Honda’s Ricky Brabec will lead the 2026 Dakar Rally after the occasion’s penultimate twelfth stage.
Brabec intentionally gave up time on Thursday for Friday’s stage 12 with the intention to achieve a greater beginning place for the penultimate stage. The tactic paid off on Friday as Brabec received the stage by 3 minutes and 43 seconds over Luciano Benavidez.
This outcome implies that with 105km of particular apply remaining, each drivers will head into Saturday’s ultimate stage with a 3 minute 20 second lead within the total standings.
Tosha Chalayna was third on the stage and maintained third place total, with the hole between her and Skylar Howes at the moment holding 4th place getting larger and larger, with three Hondas filling out the highest 4 with the injured Daniel Saunders filling in. The Australian completed fifth total, simply eight minutes behind Honda’s Adrian van Beveren.
Within the Final class, Nasser Al Attihas seems to be on the penultimate day, with the Qatari driver profitable the twelfth stage by 1 minute 04 seconds over Mitch Gasly, giving him a 16-minute total lead over Nani Roma. Matthias Ekström is now in third place after overhauling Sebastien Loeb with Roma on Friday, with the Frenchman 23 minutes adrift of the chief however simply 29 seconds adrift of the ultimate podium spot occupied by Ekström.
Even with the unfavorable circumstances of Saturday’s street opening, this 12 months’s Dakar, which began in Yanbu, will certainly be doomed barring a significant failure or mechanical failure earlier than Al Attiyah’s 16-minute lead disappears earlier than the tip of this brief ultimate stage.
