Brabec wins Dakar Stage Six as Sanders hit with penalty

2026 Dakar Rally

Stage Six – Hail to Riyadh

Daniel Sanders topped the original time sheets at stage six of the Dakar Rally, with a looming speeding penalty set to change the official outcome. The Australian proving unstoppable in the sand, quickly catching Luciano Benavides after the neutralised zone and setting a formidable pace in opening the stage.

Closest competitors were Honda HRC riders Ricky Brabec and Tosha Schareina, but with that speeding penalty adding six-minutes, Sanders dropped to third for the day and had his overall lead cut down to just 45-seconds. That’s down from the 2m02s he carried in.

With the penalty applied, Brabec won with a 3h41m33s, 1m14s ahead of Schareina, and 1m17s ahead of Sanders.

Daniel Sanders

Daniel Sanders

“It was a good and bad day, it was so tough, I don’t know the results yet or anything. It was so tough out front, some of the notes… it was, I didn’t even know, the waypoint just opened. It was an emotional roller coaster all day. Unfortunately I got a speed penalty which will set me back a bit, but I just pushed all day, as I got that at km five, so there’s a penalty coming, which I’m disappointed with that. We’ll see how I end up, hopefully there was chaos behind, it’s hard to do well in the sand, especially opening. I would have been super happy with the whole stage without the penalty. I haven’t pieced this first week together so well, so I need to clean it up for the second. I’m not happy with the first week, I should have done a lot better, just silly mistakes. We should have a bigger lead in the overall, but that’s what happens in Rally. So many things change everyday, and you just have to keep pushing to the limit. Happy to get to the rest day, it felt good riding today, let’s see what we can do the second week.”

Behind the top-three was a returned Michael Docerty (+7m16) for BAS World KTM, after his retirement during stage four due to a broken wheel, and followed by Skyler Howes (+8m46) for Honda HRC, making three in the top five, with Adrien van Beveren (+10m04) sixth, for the full team.

Luciano Benavides finished the stage in seventh (+10m20), as only the second KTM Factory rider, followed by Toni Mulec (16m49s), and the Hero duo of  Ignacio Cornejo (+17m12) and Ross Branch (+18m17).

With the penalty applied Sanders’ advantage dropped to the already mentioned 45s over Brabec, but it’s a 10m15s gap from the leader to third-placed Benavides,

Schareina (+11m56) and Hero rider Cornejo (+29m50) round out the top-five, followed by Howes, van Beveren, Cox as top Sherco, Campbell and Branch.

Docherty had looked set for an impressive fourth place finish overall, while topping the Rally 2 class but was handed a seven-minute penalty for speeding on two occasions. Despite the setback he still finished ahead of Mulec and Neels Theric, who rounded out the Rally 2 top-three.

Aussie Toby Price was also having a good day in the Ultimate four-wheeled class, ranking seventh in the first two checkpoints, before hitting fourth by the third at km 204, with a potential stage win within reach. His paced seem to be faltering towards the end of the day however.

Next: Riyadh Rest Day (Saturday)

We’ve reached the effective mid-point of the 2026 Dakar Rally, with a rest day in Riyadh, with seven stages (including the prologue) complete and another seven to go when racing resumes on Sunday.

Riders will also face a second marathon, across stages nine and 10 next week, before wrapping up with a short final day of racing for stage 13.

2026 Dakar Rally Stage Six Results
(Provisional)

1. R Brabec 3h41m33s
2. T Schareina +1m14s
3. D Sanders +1m17s
4. S Howes +4m03
5. A Van Beveren +5m21s
6. L Benavides +5m37
7. M Docherty +9m33s
8. T Mulec +12m06s
9. I Cornejo +12m29s
10. R Branch +13m34s

2026 Dakar Rally Standings after Stage Six
(Provisional)

1. D Sanders 24h41m00s
2. R Brabec +45s
3. L Benavides +10m15
4. T Schareina +11m56
5. I Cornejo +29m50
6. S Howes +32m03
7. A Van Beveren +56m35
8. B Cox +1h25m28
9. P Campbell +1h31m04
10. R Branch +1h36m10

2026 Dakar Rally Route/Schedule

2026 Dakar Rally route

2026 Dakar Rally Route/Schedule