Yanbu, but it was extreme disappointment for the multiple South African champions, Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings.
Despite numerous flat tyres and tricky navigation, the team won Stage 4 and took the overall lead of the race which they kept during Stage 5. They then relinquished the lead to Al-Attiya before disaster struck during stage 6 which saw them drop to fourth place overall.
Their gritty story continued and they fought back to third place during Stage 8, but dropped back one place again during the ninth stage when another disastrous day saw them losing power steering and their windscreen.
Again, they clawed back time and worked themselves into second place after Stage 10, but the damage caused by a broken wheel bearing and having to wait for their service truck for assistance, cost them their Dakar during Stage 11.
Lategan and Cummings finished 21st overall, but the rally-raid world took note of the former SA champions.
Also in the top 20 were two more South African competitors, ex quad racer Brian Baragwanath and his navigator Leonard Cremer in the Century Racing CR7. They also had their share of bad luck, challenges – including punctures – and everything the event could throw at them, but they persevered to finish 16th overall putting both of the SA CR7 vehicles into the top 20.
Ex motorcycle competitor and KZN navigator, Stuart Gregory, could write a book about his adventures next to the German driver, Jürgen Schröder in the VW Amarok, prepared by the SA vehicle builder WCT Engineering. When their team-mates, Daniël Schröder and SA navigator, Henry Köhne, crashed out on the prologue stage, Schröder Sr and Gregory soldiered on to finish 57th in the Ultimate Class from 60 finishers.
Young Stellenbosch student, Puck Klaassen and her Argentine navigator, Augusto Sanz, put in a superb performance with the KTM X-Bow in the Challenge Class.
They finished fifth in the class – from 33 finishers – less than an hour behind the winners.
Klaassen also became only the fifth ever female competitor to win a stage on the Dakar.
Multiple SA navigators’ champion, Dennis Murphy, who usually sits next to Giniel de Villiers, embarked on a new adventure reading the notes from the seat in the Can-Am in the SSV Class for the American, Lawrence Janesky. With 30 teams reaching the finish in this category, they can be proud of their 17th place overall.
2026 Route Highlights
This years race followed a vast loop starting and finishing in Yanbu on the Red Sea.
The route included two-day marathon stages (Stages 4 and 9) where no external mechanical assistance was allowed overnight.
Riders traversed the dunes of the Empty Quarter, craggy mountain ranges, and wide coastal plains.
Organizers introduced “Mid-Stage Service” points for specific classes to improve the high attrition rate of previous years.
Looking Ahead:
Following the rally, the W2RC continues with the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal from March 17–22, 2026.
