RALLY DAKAR 2026

Nani Roma loses victory due to a penalty and Sainz recovers time

For a moment, we savored the first victory of a Spaniard in the car category of the 2026 Dakar Rally. Nani Roma crossed the finish line in first place, but just a few minutes later, a devastating penalty of 1 minute and 10 seconds cost him the prize.

The cyclist from Folgueroles knew how to take advantage of his almost 30 Dakar participations in a very demanding marathon, which required a lot of management and intelligence. This was evident in the sensational final sprint of the Catalan, who overcame the impetuosity of his young teammate, Mitch Guthrie, whom he beat in the last minute by just four seconds... until the race officials decided otherwise.

Sainz saves the day: clutch problems...Yesterday, many alarms sounded when Carlos Sainz lost 27 minutes to Henk Lategan and 20 to Al-Attiyah in the first stage of the marathon. Today, there's no reason to panic, as the Madrid native recovered six and a half minutes on the Qatari and just over seven on the South African.

It's simply the inertia of the 2026 Dakar Rally, which has split into two groups: the group of Lategan, Loeb and Al-Attiyah, who have a better starting position on odd-numbered days, and the group of Ford and Lucas Moraes, who start with a theoretical advantage on even-numbered days.

The real alarm was raised by Sainz himself at the finish line: "I'm happy to have managed to complete the stage because yesterday and today we had a problem with the clutch...and I don't care at all about the time we lost," assured the Spaniard, whose Raptor is being towed by Mitch Guthrie's.

Taking stock of the two marathon stages, the Madrid native didn't do well in the general classification, but he wasn't terribly bad either, considering that yesterday's stage was the "queen," the one that should really make the difference. He started the 4th stage 3:34 behind the leader (at the time, his teammate Mitch Guthrie) and tonight he will be 8:33 behind the new leader, Henk Lategan.

Lategan, who had a phenomenal stage yesterday, paid the price today and lost considerable ground (12:43 to Guthrie)... but less than the advantage he opened up over the rest of the pack yesterday. Furthermore, he did Sainz and his teammates a small favor by preventing Al-Attiyah from overtaking him when the Qatari driver managed to open up a time advantage, having started three minutes behind. The Dacia driver also squandered the advantage he had gained over the leader by receiving a two-minute penalty.

However, the South African remains in the lead... and his chances as the big favorite to win are increasing exponentially. Lategan now has a 6:59 advantage over Roma and an 8:33 advantage over Sainz.

After completing the marathon, the drivers will head to the capital, Riyadh, tomorrow, where they can enjoy a rest day. But this journey will not be easy, as they will have to face a stretch entirely on dunes... and two long liaison sections.

Dakar 2026: Car Classification, Stage 5

Mitch Guthrie (Ford) 3h 54:46

Nani Roma (Ford) at 1:06

Martin Prokop (Ford) at 2:14

Lucas Moraes (Dacia) at 3:38

Mattias Ekström (Ford) at 5:21

Carlos Sainz (Ford) at 5:23

Luciano Benavides wins, Edgar Canet disappoints, and Daniel Sanders leads the 2026 Dakar Rally

Argentine Luciano Benavides won the 5th stage of the 2026 Dakar Rally, after Spaniard Edgar Canet faced problems, lost several hours, and struggled to reach the finish line after leading for more than half the stage. Meanwhile, Australian Daniel Sanders regained the overall lead, overtaking Spaniard Tosha Schareina, who dropped to second place.

[UPDATE: Tosha Schareina was penalized 10 minutes for not overtaking between the two flags marking the start. He drops out of the top 10 of the stage and falls to fourth place in the overall standings.]

Tire management on a day without assistance – and therefore without the possibility of changing tires – proved crucial in the second part of the marathon, where Tosha Schareina opened the race for the second consecutive day, after having won his second consecutive stage victory yesterday thanks to bonus points.

Just like yesterday, in the middle of the stage, American Ricky Brabec caught up with him and they began to share the lead and the corresponding time bonuses. The difference compared to 24 hours ago is that these bonuses were not enough to compensate for the time lost by the cyclists behind, with Edgar Canet taking the lead ahead of Adrien Van Beveren and Luciano Benavides.

However, the Frenchman was out of contention at kilometer 88 when a wire got caught in his wheel, costing him almost half an hour to fix it. From then on, the Spaniard started to fly and opened up a lead of more than three minutes, but stopped at kilometer 240 with a problem with the mousse on his rear wheel and lost more than an hour, effectively ending his chances in this Dakar.

This paved the way for victory for Argentinian Luciano Benavides, who completed the 356 kilometers of the second part of the marathon special stage – starting at the camp refuge and returning to AlUla – in 4 hours, 5 minutes and 16 seconds, beating Chilean Nacho Cornejo by almost four minutes.

In a race where the pace increased throughout the competition, Australian Daniel Sanders finished almost six minutes behind South African Bradley Cox, who secured fourth place for the Sherco team. Thanks to the 5 minutes and 33 seconds of accumulated bonus time, Tosha Schareina finished just over nine minutes ahead of Ricky Brabec, who finished 2 minutes and 24 seconds ahead.

Neels Theric shone once again with the Kove, finishing seventh overall and as the best Rally2 rider, followed by Mason Klein on the Hoto, just one position below the best result for the brand, achieved by Arunas Gelazninkas in the tenth stage last year. Konrad Dabrowski completed the podium and American rookie Preston Campbell rounded out the top ten.

Among the other Spanish riders, while Edgar Canet struggled to reach the finish line (losing two and a half hours at the last checkpoint), Arnau Lledó once again secured a place among the top 20, Josep Pedró won again with Original, closing in on the category lead, and Javi Vega finished among the top 30.

DAKAR 2026 - BIKES STAGE 5 RESULTS

1 Luciano BENAVIDES KTM 4h05'16''

2 Nacho CORNEJO Hero + 3'51''

3 Daniel SANDERS KTM + 5'50''

4 Bradley COX Sherco + 7'22''

5 Ricky BRABEC Honda + 9'16''

6 Neels THERIC Kove + 9'17''

7 Mason KLEIN Hoto + 12'55''

8 Konrad DABROWSKI KTM + 13'57''

9 Preston CAMPBELL Honda + 14'27''

10 Toni MULEC KTM + 16'43''

Autonews and Mundoquatrorodas