2026 Dakar Rally stage seven results sees Red Bull KTM’s Kevin Benavides blitz a big winning margin over Edgar Canet and Adrien Van Beveren – Daniel Sanders grows overall lead after Ricky Brabec loses big time out front.

Dakar 2026 Stage 7 summed up:

These 4am starts and 900-kilometre rides are like buses at the 2026 Dakar; you wait all week and then two come along at once. Standing either side of the Saturday rest day bus stop, the longest and second longest stages respectively of the 48th edition are hard graft for these Saudi Arabian commuters.

Riding from the capital, Riyadh to Wadi Ad Dawasir, they commuted south and west into central Saudi today on a total of 877km. It was mixed terrain, serving up almost everything from fast tracks, dunes, to rocky canyons but a fast one with easier navigation on the roadbooks is the nub of it.

Luciano on fire

The story of the day in a nutshell is Red Bull KTM’s Luciano Benavides absolutely blitzed the stage to finish four minutes clear of his teammate Edgar Canet, and five minutes ahead of Adrien Van Beveren, taking his best result on the Monster Energy Honda in third.

The Argentine’s results see him in touching distance of second overall in the classification as Ricky Brabec loses a chunk of time opening the stage today.

Overall, the race to victory sees Daniel Sanders close six minutes down on Brabec to extend his lead to over four minutes as the American struggles to match the pace of riders behind. Sanders is buoyant about his advantage but Brabec is positive about the prospect of banging it down, flipping it and reversing it tomorrow.

“You have to open to win”

On Friday, at the finish of stage six, Ricky Brabec said he wanted to get out front, lead some stages and grab some of the bonus time his KTM rivals had been doing, “that’s how the rally works now, you have to open to win.” Said the two-time champion.

His wish was granted when Daniel Sanders was handed a speeding time penalty during that stage, gifting Honda a one-two (with Tosha Schareina) who were first and second riders away today, stage seven.

First on the road means setting a pace fast enough to stay ahead and hoover the bonus time for leading. Until the second fuel stop, around three quarters of the special, Brabec did that, having been joined by Schareina to finish with a haul of 5:36 and 2:50 respectively which seriously limited the damage for the American.

Brabec scrapes into top 10

It was a stage where riders behind were all able to hold a faster pace and the two leading Honda riders slipped down the stage rankings and Brabec fell outside the top 10 for a while there before eventually finishing in P10, 9:15 behind the winner. That’s a lot for someone wanting to win this race.

Sanders’ tactic from a third place start today was to haul in the riders in front and snaffle some of their time bonuses. RallyGP riders start three minutes apart and Sanders caught his HRC rivals steadily but surely to take his own time bonuses and chunks out of his rivals overall.

It must be disheartening to be doing your best and then spot your rival for the title right behind you having shut down six minutes on the clock but Brabec didn’t show it. Instead he says it will work out well tomorrow:“It was a long stage but overall was really, really fast. I spent the day opening until Tosh caught me and then we rode together. The KTMs were riding really well so we lose a little bit today but I think we’re in a lot better position than them for tomorrow. I heard that tomorrow is a little bit more difficult so we can try to make a good push and claw back time and that’ll line us up perfectly for the last three days.”

Sanders extends his lead

The bonus of 2:24 of his own extra, plus having closed down his main rival(s) means Sanders is in a good place at the end of stage seven – similar to 12 months ago in fact. The reigning champ says it was the right tactic but questioned if the Honda pair were sandbagging later on to give themselves a better start position for tomorrow, “I made a mistake early on which cost me two or three minutes. It was hard to catch the guys in front because it was such a fast track.

“After the second refuelling the guys (Brabec and Schareina) pulled over because they were calculating the bonus and I just put the hammer down and checked away as fast as I could towards the end to make sure they didn’t get any more bonus.

“If they want to slow down in the race today because tomorrow’s a bigger day then that’s their strategy but I feel good on the bike, I rode well today and, yeah, I’m just getting warmed up, the bike and the body are working well so I’m ready for tomorrow.”

For the record Schareina says it was a navigation error which saw him and his teammate slow after that refuelling.

Another one-two for KTM

Meanwhile KTM’s main man today was Luciano Benavides. Setting the fastest times and racing for himself, not under team orders KTM say, Benavides was on it taking the largest winning margin of the rally so far, although he has a habit of doing this with his stage five win being almost four mins.

It was an impressive day in the books for Benavides (also his brother, Kevin in the Challenger car category) who did have Schareina breathing down his neck for third place in the overall rankings but gaps him by over 10 minutes and instead closes in on Brabec for second.

P2 went to Edgar Canet four minutes adrift of his KTM teammate. The Spaniard can play a good role tomorrow in acting like a rabbit for Sanders who starts fourth and behind his orange mates.

Hondas at the double – Howes in the top 5

Third on stage and taking his best stage result of the rally so far, Adrien Van Beveren was Honda’s best placed rider and a genuine 4:57 behind with his time not accumulating any bonuses like Sanders in fourth for example whose 5:35 deficit includes 2:24 of bonus time.

AVB says it was his best day on a bike this Dakar and more pleasurable to race at speed on this stage after changes to his CRF by his team made him more comfortable. It was the other Honda teammate, Skyler Howes, who took an under-the-radar fifth scratch today and is now fifth overall in the classification.

Overall picture – Sanders looking good, Brabec looking at tomorrow

In the overall chase for the Tuareg trophy, Sanders and Benavides had good days while Brabec and Schareina had bad days today.

Benavides will start first tomorrow and traditionally that hurts him but both he and his teammate Canet will be good targets for Sanders during stage eight as the Aussie again finds a favourable start position – that six-minute penalty on stage six almost seems like it was a good thing after today, helping Chucky’s overall race strategy.

Brabec in particular has work to do tomorrow but he can do it from his start position of P10 which he thinks will be a bonus.

Tomorrow’s stage has a long 481km of timed special on the cards and that will mean a lot of time to make up for the American.

Rally2: If only for Docherty

Michael Docherty continues to curse the problems which cost him dearly this Dakar – an exploded front wheel took him out of part one of the marathon stage and he therefore missed part two and is declassified.

Another fastest time in class for P6 scratch on stage today shows Docherty could easily have been leading the second-tier category.

With Docherty officially out of the classification, the battle for the win is very much on with Toni Mulec taking chunks out of class leader Preston Campbell’s once huge lead. It remains a comfortable 11 minutes for the American HRC rider but with the best results in class today again, the Slovenian is eating away at the advantage.

OBM

Spaniard Josep Pedro claimed the stage win for the Original by Motul riders with a career-best 19th overall. The results mean Pedro closes down the class leader Benjamin Melot to 2:50.

Dakar 2026 Stage 7 provisional results:

Provisional classification after stage 7, RallyGP:

Provisional classification after stage 7, Rally2:

Photo Credit: Edo Bauer + Marcelo Maragni + F. Gooden | RBCP + A. Vincent + Julien Delfosse + Charley Delfosse | A.S.O. | DPPI