Who leads after the first week of the 2026 Dakar Rally?
10th January 2026Six stages are down in the Dakar, with little over halfway left to go in Saudi Arabia. Who leads after the first week of the prestigious event?
Feature image credit: Florent Gooden / DPPI / Red Bull Content Pool
Stage six marked the end of the first week of the Dakar, sending the teams and crews on their journey east from Hail to Riyadh, with 331km of Saudi Arabian desert to contend with.
It means, by the time they reach the finish line, ahead of their rest day, the crews competing in the event would have covered a staggering 2,304km of competitive terrain as they completed their journey east from Yanub to the Saudi Arabian capital city, Riyadh.
After stage six, who leads as the crews finally get some rest in Riyadh?
Bikes
USA’s Ricky Brabec took the stage win as the first half of the Dakar drew to a close with an elapsed time of three hours, 41 minutes and 33 seconds, Monster Energy Honda teammate Tosha Schareina by one minute and 14 seconds.
Daniel Sanders completed the top three, inside the stage rankings, for Red Bull KTM, a further 3 seconds behind Schareina.
However, Sanders remains the class leader with 45 seconds in hand over Brabec. The former would’ve had a bigger lead had it not been for a six-minute speeding penalty. Luciano Benavides, of Red Bull KTM, remains third overall.
Car
Dacia Sandriders were the leading class in the car category on the sixth stage, occupying the top two positions on the stage. Nasser Al-Attiyah/Fabian Lurquin led the way ahead of Sebastien Loeb/Edouard Boulanger.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Seth Quintero/Andrew Short rounded out the top three of the stage, three minutes behind.
Al-Attiyah/Lurquin remain as leaders in the overall classification with six minutes in hand over Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC’s Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings. Ford Racing’s Nani Roma and Alex Haro rounded out the top three, nine minutes behind the class leaders.
Trucks
The all-Czech Instatrade Loprais Team took the stage win on SS6 for the truck classification, heading the group nearly two minutes ahead of Nordis Team’s Vaidotas Zala, Paulo Fiuza and Max van Grol, who took second place on the stage.
This left the all-Dutch Eurol RallySport crew of Mitchel van den Brink, Bart van Heun and Jarno van de Pol to take the third spot on stage. They would’ve been second had it not been for a one-minute penalty.
However, overall, Brink, Heun and Pol’s Eurol RallySport remained the class leaders with a healthy 35-minute buffer between themselves and MM Technology, crewed by Martin Macik, Frantisek Tomasek and David Svanda. Instatrade Loprais Team rounded out the top three in third.
The Dakar Rally will resume on Sunday as the Rally makes its way southwards, towards Wadi Ad-Dawasir, and on its way back to Yanub for the second week of the event.
Read more Rally Raid here:
- Who finished where as Dakar Rally moved north for stage 2?
- How did stage one finish at the Dakar Rally?
- 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
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