DAKAR 2026

Mitchel van den Brink (Rallysport/MM Technology) was the day's winner in the trucks and cemented his lead in the overall classification

The third stage of the 48th edition of the Dakar was won by Mitchel van den Brink in the truck class. After taking the overall lead with the fourth place achieved in the second stage, the Dutchman was even better this Tuesday (6) and completed the course starting and ending in Al’Ula in a time of 4h52min59s — 1min02s faster than Aleš Loprais, who had to settle for second place.

Richard de Groot was responsible for closing the top-3 of the day, 3min35s behind the leader, while Martin Macík, 4min51s behind, finished in fourth position. Winner of the second stage, Gert Huzink completed the stretch in 5h14min01s and finished in fifth place.

Penalized with a 1-minute penalty in the previous activity, Martin Šoltys finished sixth, followed by Martin van den Brink, Vaidotas Žala, Ben de Groot, and Kay Huzink in the top ten.

With the end of the third stage, Mitchel van den Brink considerably increased his lead in the general classification, which went from 3min06s to 8min21s. In addition, Macík moved from third position and became the new runner-up, 33s ahead of Loprais, who carries a 2min10s penalty.

Fourth place went to Richard de Groot, who is 25min14s behind the Dutchman in #601. Zala, in turn, started Tuesday's course in second place, but plummeted in the standings and now occupies fifth place, 37min04s behind the leader.

This Wednesday (7), the pilots face the first leg of the marathon stage, which will also be disputed in Al’Ula. At the end of the course, the competitors will depend on themselves to maintain the equipment and will only have campfires, tents and military rations to eat.

Gonçalo Guerreiro on the verge of leading the SSV category

The Polaris cars of Loeb Fraymedia Motorsport RZR Factory Racing dominated again in the SSV category, this time with Brock Heger beating the Portuguese driver Gonçalo Guerreiro by 5m18 seconds. Two Portuguese pairs followed: João Monteiro/Nuno Morais (Can-Am Factory Racing) and João Dias/Daniel Jordão (Santag Racing/Polaris) in third and fourth place, respectively. Heger leads the overall standings with only a 43-second margin over Gonçalo Guerreiro, in a top five that also includes the Portuguese duo Alexandre Pinto/Bernardo Oliveira (Old Friends Rally Team/Polaris) in fifth.

In the Challenger category, the victory in the third stage went to Puck Klaassen (KTM X-Bow), with a clear 8m25-second advantage over Yasir Seaidan (Nasser Racing Team/Taurus). The Portuguese duo Pedro Gonçalves/Hugo Magalhães (BBR Motorsport/Taurus) were in contention for the top spots, but ultimately finished sixth. Overall, Seaidan leads with a margin of 2m53 seconds over Klaassen, while Gonçalves and Magalhães moved up to sixth, 27m51 seconds behind the leader.

Mitchel van den Brink (Rallysport/MM Technology) won the day in the truck category and cemented his lead in the overall standings, holding an 8m21 second advantage over Martin Macik (MM Technology). Vaidotas Zala, navigated by Paulo Fiúza in an Iveco for Team de Rooy, dropped to fifth after recording the eighth fastest time in this third stage.

by Autonews