Ricky Brabec and Honda HRC’s strategising paid off, as the American pulled off a 3m20s lead on main rival Luciano Benavides, to head into the final stage, with only 105 km of special and a 36 km liason left to run, leaving him with a shoe in to the 2026 title.
Ricky Brabec – 2026 Dakar Rally Stage 12
Ricky Brabec
“I tried to ride carefully but took many risks today to make a good push. With one day to go we’re looking really good, so I’m really happy about this. I think last night was probably the best night’s sleep I’ve had since the rally started. We have a late start tomorrow so I might be able to stay awake until 8.30pm tonight, so we’ll see. We’ve still got one day to go, Luciano has been riding really well through the whole rally, so I got to give it up to him, we’ve been fighting every single day. It’s truly cool to see and I think people that are watching at home are really enjoying the results everyday because it’s so back and forth. It makes for good racing and it makes for good television.”
Ricky Brabec – 2026 Dakar Rally Stage 12
Stage 12 of the 2026 Dakar Rally delivered another demanding test as riders tackled the penultimate day of the event on the route from Al Henakiyah to Yanbu. Covering 720 kilometres, including 311 km raced against the clock, the stage featured a varied mix of terrain, from small dunes and sandy tracks to rocky riverbeds and fast, flowing sections.
Daniel Sanders – 2026 Dakar Rally Stage 12
For Australia’s Daniel Sanders, it was a long day, finishing 15th and 35-minutes off the leaders, while riding injured. That saw him lose his overall fourth place to Skyler Howes – if by just 10-seconds, while Adrien Van Beveren is now nipping at his heels, 8m26 off. The reigning World Rally-Raid Champion also suffered a small crash midway through the special, making an already difficult day even tougher.
Daniel Sanders – 2026 Dakar Rally Stage 12
Daniel Sanders
“It was definitely a tougher day than yesterday. The terrain was more demanding, with a lot of loose rocks, riverbeds, and technical sections, which made things challenging, especially riding with the injury. It looked like a nice stage if you had two arms, but in those more technical parts I had to work hard just to manage it. I did have a small crash, and the bike took a bit of a hit, but the main focus was staying smart and getting through the stage without doing anything silly. The muscles are sore from compensating, but that’s just part of it. The team has worked incredibly hard and they’ve put a lot of trust in me, so finishing this Dakar is important for all of us. There’s one more day to go, around 100 kilometres, so we’ll recover as best we can, recharge the batteries, and give it everything to reach the finish.”
The Stage 12 victory for Brabec marked his second of this year’s Dakar, and career 13th, with Honda HRC also claiming three of the top four positions for both the stage and the overall, with Tosha Schareina in third and Van Beveren in fourth for the day. In the standings it’s Schareina and Howes in third and fourth.
Adrien Van Beveren – 2026 Dakar Rally Stage 12
Adrien Van Beveren
“It was a tough day, I made some navigation mistakes at the beginning and then I calmed down, needed to regroup and navigate perfectly. I caught up to Skyler around 55 km and then I opened for around 100 km. In one place I turned around to find a good track and I saw Luciano’s light coming, so I let him pass as I wanted the battle to be fair. Then I rode behind him a bit but I had a lot of dust. At the refuelling we saw that Ricky was not far away, so I shut off after refuelling to let Ricky do his battle and not be in the middle and make him suffer with the dust. I’ve had a better feeling this week, so let’s keep focused for tomorrow again.”
Tosha Schareina – 2026 Dakar Rally Stage 12
Tosha Schareina
“It was not easy today because there were so many stones, it was 300 km of stones. I did a little mistake of navigation at the beginning. It’s so good to have a teammate leading overall and to have two Hondas on the podium is always so cool. For sure, after two weeks of racing in Saudi Arabia, it’s always good to line up for the last stage. There’s 100 km, anything can happen because this is Dakar, but I think everything will be good.”
Skyler Howes – 2026 Dakar Rally Stage 12
Skyler Howes
“Oh boy, I had a very eventful day today because I had a small gasket failure which started draining all of the oil out of the bike. Opening the special, I did more or less an OK job until the 100 km mark, Adrien took over and I just tried my best to not build any engine heat. I’m very happy to have moved up to fourth overall now, just by 10 seconds, but today was a miracle of a day to get in to the finish and I’m happy about that. We’ll see how this last 100 km goes tomorrow.”
Luciano Benavides – 2026 Dakar Rally Stage 12
Behind Brabec, there’s still the possibility of Benavides making a comeback on the final stage, but he will only have 105 kilometres available in which to catch up, a distance during which Brabec will pocket opener’s bonuses (up to 1m23 in total). The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider would therefore need to be supersonic to climb to the top of the overall rankings.
Luciano Benavides – 2026 Dakar Rally Stage 12
Luciano Benavides
“It was a really tough day, and I gave everything from the start. I pushed early, passed Edgar quite quickly, and from around kilometre 150 I was opening the stage, which was definitely not easy in these conditions. We lost a bit of time, but I’m happy because I gave 100 percent and we’re still in the fight. The stage was challenging with dust, difficult navigation, lots of rocks, and some soft dunes where it was easy to lose time. There’s just one shorter stage left tomorrow, and we’ll keep pushing and believing right until the final kilometre.”
We also saw four riders from USA in the top 10, Brabec first, with Campbell eighth, Klein ninth and Howes 10th. In fifth through seventh were the BAS World KTM duo of Michael Docherty and Toni Mulec, followed by Hero’s Ross Branch.
Benavides was the only Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider in the top-10, with Edgar Canet 11th.
Edgar Canet – 2026 Dakar Rally Stage 12
Edgar Canet
“It was a really tough stage. I got slightly off course early on and Luciano passed me, and from that point my focus shifted to managing the day and reaching the finish. We didn’t have anything to gain by taking big risks and a lot to lose, so the priority was to bring the bike home. I had a small crash on a downhill, but nothing serious, and after that it was clear it wasn’t the moment to push too hard. The goal was simply to get through the stage and keep learning. I’m happy to have just one stage left to finish this Dakar. I’ve learned more in these two weeks than in the last two years of rallying, and it’s been a huge experience. The fight at the front is incredibly close and the guys are doing an amazing job, so tomorrow is going to be tight right until the end.”
In the Rally 2 class, the scales in the duel for outright triumph on the Dakar have clearly tipped in the favour of Toni Mulec. The Slovenian has completed stage 12 with a lead of 6m12 over Preston Campbell.
Mulec is well set to follow in the footsteps of Mason Klein (2022), Romain Dumontier (2023), Harith Noah (2024) and Edgar Canet (2025). The BAS World KTM ridder is likely to finish in front of the two Honda Monster Energy bikes ridden by Campbell and Martim Ventura.
Next: Stage 13 – The Final!
Saturday’s final stage 13 of the 2026 Dakar Rally provides a relatively short sprint set out in a loop from Yanbu. With just 108 kilometres raced against the clock, all riders will be pushing hard to secure a strong final position in the rankings.
