STAGE 7 Highlights
Dakar 2026 | Stage 7 | RIYADH > WADI AD DAWASIR
- You should never let opportunities get away, as Luciano Benavides knows all too well. The Argentinian let his flair do the talking in the special, which he started in sixth position, determined to make the most of the favourable terrain to stage a comeback. Benavides completed the rather fast course of the 459 km special in four hours, romping home with 4′47″ to spare over Edgar Canet and 4′57″ over Adrien Van Beveren, who delivered his finest performance since the start in Yanbu. The KTM rider is still third after his show of strength, but a mere 15 seconds from Ricky Brabec. This was his seventh Dakar stage win. Not bad at all.
- The top 3 overall remains the same, with Daniel Sanders perched at the summit, but his third place today will put him at a disadvantage tomorrow compared to his closest pursuer, Ricky Brabec (+4′25″), who will start the next stage in tenth position, 21 minutes after the Australian. The Monster Energy Honda HRC is known for his strategic acumen and could turn the situation to his advantage.
- Red Bull KTM Factory Racing continue to hold the top spot, but the rally is still wide open despite Tosha Schareina losing some time today as the second rider on the road. The Spaniard hoovered up time bonuses for opening the way but lost time to the leader. He now stands just over 15 minutes back.
- The Rally2 rider Michael Docherty continued to crash the RallyGP party and finished fifth overall in the stage to Wadi Ad-Dawasir, as well as picking up his fifth stage win of the season in his class. It is a decent consolation prize after the first marathon stage wrecked his overall prospects.
- Oodles of talent, metronomic consistency and a pinch of good luck make up the recipe for Dakar success. Whether he can contend for the title in the six remaining stages or not, Mattias Ekström proved again today that he has all the necessary ingredients. The Swede claimed his seventh Dakar stage win, leaving João Ferreira and Mitch Guthrie 4′27″ and 4′55″ behind. He has never been too far from the lead since the rally began in Yanbu. Today, everything fell into place for him to move up another level in the provisional standings, where he now trails Nasser Al Attiyah by 4′47″.
- As a five-time winner of the race, the leader has many cards to play. It was not raw speed that did the trick for him, as he only finished eleventh; rather, the top Dacia Sandrider driver saw the wind that sweeps Wadi ad-Dawasir turn in his favour. His closest rival, Henk Lategan, was on the verge of wresting the overall lead from him for the vast majority of the stage, setting the scene for a vicious duel between the Hilux and the Sandrider, when disaster struck at km 428 and the South African had to stop for almost ten minutes. It was enough for him to lose the stage win and fall outside the provisional podium (fourth at 7′21″). Al Attiyah can rest a bit easier.
- Mattias Ekström was far from the only Ford Raptor driver in top form. Nani Roma did everything that was expected from him and then some more. The Catalan retained third place overall after Lategan ran into trouble. Roma even cut his deficit to Al Attiyah by about one minute to 7′15″. Unlike his teammate, he will have a great start position in the longest special of the 2026 Dakar tomorrow.
PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: ZALA SIZES UP
Riders who make the switch to four wheels are not exactly rare. Stéphane Peterhansel is the archetype, but Nani Roma is not far behind, with plenty of victories in both categories. „Chaleco López“ also racked up stage wins on a motorbike before continuing the hunt in SSV and Challenger. Late newcomers to the truck category, however, are few and far between. Vaidotas Zala came close to the top 10 many times throughout his nine first Dakar starts. He also claimed the very first special held on Saudi soil back in 2020, beating Peterhansel, Sainz and Al Attiyah! Last year he traded his car for a truck, finishing a decent fifth overall. Today, he has become the first driver to claim stage victories in both categories. This success catapults him to third place overall, bumping Aleš Loprais and moving within 33 minutes of the leader, Mitchel van den Brink.
A CRUSHING BLOW: COX DOWN IN THE PUMPS
After losing Harith Noah in stage 1 and Lorenzo Santolino in stage 2, Sherco were counting on their last man standing, Bradley Cox, to reach the finish in Yanbu —if possible, inside the top 5 to improve on the manufacturer’s best performance to date, courtesy of „Santo„, sixth in Jeddah in 2021. The South African woke up in eighth place, less than an hour from fifth. However, a failing water bump stopped the progression of Alfie’s son with 91 km to go. It took him almost two hours to fix the problem, relegating him to thirteenth overall, 3 h 08′51″ from the lead. His new mission is simply to avoid wrecking his blue mount before the finish in Yanbu. A stage win echoing Santolino’s triumph in stage 3 last year would be a nice bonus.
STAT OF THE DAY: A FAMILY THAT WINS TOGETHER STAYS TOGETHER
In a historic first, stage 7 of the 2026 Dakar saw two brothers take the spoils in two different classes. As the clock ticked towards noon, Luciano Benavides crossed the finish line with the fastest time in the motorbike field, and a few hours later it was his older brother Kevin, who won the event on two wheels in 2021 and 2023, who showed his decision to switch to Challenger was the right one by defeating fellow Argentinian Nicolás Cavigliasso by 5′40″ to claim his maiden win in his new class. It was perfect timing by the Benavides Bros. who had already delivered a couple of memorable family performances back when they both rode KTMs. A mere 3 seconds separated Luciano from Kevin at the top of stage 13 in 2023. The boot was on the other foot in stage 8 of the 2024 edition, when Kevin finished 31 seconds ahead of Luciano.
They also surpassed the performance of Khalifa and Nasser Al Attiyah in stage 7 in 2021. The former, a Dakar rookie at the time, won the SSV stage, but his even more illustrious brother only managed to finish third in his class.
TRUCKS ACTION
MEGA-GALLERY
Quelle / Source / Pictures / Bilder: Dakar Rally, A.S.O
