Summarize

Five-time Dakar winner, Qatari Nasser Al Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin’s Dacia Sandrider  emerged from the dust of a wild week of Toyota versus Ford success to dominate Friday’s running and lead after the first week of Dakar 2026. South Africans Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings sit second for Toyota ahead of Ford Factory Raptor crew Nanai Roma and Alex Haro. In a week where the previous day’s winners suffered the task of opening the road, the advantage swing wildly between the Ford Raptor and Toyota Hilux crews throughout. But Al Attiyah struck to steal the lead form the lot of them on Friday.

Ford Raptor crews, German Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist and US duo Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch earned first dibs on starting position for Sunday’s opening day by winning Saturday’s Prologue. Al-Attiyah and Lurquin’s Dacia had third choice before fourth placed Americans, Seth Quintero and Andrew Short’s Overdrive Gazoo Hilux, and 2025 winners, Saudi home hero Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk. South Africans, Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings’ Overdrive Hilux suffered a puncture, while German Daniel Schröder with SA navigator Henry Köhne rolled their WCT Amarok out of the race. 

Belgians Guillaume de Mevius and Mathieu Baumel came out of nowhere to win Sunday’s first Car stage. Their Mini had fallen off the car timing sheets due to a transponder glitch, but re-merged at the finish to demote Al-Attiyah to second ahead of Raptor privateers Martin Prokop and Viktor Chytka, German factory Ford duo Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist and Polish Hilux privateers Marek Goczal and Maciej Marton. South African, Guy Botterill and Spaniard Oriol Mena’s SVR Gazoo Hilux was eighth. Elsewhere, new Defender trio Sara Price, Stéphane Peterhansel and Rokas Baciuska ruled the Stock class.

Toyota Gazoo Hiluxes then dominated Monday as Quintero and Short led Lategan and Cummings and Australian former bike winner Toby Price and Armand Monleon to an Overdrive 1-2-3. Portuguese SVR crew Joao Ferreira and Felipe Palmeiro and Al Rajhi and Gottschalk to make it a Hilux top five as Al Attiyah led Quinteiro by six seconds from De Mevius’ Mini and a resurgent Lategan overall. Further back, Peterhansel won as Baciuska led Stock and Martin Macic’s MMT won the trucks, where teammate Mitchell van der Brink led overall. Chilean Lucas Del Rio’s Taurus led T3 Challenger with Pau Navarro’s Odyssey ahead overall and Xavier de Soultrait was in charge of the T4 Side by Sides. 

It was all change at when Ford dominated Tuesday. American Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch’s factory Raptor led Czech privateers Prokop and Chytka with Botterill’s Hilux third. Guthrie shot from fourteenth to lead, while overnight leader Al Attiyah slumped to tenth. The big Tuesday story was however Stellenbosch lass Puck Klaassen making history as the fifth woman ever to win a Dakar stage in her T3 KTM alongside Argentine Augusto Sanz. Yasir Seidan led T3 overall, Brock Heger’s Polaris won the T4 Side-by-Sides, which de Soultrait led. Peterhansel led Baciuska and Price to a Defender Stock 1-2-3 and Ales Loprais’ Iveco beat overall winner Macik’s MMT in the Trucks.

If Tuesday was a wild change, then Wednesday was even more of a swing as South African Toyota crew Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings dominated to jump from eleventh overall to lead the race with no less than seven Toyotas in the top ten and the best of the Fords only eleventh. Ever consistent Al-Attiyah was third from Polish brothers Goczal, Eryk and Szymon Gospodarczyk and Marek and Maciej Marton as leading crews on the road struggled to open the way. Lategan led Al Attiyah by four minutes overall from Ford men Ekstrom and Sainz and Variawa’s Toyota. Heger won T4, Cavigliasso T3, Peterhansel Stock and Martin Macik the Trucks.

Thursday once again favoured the late-starting Fords as Nani Roma and Álex Haro pipped Guthrie and Walch only to be relegated back to second on a penalty. Prokop and Chytka made it a Ford 1-2-3 ahead Brazilian Lucas Moraes, and Dennis Zenz’ Dacia Sandrider as Ekström and Sainz made it five Raptors in the top six. Lategan and Cummings put in the drive of the day as they opened the road without bike tracks to follow to retain the overall lead over Attiyah and Roma. Elsewhere, Saudi heroine Dania Akeel won T3 where Seaidan led, Kyle Chaney beat overall leader Heger in TW Sara Price won Stock as Baciuska still led and van den Brink beat overall leader in the Trucks.

And then came Friday. Nasser Al Attiyah and Dacia teammates Sebastien Loeb and Eduard Boulanger took their turn to dominate ahead of Toyota trio Quinteiro, Price and Ferreria with Roma the best of the Fords in sixth. Overnight leader Lategan was only twelfth, but that was enough to hang on to second overall, six minutes behind Attiyah and ahead of Roma with three different makes in the top three. His Ford teammates Sainz and Ekstrom follow from Loeb and Guthrie and Matthieu Serradori and Luc Minaudier’s South African Century CR7 at the halfway mark.

Ignacio Casale won the T3 Challenger day where Pau Navarro leads over Nikolas Cavigliasso’s similar Taurus and a resurgent Puck Klaassen, who lost time after her stage win. Xavier de Soultrait took the T4 Side by Side win to close down Broch Heger’s class lead with Kyle Chaney third. Sarah Price beat Stefan Peterhansel and Rokas Baciuska in Friday’s Stock race where the three Defenders now sit in that reverse order overall. Alais Loprais’ Iveco won the Truck day from Mitchel van der Brink, who leads the behemoth race from Vaidotas Zala’s Iveco and Loprais.

Dakar 2026 commences with the longest special of 2026 so far in a 462 kilometre run to Wadi Ad Dawasir on Sunday. Your Dakar Car Report is powered by Toyota Gazoo Racing. Tap  here for your Dakar Bike Week 1 report.