The 2026 Dakar Rally took one other huge activate Wednesday as Ricky Brabec took the lead from Daniel Saunders.
Saunders led Brabec by 6 minutes and 39 seconds on the finish of Stage 9 on Tuesday, however after crashing on Stage 10 later on this week’s marathon, Saunders has now fallen to fourth place total, 17 minutes and 37 seconds behind Brabec.
The Australian’s hopes of constructing up misplaced time in in the present day’s remaining three phases had been dashed by accidents sustained within the crash. His aim now could be to finish the rally.
Ricky Brabec was photographed by a TV helicopter that stopped to assist Saunders, who encountered a KTM rider who crashed on stage.
Honda’s Brabec set the second quickest time and carried the lead into Thursday.
He presently has a 56-second lead over Luciano Benavidez and quarter-hour from Tosha Chalayna, who returned to the general podium after ending eighth on stage 10.
Assuming Saunders is pressured again with a shoulder damage, Shalayna may sit pretty safely in third place, with Skyler Howes on the third HRC bike greater than 23 minutes behind.
Behind him, Adrian van Beveren overtook Nacho Cornejo for sixth place. South African Cornejo recorded his first stage win on the 2026 Dakar. He’s 20 minutes behind teammate Howes.
Nasser Al-Attiyah misplaced the lead on Tuesday, however regained it within the Final class on Wednesday. After ending second on stage 10, the Dacia driver now has a 12-minute lead over Henk Lategan with three phases remaining.
It was one other robust day for the Ford drivers who had carried out properly within the earlier stage. Nani Roma took the lead after the ninth stage, however was solely eleventh, 20 minutes behind Mathieu Serradri’s stage-winning time on the tenth stage. The Spaniard is presently in third place total, 12 minutes and 50 seconds behind the chief.
Issues had been even worse for Carlos Sainz and Matthias Ekström, who each suffered bother on Wednesday and completed twenty second and 52nd respectively.
Sainz, particularly, had been progressing steadily by the phases up till this level, however with three phases left to the end, he discovered himself 39 minutes behind the chief. Ekstrom had a barely higher end result, ending sixth, 34’19” from the lead.
Sebastien Loeb misplaced a while from the rally lead in the present day, however moved up the order and moved as much as 4th place. The Frenchman presently sits 23 minutes behind his Dacia teammate Al Attiyah and simply behind Roma within the ultimate podium place.
Toby Value additionally had a tricky battle on the tenth stage, with lower than 40 minutes remaining on his stage profitable time. He stays within the high 10 at ninth place.
Thursday’s eleventh stage of the rally will cowl 882km, most of which can be liaison driving. A 346km particular awaits.
