STAGE 5 Highlights
Dakar 2026 | Stage 5 | BIVOUAC REFUGE > HAIL
- It was already evident that Mitch Guthrie’s performances owed nothing to chance. The American driver today provided clear confirmation of his talent by winning a second stage of the Dakar Rally in the Ultimate class, two days after his first victory. After 371 kilometres against the clock, Guthrie junior completed the return leg of the marathon stage just four seconds behind Nani Roma but the Spaniard was hit with a one-minute speeding penalty. As a result, the two team-mates have flown the Ford flag high in the top two places, with another Raptor completing the day’s podium, driven by Martin Prokop, who is definitely improving with his change of vehicle this year.
- Henk Lategan was confronted with a navigational challenge this morning on the second part of the marathon stage for which he opened the way without the tracks of the bikes. It was the trickiest task of the week for the South African but he finally accomplished it with a certain amount of efficiency: despite losing 12’43’’ on the way to Hail to Guthrie, the (very isolated) Toyota team leader has hung on to the lead in the overall rankings.
- In a similar situation and hot on the heels of Lategan from the start, Nasser Al Attiyah also lost time in his Dacia but only 3’17’’ to the stage winner before a special tomorrow that is deemed to be crucial.
- In the overall rankings, the insolent health of the Raptors was made especially clear, with four representatives in the top 6: Mattias Ekstrom 5’38’’ behind the leader, Nani Roma 6’59’’ down, Carlos Sainz trailing by 8’33’’ and Guthrie à 16’23’’ behind.
- Nevertheless, the positions suggest a particularly open battle for the final special of the week, covering 300 kilometres of dunes. In 7th and 8th position in the overall rankings, the Dacias driven by Lucas Moraes (17’11’’ behind) and especially Sébastien Loeb (trailing by 17’55’’) are both capable of getting back into the game.
- Some bikers have a knack for riding under the radar and then popping up when you least expect them. It has almost become a speciality for Luciano Benavides, who, for example, became world champion without having won an event in 2023 and who also picked up two consecutive stages on the Dakar last year before finishing at the foot of the podium (in 4th place). The Argentinean repeated a similar feat to set the fastest time over the 356 kilometres of the special, climbing, for the first time in his career, into the top 3 of the overall rankings, 5’55’’ behind his leader in the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team.
- Daniel Sanders took advantage of the route to Hail to regain the lead in the rally. With the fourth best time, 5’50’’ behind his team-mate, the title holder may have reaped the rewards of a strategy developed within the KTM clan. He will take starter’s orders on a stage almost entirely made up of dunes in a favourable position with possibly an ally for navigating through the second part of the route.
- The special also enabled two other riders to put in their best performances of the week: Nacho Cornejo took 2nd place on his Hero, 3’51’’ behind Benavides, while Bradley Cox finished 7’22’’ after the day’s winner, in 4th place, equalling his best performance in five participations on the Dakar (achieved on stage 1 in 2024).
- Each of the two leading teams also had their share of disappointments today. For KTM, the spectacular start enjoyed by Edgar Canet (with victories on the prologue and first stage) seem a distant memory after the problems that disrupted his day, beginning with the foam melting on his rear wheel. Though the time he lost is not yet known, it is clear that he can wave goodbye to competing at the forefront of the rally.
- For Monster Energy Honda HRC, Ricky Brabec is displaying first-class consistency, perhaps to the extent that he can lay claim to being team leader, following a major blunder by Tosha Schareina. The Spaniard held his own on the tracks but received a 10-minute penalty for forgetting to leave the bivouac-refuge between the flags. This breach of the rules has dropped him off the provisional podium into 4th place and he will now have to make up a deficit of a dozen minutes on Sanders to be in with a shout for outright triumph. Adrien Van Beveren, who has already experienced difficult days on this edition, hit a new low today after having lost more than half an hour, partially due to a wire that got stuck in his wheel after 88 kilometres. When your luck is out, it really is out…
- Ross Branch also had a tough day and is now far off the summit of the overall rankings, 1 hour and 23 minutes behind Sanders.
STAT OF THE DAY: TIED ON 19
It has taken a while for Marti Macik to get going this year. Indeed, he waited for the fourth stage to win and take the lead in the overall rankings. By winning stage five the very next day, he has increased his number of successes on specials on the Dakar to 19, which is exactly the same number as Ales Loprais. However, this parity struggles to conceal the ascendancy achieved by the younger of the two Czech drivers, who, on the last two editions, has managed to add his name to the list of winners, while his elder countryman has been chasing such an accolade for nearly 20 years. To be precise, Ales Loprais drove his first Tatra truck on the last African edition of the Dakar, finishing in 3rd position and picking up his first stage win in the bargain. He then for a long time had to endure the domination of the Russian Kamaz trucks, though he has resumed collecting stage successes at a more regular rhythm since 2023, also improving his results in the overall rankings, such as the 2nd place achieved in 2024 behind Janus van Kasteren. Compared to this journey, Macik’s progress has been much faster, as he took the wheel of his first truck on the Dakar in 2015.
THERIC ENTERS A NEW DIMENSION
Sometimes it is easy to forget the obvious but the first rule to follow in order to shine on the Dakar is, of course, to stay in the race. In spite of his mishaps on the prologue and then on stage 3, which ensured his appearance in the ‘Crushing Blow of the Day’ section of our coverage, Neels Theric has well and truly turned things around, unlike some of his rivals in the Rally 2 class who have exited the Dakar after crashes or mechanical problems. In no particular order, Harith Noah, Mike Docherty and Mathieu Dovèze have left the rally and the Frenchman has taken full advantage of this new situation. Theric has had to wait for his fourth participation to win a special in his class. But now he has gone one better, even scoring another stage win today, making it a full house on the two legs of the marathon-refuge stage, which, incidentally, demonstrates his rare ability to manage the mechanical side of his race. Chinese constructor Kove will be eternally grateful to the rider who offered them their first success yesterday and who they entrusted back into 2023 with taking charge of the machine’s development and improving its reliability. He has been competing with the best in the Rally 2 class and will battle it out on the next stages against Preston Campbel, Konrad Dabrowski, Martim Ventura or Rui Barbosa but Neels has also proved that he is capable of holding his own, at least occasionally, among the elite of the Rally GP class, thanks to 6th place on today’s stage, just one second behind two-time Dakar winner Ricky Brabec.
BRANCH FOLDS BUT DOES NOT CRACK
The man from Botswana, who completed the 2024 season as world champion, last year had a season to forget, in which he was never able to defend his status as number 1. Since 3rd January, this year’s edition of the Dakar seemed to be smiling on him, offering him the expected chance at redemption. The Hero rider was sixth in the overall rankings this morning, less than a quarter of an hour behind the leader, and could legitimately harbour hopes to reacquaint himself with the second place achieved in Yanbu on the race’s 46th edition, which is the best result for the man who traditionally bears race plate number 46. By hitting a rock yesterday, ‘Rossi’ already damaged the foam in his wheel, which started to break up this morning. Having finished more than hour behind the winner of the special, Branch now finds himself in 10th place in the overall rankings, trailing by 1:23’53’’. It is another twist of fate but one that will not discourage a man who brushes off all his misfortunes with a smile.
TRUCKS ACTION
MEGA-GALLERY
Quelle / Source / Pictures / Bilder: Dakar Rally, A.S.O
