How did stage one finish at the Dakar Rally?
5th January 2026The Dakar Rally got its first stage underway Sunday with a tough 305km special stage making up the first true test of the prestigious event.
Feature image credit: Florent Gooden / DPPI / Red Bull Content Pool
After the warm-up loop with the prologue, on Saturday, it was time for the real event to kick in on Sunday with the first of 13 stages taking place.
The stage would keep the crews within the Yanub region, looping west towards the Red Sea and back towards the Saudi Arabian city, amounting to a total of 518km of desert terrain being covered, 305km in special stages.
So, who was leading after stage 1?
Bikes
Following on from the prologue, the top three remained unchanged with Red Bull KTM Factory occupying the top two places with Edgar Canet and Daniel Sanders, with the latter leading by one minute and two seconds.
USA’s Ricky Brabec, of Monster Energy Honda, continued similarly to the top two in third, just over 90 seconds behind the Red Bull pair.
Spain’s Tosha Schareina, Monster Energy Honda, filtered in behind their teammate, Brabec in fourth whilst Luciano Benavides, Red Bull KTM, occupied fifth, three minutes and 47 seconds off the pace.
Car
After a strong start for Ford, Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist dropped to fifth place as Mitch Guthrie/Kellon Walch dropped to ninth. In turn, it allowed X-Raid’s Guillaume de Mevius and Mathieu Baumel to take over as the leaders in the car rankings.
40 seconds behind them was Nasser Al-Attiyah/Fabian Lurquin of the Dacia Sandriders and Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka, Orlen Jipocar Team, who rounded out the top three, in second and third, respectively.
The Polish pair of Marek Goczal/Maciej Marton, Energylandia Rally Team, occupied fourth ahead of Ekstrom and Bergkvist.
Trucks
After the opening stage of the event, it stands as an all-Czech-Dutch-Czech stand-off in the truck classification.
Instatrade Loprais Team, crewed by Ales Loprais, David Kripal and Jiri Stross took over as the class leaders, demoting Eurol RallySport’s Dutch crew of Mitchel van den Brink, Bart Van Heun and Jarno van de Pol to second place. The top two were only separated by one minute and 47 seconds.
MM Technology, crewed by the all-Czech crew of Martin Macik, Frantisek Tomasek and David Svanada, rounded out the top three in third, over seven minutes behind the leading Czech squad.
Read more Rally Raid here:
- How did the Dakar Rally prologue unfold?
- Dakar Rally 2026: Schedule and route for Saudi Arabian event
- Dakar 2025: Problematic roadbook note affects crews
- Dakar 2025 Heads Al Duwadimi as the rally resumes and Branch airlifted
- Dakar Rally 2025: Stage 5 completed as crews arrive in Hail to complete week 1
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