2026 Dakar Rally stage six results – Monster Energy Honda’s Ricky Brabec claims the win after pace-setter, Red Bull KTM’s Daniel Sanders, is docked by a speeding penalty.

Dakar 2026 Stage 6 summed up:

The mind and ass-numbing proportions of stage six at the 2026 Dakar Rally are something to behold. Leaving from Ha’il bivouac at 4am, riders were faced with a 920-kilometre slog down south to the Saudi capital, Riyadh (six hour on the road by car alone, FYI). That breaks down into 598km on the road and 331km of timed special.

It’s physically tough but mentally draining to roll out a sleeping bag at that kind of hour, to plonk on a dirt bike seat and ride in the darkness and cold for few hours to get to the start of the stage. And then you have to race!

First real day of dunes

Sand was all over the agenda with long stretches of dunes including a deliberate course through what you could call a seam of sand for 200km from refuelling to the finish of the special.

With some of the dunes pretty big, riders further down the order were struggling to peak out the soft dunes and many were still not back into the bivouac as darkness fell.

Day off tomorrow

As we all take a breath ahead of the rest day tomorrow, stge six was a significant one in the overall classification thanks to Daniel Sanders doing what he did last year, riding like a hare across the dunes, but knowing all the way he was due a time penalty.

The Australian caught the six minutes up to the stage opener, Luciano Benavides, overtaking Nacho Cornejo in the process, and kept on clocking fastest check times with every CP, plus accumulating 2:40 bonus time.

It’s not as if everyone else is going slow, but the guy behind should have a clear advantage riding with lines drawn in the sand to follow, meaning navigation is partly not necessary. Sanders proves the exception to that rule, regardless of time penalties.

Honda: thanks very much Chucky!

But the KTM rider knew pretty much all the special he was going to get hit by a speeding ticket from the organisers after doing 98kmh as he entered a 50kmh zone. Ironically it was the same six minutes he’d claimed off his teammate which were erased for not being quick enough on the Brembos and that gave Honda a one-two with Ricky Brabec first and Tosha Schareina second.

“Unfortunately, I think I’ll have a speeding penalty coming which will push me back a bit, I think I got that at kilometre five, so it was disappointing way to start.” Said Daniel at the finish before clarification of the time added. In his defence the beacon can be hard to hear with wind noise in a helmet.

“It was hard to do good times all day, especially opening in the sand and I tried to do the best I could. Without the penalty I would have been super-happy with the day but overall I haven’t pieced this first week together so well and I need to clean it up for the second week.”

When a six-minute penalty might not be a bad thing

Brabec finished in a total time of 3:41 with Schareina 1:14 behind and Sanders third, just three seconds further back on corrected time.

That hands Honda another one-two headline and American Brabec will finally get his wish to start the next stage first and get the chance to collect bonus points which he says is all-important in the Dakar these days (note, at the time of interview Ricky didn’t know he had won the stage and will open the way on Sunday, Stage 7): “I’m in a really good spot between Tosha and Daniel. I’m not spending too much time opening and I think my goal is to catch Daniel on the day after rest day and try to take some bonus time. That’s how the rally works now, you have to open to win and I haven’t been fortunate enough to get to the front yet.

Stage seven could therefore be an advantage for Brabec out front: “Everyone wants to win, right? I’m doing the best I can and trying my hardest.” But it will also give Sanders a couple of Honda’s to aim at and that might equally benefit him on Sunday morning.

Four Hondas in the top 5

Stage six was a very good one overall for the HRC team with Skyler Howes bagging P4 and Adrien Van Beveren P5, both having overcome troublesome marathon stage rear tyre and wheel issues.

The top 15 on the stage includes some riders who are no longer in it to win it including Edgar Canet, Martim Ventura and Michael Docherty. All are in the results but the first two are out of contention and Docherty, after his front wheel collapsed on stage four, is riding for the hell of it.  

Overall classification at the end of week one

With the correction for Sanders’ speeding ticket from the Dakar Feds, the general classification has not changed much, despite all today’s efforts.

Sanders is 45s ahead of Brabec, 10'15’’ in front of Luciano Benavides and 11'56’’ ahead of Schareina with Nacho Cornejo fifth, almost 30 mins down. After getting his own 10-minute penalty yesterday, Schareina missed a chance today to make time back in the overall, a fact his team manager admitted, “After the penalty yesterday, Tosha, naturally was affected by it, but like with everything, we need to think about the coming days. Today he didn’t feel comfortable on the bike and in my opinion he can do better, although he did recover some time.”

Brabec and Sanders look favourite to fight it out to the finish at this half way point. Judging by the way week one has panned out, this Dakar will go down to the final stage 13 when they arrive back in Yanbu.

Rally2 win for Mulec

The last stage of the week was a good one for Slovenian Toni Mulec who claims his first class win (we’re discounting Docherty’s result, not his efforts) with eighth place overall, also his best stage result and a small slice of history for his country.

In 13th place scratch today, Preston Campbell continues to lead the R2 category by 16:42 from Mulec and with Konrad Dabrowski third at 26:35. Campbell is no also inside the top 10 overall on the customer Honda CRF450 Rally machine.

OBMs in the top 20 overall

Benjamin Melot set the 19th fastest time today to top the Original by Motul class and continue to extend his lead in the overall OBM rankings ahead of Josep Pedro 8:08 behind and Jerome Martiny 11:15 further adrift in this DIY class.

Dakar 2026 Stage 6 results scratch:

Provisional classification after stage 6, RallyGP:

Provisional classification after stage 6, Rally2:

Photo Credit: A.S.O. | DPPI + Edo Photo