2026 Dakar Rally stage one results sees Edgar Canet claim maiden stage victory (for real this time!) ahead of Red Bull KTM teammate Daniel Sanders and Monster Energy Honda’s Ricky Brabec third.

Dakar 2026 Stage 1 summed up:

Stage 1 of the 2026 Dakar finally got going with the first rider on the road, Mohammed Al Balooshi getting the show on the road at 7:30am local time. Riders faced a 524km loop around Yanbu (the first of two stages doing so) and had 305km against the clock.

The stage itself promised to be fast on the whole with a mixture of terrain but a warning to watch out for the sharp rocks in places where ripped tyres and mousses could be a problem. It was also a windy day which reigning champ said made it “hard to make up any time”.

Navigation is always a key element also from the get-go and a surprising number of riders got caught out by an early waypoint including Sanders who lost some time there. It was an early wake-up call for all, as was the low sun and dust...

Shaken-up start order

The leading RallyGP riders from the prologue were able to choose their starting positions at last night’s bivouac briefing. As prologue winner, Edgar Canet selected last among the 16 riders, opting for 15th on the road after teammate and Dakar 2025 winner Daniel Sanders chose 16th — a move some suggested was a deliberate KTM strategy.

Top Rally2 rider Michael Docherty was the only non-RallyGP rider in the front group, starting 11th, while Tobias Ebster, second-fastest Rally2 rider in the prologue, lined up 17th behind Sanders. The order raised questions, including why Balooshi earned the honour of starting first after finishing 45th in the prologue, and why Docherty was positioned alone among the GP riders.

Lorenzo Santolino, the lowest-placed RallyGP rider from the prologue, started second on the road ahead of Nacho Cornejo and Mason Klein, who later lost significant time due to an early mechanical issue. Santolino and Cornejo quickly passed Balooshi and benefitted from bonus time for leading the stage and opening the tracks for those behind.

With Santolino dropping time having picked up a couple of injuries from crashes, Cornejo led to the final timing beam and claimed almost four minutes in bonuses, repeating his stage-one success from 12 months ago.

Nacho cruising the dunes...

Nacho flying through the desert 🪽#Dakar2026 #DakarInSaudi @nachocornejo11 pic.twitter.com/xuIr5o0dim

— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 4, 2026

Branch fast…too fast

On top of the timing screens all day on corrected time, Hero MotoSport’s Ross Branch was the actual pace setter with a very solid opening day. His 12th place start was a good one and he held over a minute advantage, claiming he was “happy I’ve still got the pace” after a tough 2025 season.

But the Botswanan was too fast and picked up a whopping six-minute speeding ticket from the race organisers for going too fast in a control speed limit section.

Canet backs up Prologue win

That infringement from Branch means we can officially call Edgar Canet the youngest ever Dakar stage winner. At 20 years old, the Red Bull KTM rider won the prologue yesterday but today, at his second-ever Dakar, took a stage win for real in a time of 03:16.11.

“For the moment we are making a really good job,” says the Spanish rider. “We have to be super careful at this stage to not destroy yourself or the bike but I am really happy with the rhythm and this start. I know the Dakar is really tough and long but for the moment we are making a really good job and I surprised myself.”

Backing up their consistency as a team, Daniel Sanders followed his teammate home in second, around a minute behind, but looked less than happy at the finish; “I was expecting something more difficult. It's hard to make a difference in these conditions. I slipped up a few times with tricky notes and lost some time, but I'm happy not to lose more because I wasn't feeling great today.”

Tomorrow the KTM pair will open the piste and though it used to be the case the leading riders suffered, Sanders proved 12 months ago that it is possible to lead, amass the bonus points and maintain an advantage for a day win – something which previously was virtually unheard of.

Honda boys playing waiting game?

Also heading for cleaner air on stage two, the Monster Energy Honda duo of Ricky Brabec and Tosha Schareina will have the KTM’s to chase down tomorrow after finishing less than a minute behind the stage winner in third and fourth today.

Two-time Dakar winner Ricky Brabec knows well the game is a long one but must also be mindful of not letting either KTM rider steal a march at this early stage, like happened in 2025. “I think KTM had a strategy in place today,” says the American, “I found myself a bit caught in the middle of it all. But it’s only the first day. There are plenty more stages to push. I’m happy to cross the finish line in one piece. I don’t want to hit the front or the back before time and get caught in the yo-yo effect. Staying in between would be ideal.”

In the overall Canet leads Sanders by +1:05 and Ricky Brabec third at +1:37, Tosha Schareina at +2:12 and Luciano Benavides + 3:58 (see below).

Docherty holds steady in Rally 2

In Rally 2 class Michael Docherty followed on from his Prologue best time with a win today, ninth place overall for the BAS World KTM team. The South African is +2:14 ahead of Martim Ventura on the factory HRC machine (P11 scratch today) and Konrad Dabrowski (P13), Duust Racing.

Dakar 2026 Stage 1 results (scratch):

Provisional overall classification after stage 1, RallyGP:

Rally 2:

Photo Credit: Marcin Kin + Red Bull Florent Gooden + A.S.O. Charley Lopez | Fred le Floc'h | DPPI