The first half of the 2026 Dakar Rally is complete as competitors head into a much deserved rest day tomorrow. After a brutal 900km and fourteen hours, the top racers in the Dakar Rally have finished the first half of this year's race.

Up front, it's American Ricky Brabec on his Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally machine taking the top spot on the day by just over a minute to his teammate Tosha Schareina. Third on the day went to Red Bull KTM Factory Racing's Daniel Sanders, three seconds behind Schareina. The big story today is Sanders, who went to the front of the field early after catching his teammate Luciano Benevides. Sanders threw down a blistering pace at the front, riding away from the field and was clearly the fastest on-course. However, he was slapped with a six-minute speeding penalty after reportedly flying through a 50km/h zone at 98km/h.

The mistake took the sure stage win away from Sanders and closed the gap at the top of the general standings. Here, Sanders has the lead by a mere 45 seconds over Brabec with Benavides in third, more than ten minutes behind.

The rest day is welcomed for the bivouac, and we catch up with Mason Klein as he finishes another day in the top-ten rankings on-stage, and sits 13th overall.

Rest day tomorrow, and then we're straight in to a brutal second half of the 2026 Dakar Rally!

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

The 2026 Dakar Rally has finished its first of two two-day marathon stages today and racers across the field had to deal with racing on worn tires from yesterday. We predicted that tire issues would cause a shakeup in the overall standings and it sure did with early front runner Edgar Canet of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team suffering the worst of it, losing his rear mousse on the stage and having to limp his bike to the finish in Hail. Canet would be the last finisher on the day, losing more than four hours on race time, and more than 10 after penalties were assessed at the end of the day. His race at the front is over, but he does race tomorrow and will continue to be a factor in the stages if he stays healthy. American Skyler Howes predicted he'd have tire issues today and he did, having to take it easy on the day and sacrificing more than 20 minutes to get to the finish.

Another victim of the day, albeit not because of tires, was the previous two days' winner Tosha Schareina, the Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally pilot lost ten minutes today almost immediately as he failed to enter the course between the required flag markers. His error cost him ten minutes on the day, and dropped him from sharing the lead to fourth place overall, almost 12 minutes behind the leader.

Today's stage was great for Luciano Benevides, the factory KTM racer made strategic choices to push at the end of the day to leap ahead in the standings and take his first stage win of the year. He now sits in third overall, as well. This was after a very high-speed crash, to boot. Likewise, Nacho Cornejo from the Hero squad rode a great stage, taking second overall for Hero, a result they desperately needed after Ross Branch dropped back in the standings today.

Daniel Sanders came in third today, giving away almost six minutes to his teammate.

In the general ranking, it's Sanders in control with a two minute gap to Ricky Brabec (fifth today), and then Benevides nearly six minutes behind Sanders in third.

Tomorrow's stage is massive, over 900 kilometers on tap and a 4am start time for Benevides in the morning. The only repreive is the following day is Rest Day in Riyahd.

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The racing is tighter than ever at the 2026 Dakar Rally and today's stage four, the first half or a two-stage marathon phase of the race, was close with the top three finishers on the day separated by a mere 10 seconds!

Lot's to unpack today and we have Johnny Campbell joining the show to give us some deep insight into the race! In the front of the pack today was once again Tosha Schareina of the Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally team - taking his second stage win in a row for 2026. The spaniard led the route from the start and claimed most of the opening bonus time before his teammate, American Ricky Brabec, caught him. The two Honda pilots would ride in to the finish together, navigating quickly and sharing bonus time and setting themselves up with 1-2 on the day.

Third on the day was yet another Honda rider, as American Skyler Howes got way up to speed, clocking fast times across the stage to sit only 10-seconds back on adjusted time after bonuses awarded to the top-two. Howes was on the gas.

In Rally2, a lot of drama unfolded today with front-runner Michael Docherty having a massive front wheel failure, forcing him to catch a ride to the end of the stage and essentially stopping his race. He will be able to continue in Rally2, but he's out of the competition. Honda's rookie Rally2 sensation Martim Ventura also had a mechanical today, knocking him down nearly two hours. Kove's Neels Theric's rebound from his prologue pushing continues as he takes the stage win for the Chinese brand, but American rookie Preston Campbell is the big benefactor on the day, flying up the general rankings to take the lead, more than 18 minutes clear.

The following days are going to be filled with more drama and racing excitement. And we can't wait to cover it all here.

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.