Summarize

Five-time Dakar winner, Qatari Nasser Al Attiyah and Belgian Fabian Lurquin put a firm hand on Nasser’s sixth Car victory with a compelling penultimate stage victory in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia on Friday. Al Attiya’s Dacia Sandrider now leads Spaniards Nani Roma and Alex Haro’s Ford Raptor by a quarter of an hour with Dacia teammates Sebastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger third with only Saturday’s short final sprint to run. It was a reasonable day for the South Africans with four crews in the top fifteen. 

Thursday winners, Ford Raptor trio, German factory crew Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist, French privateers, Romain Dumas and Alex Winocq and Spanish double World Rally Champion and four-time Dakar winner Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz opened the way on Friday’s 311 km route starting with fast tracks before tightening into rocky tracks, dry river and a few dunes. 

Overall leaders, Al-Attiyah and Lurquin set off well back in 14th while second men, Spanish former car and bike winner Roma and Haro started in eleventh behind third men overall, French nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger’s Dacia. Starting 23rd after losing over four hours when a tiny broken bolt required a major repair in the field on Thursday, former overall contenders Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings only sought victory to make up for their disappointment of falling out of the lead battle in their Overdrive Toyota Hilux.

Lategan and Cummings were indeed quick early on, but not quite as quick as US factory Ford Raptor crew Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch, who led the Toyota by 25 seconds. The pace up front was frenetic but the Americans lost time, leaving Al Attiyah leading Loeb, Ekstrom and Lategan, all of them within fifteen seconds, with Aussie former bike winner Toby Price and Armand Monleon’s Overdrive Hilux and South African Guy Botterill and Spaniard Oriol Mena’s SVR version also within a minute of the lead.

It was all change at mid distance as Ekstrom led Attiyah by 44 seconds from Loeb, with Sainz up to fourth from Price, Roma, Botterill, American Seth Quintero and Andrew Short’s Overdrive Hilux and the luckless Lategan back to ninth. From there however, it was all about one man. Nasser Al Attiyah effectively put the finishing touches on his sixth Dakar victory with a crushing penultimate stage win over Price, who overhauled Ekstrom for second from Price, Polish privateers Eryk Goczal and Szymon Gospodarczyk’s Hilux, a resurgent Guthrie and Lategan, and Loeb.

South Africans, Botterill ended ninth, SVR Hilux teammates Saood Variawa and Frenchman Francois Cazalet fifteenth, and Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer 18th ahead of French Century Factory CR-7 teammates Mathieu Serradori and Loïc Minaudier.

Overall, Nasser Al Attiyah and his Dacia Sandrider’s almost quarter hour lead over Nani Roma’s Ford Raptor should be enough, even if the fat lady may not yet have sung. Mattias Ekstrom’s Ford moved to third, just 30 seconds cleat of Sebastien Loeb with Carlos Sainz a comfortable fifth from the ever impressive Serradori in his Century, who has just 18 seconds in hand over Brazilian Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz in another Dacia, Toyota men Price and Quinteiro with Guthrie’s Ford in tenth.

Of South African interest, Saood Variawa and Guy Botterill’s Toyotas lie 11th and 14th, Brian Baragwanath 16th and Henk Lategan 21st. Former SA Bike hero Stuart Gregory sits 52nd navigating for German amateur Jurgen Schroder and South African WCT Amarok.

In the other classes, Kevin Benavides led T3 Challenger where Pau Navarro’s similar Taurus led overall with Stellenbosch lass Puck Klaassen a fine fifth in her KTM. World Rallycross champion Johan Kristofferson appeared to be en route to a maiden T4 SSV win for Polaris with Brock Heger’s similar device in complete control overall, where South African navigator Denis Murphy rides 27th alongside US driver Lawrence Jalensky. 

Sarah Price led the regular Defender Stock 1-2-3 over Stefan Peterhansel and Rokas Baciuska who comfortably leads Price and Peterhansel overall, and Iveco top two overall Vito Zala led Ales Loprais in the Trucks. South African mechanic Grant Ballington in Czech Tomas Tomecek’s Tatra, two paces clear of Mozambican Paulo Oliveira navigating in Spaniard Alberto Herrero’s Scania.

All that remains of Dakar 2026 is a short 105 kilometre loop around Yanbu on Saturday. Which is more than enough to change everything! Your Dakar Car Report is powered by Toyota Gazoo Racing Click here for the Dakar Bike report