RALLY DAKAR 2026

Mattias Ekström and Mitch Guthrie's Ford Raptor dominates...Lategan "spins"

That's what they wanted: Sainz and Roma competed on equal terms with Al-Attiyah (the most affected by the opening of the track - for the first time in the 2026 Dakar -) and Loeb (who started behind him)... and they managed to gain some advantage, at least in relation to the Qatari.

Because Sainz recovered 1 minute and 23 seconds on Al-Attiyah, while Roma recovered a little less, only 48 seconds. Loeb was the best of this quartet...but only managed to reduce 1 minute and 57 seconds from his teammate's time. Numbers much closer than what we have seen so far, confirming that this stage was not as eventful as the previous ones. You could almost call it a transition stage.

Premature Eruption for Lategan...It was supposed to be Henk Lategan's (Toyota) day, but the South African doesn't seem to be having his Dakar...and made a mistake in the final stretch of the stage that may have cost him his chances. It looked like he was going to repeat his previous stage victory (in Stage 4), when he won with an impressive seven-minute advantage over Al-Attiyah and more than 27 minutes over Sainz (to cite two examples), but a surprise came with his final time: from being 8:23 ahead of Al-Attiyah at the last checkpoint, he ended up losing 1:11 at the finish line.

The South African arrived with considerable damage to the rear of his Toyota GR Hilux DKR... and absolutely frustrated, to the point of not even stopping to talk to the press in the mixed zone at the end of the timed section.

It was understandable, as today was the day for the South African, who had the advantage of starting position along with Mattias Ekström and Mitch Guthrie, to make up time... although this time the terrain wasn't as demanding as before. Lategan practically handed the stage to Ekström.

After today's final surprise, the overall standings are now led by Al-Attiyah, 4:47 ahead of Ekström, who is the first Ford but is out of the leading sequence (in fact, he will open the track tomorrow and will be penalized), and Nani Roma moves up to third place after Lategan's fiasco.

Sainz is in fifth place, 10 minutes and 25 seconds behind, and both he and Roma will have good starting positions tomorrow, in 10th and 11th places respectively... with Al-Attiyah right behind (which will make it difficult for him to recover more than three minutes over Roma). This happens shortly before the crucial stage, the start of the second marathon.

Dakar Rally 2026: Car Classification, Stage 7:

Mattias Ekström (Ford) 3h 44:22

João Ferreira (Toyota) at 4:27

Mitch Guthrie (Ford) at 4:55

Toby Price (Toyota) at 5:01

Lucas Moraes (Dacia) at 5:17

Sébastien Loeb (Dacia) at 5:27

Seth Quintero (Toyota) at 5:32

Mathieu Serradori (Século) at 5:50

Carlos Sainz (Ford) at 6:01

Nani Roma (Toyota) at 6:36

Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia) at 7:24

Sanders triumphs once again

Every detail can be worth a victory in the Dakar Rally in the motorcycle category. And today, several details marked the seventh stage, the prelude to one of the most feared.

The first crucial detail was a navigation error by the two Honda leaders, Ricky Brabec and Tosha Schareina, at the start. Between kilometers 57 and 107, they lost a minute and a half to the Australian, who also had a better pace. This allowed him to catch up with the leading duo (Schareina also caught up with Brabec quickly) 150 km from the finish, neutralizing one of the advantages Honda could have had today.

Tosha Schareina was unable to stop the attack from the 2025 Dakar winner(image above) Photo: Honda HRC

From then on, the bonus seconds (if Brabec had managed to cross the finish line in the lead, he could have opened up a 7:05 advantage over Sanders thanks to the bonus seconds) would no longer be useful to them. But that wasn't all, because the reigning Dakar champion not only ignored them, but continued to push, opening up a lead of more than 15 seconds over his two rivals... and kept the final bonus minutes for himself.

Sanders' exit was no accident. Brabec and Schareina slowed down to try and postpone their starting positions for tomorrow as much as possible... counting on the Australian starting far ahead. But the KTM rider also slowed down at the end and secured his position in this race, ruining Honda's plans.

Sanders, and by extension KTM, pulled off a masterful maneuver, overtaking Brabec by 3:40 and Schareina by 3:10. These minutes are precious, considering the current state of the competition. Furthermore, the orange team prevented their leader from opening the track tomorrow.

Because the stage victory was already guaranteed. Once again, Argentinian Luciano Benavides (KTM) came out on top, seemingly having rediscovered his rhythm after initial difficulties with his knee injury. The youngest of the brothers led at every timed section and finished with a 4 minute and 57 second advantage over Edgar Canet, who came from behind like a rocket.

Tomorrow, the eighth stage of the 2026 Dakar Rally will take place, with a circular route around Wadi Ad Dawasir. Its 481 kilometers of timed section make it the longest of the entire competition.

Dakar 2026: Motorcycle Classification, Stage 7

Luciano Benavides (KTM) 4h 00:56

Edgar Canet (KTM) at 4:47

Adrien Van Beveren (Honda) at 4:57

Daniel Sanders (KTM) at 5:35

Skyler Howes (Honda) at 6:46

Michael Docherty (KTM) at 7:38

Tosha Schareina (Honda) at 8:45

Ricky Brabec (Honda) at 9:15

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