Red Bull KTM Factory Racing's Luciano Benevides did the nearly impossible and won the 2026 Dakar Rally from behind on the final day to take the victory by two seconds over Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally's Ricky Brabec.

Over 100km of final stage racing, Benevides didn't let up, taking advantage of a small navigation mistake in tricky terrain by Brabec to secure his first Dakar Victory, and the 21st for KTM by the slimmest margin ever seen.

Brabec, for the most part, rode the most flawless rally of the year, avoiding major navigation or terrain mistakes over two weeks and almost 8,000km of racing. But in the final 3km of today's final, Brabec made a wrong turn and it cost him the most valuable seconds of the race.

This is a stunning victory for Benevides and KTM - a historic one - proving that even when it's almost impossible to win, believing you can is the only way to victory.

Enjoy the show and we will see you at the next round of the World Rally Raid Championship from Portugal in March.

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.

American Monster Energy Honda HRC Factory Rally ace Ricky Brabec took a decisive stage win today at the 2026 Dakar Rally, besting Red Bull Factory KTM front-runner Luciano Benevides by a mere three minutes and 20 seconds to put himself in prime position for his third Dakar Rally win.

Brabec's strategy played out yesterday held him back in starting position today - prime placement for making up the :23 second gap Benevides had going in to today. But, Benevides didn't make it easy by racing to the front of the pack early and gathering over two minutes of bonus time on the long, fast stage. The win and time gain will see Brabec lead out a short 100km-ish day tomorrow to the final checkered flag of the rally. If Benevides can find more than three minutes to gain tomorrow, this will go down to the wire, but it's a heavy lift in such a short stage.

We hear from the top racers in RallyGP, check in with Original by Motul class leader Benji Melot, and hear from yesterday's stage winner Skyler Howes after a demanding day saw his Honda expell ALL OF ITS OIL, yet still finish. Wow!

One more stage to go tomorrow and this 2026 Dakar Rally is done!

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.

American Skyler Howes on the Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally Team took his first career stage win today on stage 11 of the 2026 Dakar Rally. His first stage victory comes on his eighth year of Dakar competition and he becomes the ninth American to win a stage in the history of the race. As the 2026 Dakar Rally enters the final two stages, today's results set the stage for an all-out war between Honda and the Red Bull Factory KTM team.

Honda won the day, and set themselves up for potential success with Howes' teammate Adrian Van Beveren starting first on-course and powering his way into second on the day, helping his other American teammate Ricky Brabec massively. The Honda duo of Van Beveren and Brabec rode together for much of the day, sharing bonus time and even slowing down intentionally to secure a more favorable starting position tomorrow for Brabec.

KTM RallyGP rookie Edgar Canet put himself back into the fight with a third place finish and Luciano Benevides finished fourth. Honda's Tosha Schareina rounds out the top five. The results of the day mean Benavides leads the overall rally competition by a mere 23 seconds over Brabec, but the KTM rider will start two postions ahead on tomorrow's decisive stage. Brabec will have a more favorable starting spot, looking to race to the front.

Enjoy today's show as we get down to the wire in this very tight race!

Follow and communicate with us via Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dakar\_rally\_daily/

And leave comments on Cycle News YouTube coverage:

https://www.youtube.com/@cyclenews

Cycle News official race results coverage:

https://www.cyclenews.com/2026/01/article/2026-dakar-rally-results/

Buy us a coffee!

https://ko-fi.com/dakarrallydaily

Visit our partners

KLIM

Rally Navigator

The Baja Rally

(more to come!)

Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.