The 48th edition of the world’s most gruelling rally raid is underway for the seventh consecutive year in Saudi Arabia, with a nail-biting climax expected this weekend to cap off the two-week-long event.

Starting and finishing in the port city of Yanbu, the Dakar Rally 2026 route spans approximately 8,000km, with nearly 4,900km of timed special stages.

This year’s course notably avoided the Empty Quarter instead challenging competitors with the rocky canyons of Al Ula and the high-speed plateaus of Wadi Ad-Dawasir.

The field, spanning vehicles across categories like Ultimate (T1), Stock (T2), and Bikes, is currently navigating the final quarter of the race, which has been defined by two distinct marathon stages that forced teams to survive without mechanical assistance in remote desert bivouacs.

The narrative of the motorbike category was shattered 138km into the special when Daniel Sanders, the defending champion who seemed destined to repeat his 2025 dominance, suffered a heavy crash.

Despite a shoulder injury that would have sidelined most, the Australian managed to limp his KTM to the finish line, but the half-hour loss has effectively ended his bid for a back-to-back title.

This disaster for Sanders has ignited a frantic duel for the lead.

Ricky Brabec and his Honda now hold the provisional top spot, but the gap is microscopic.

Luciano Benavides, trailing by only 20 seconds, is within striking distance of the Bedouin trophy with only three days of racing left.

Amidst this tension, Adrien Van Beveren secured a sentimental stage victory yesterday, winning on the day the bivouac honored founder Thierry Sabine.

The Frenchman’s seventh career stage win has pulled him into sixth overall, roughly an hour off Brabec’s pace.

In the car category, the marathon stage functioned as a ruthless separator.

Mathieu Serradori, once the underdog privateer of the rally, proved he now belongs among the elite by winning the 420km special.

He beat Nasser Al Attiyah by more than six minutes, a performance that propelled him to fifth in the general classification.

However, the strategic winner of the day was Al Attiyah himself.

While his primary rivals, Henk Lategan and Nani Roma, struggled with fuel consumption and navigation blunders, the Dacia driver capitalised on the chaos.

Al Attiyah transformed a slim one-minute deficit into a 12-minute lead over Lategan, firmly re-establishing himself as the man to beat.

Further down the order, the Dacia team’s fortunes continued to rise as Sébastien Loeb climbed to fourth place overall.

Loeb now sits 23 minutes behind his teammate Al Attiyah, benefiting from a disastrous day for the Ford entries of Carlos Sainz and Mattias Ekström.

With the race heading back toward Yanbu, the battle has narrowed to a test of endurance for Al Attiyah and a sprint for survival in the bikes.

The Dakar Rally is also the start of the 2026 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), with the first of five rounds.

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem is expected to attend the rally on Friday, with the round coming to an end on Saturday, January 17.

Mr Ben Sulayem, who will speak at the Dakar’s closing ceremony on Saturday evening, said: “The Dakar Rally continues to go from strength to strength, with record numbers of entries, new manufacturers, and ever-increasing competition in the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship, reflecting the continued global growth of motorsport.

“As one of the most iconic and demanding events in world motorsport, this year’s rally has once again demonstrated the region’s role as a key platform for motorsport development and innovation.”