2026 Dakar Rally stage 10 results on a drama-filled marathon stage where a crash kills Daniel Sanders’ title chances and sees Luciano Benavides and Ricky Brabec in a fight for the race lead as Adrien Van Beveren wins the day.

Dakar 2026 Stage 10 summed up:

“In dirt bike racing, anything can happen in the blink of an eye”. And so it did on stage 10 of the 2026 Dakar Rally with Red Bull KTM’s Daniel Sanders seemingly in control overnight with a six-minute lead, had a big crash on the stage resulting in a suspected broken collarbone and sternum.

It had already begun a drama-filled day before that kilometre 140 crash for Sanders. Big benefactors started later on the sandy 10th stage which, crucially for the results (see below), brought leading riders together, snuffed out time advantages and erased gaps very early in the day.

Disaster for Sanders

The Dakar-winning Tuareg Trophy will go to a fresh rider in 2026 after race leader and reigning champion crashed heavily. The Red Bull KTM rider was in a lead group of riders tackling soft, sand dunes when he hit the ground hard breaking a collarbone and an already injured sternum.

“At 140ks I went over the top of a dune and it was pretty scary, I almost landed on Tosha. We all missed it.” Explained Chucky at the finish. “I knew the collarbone was broken and also the sternum, I had no power in the upper part of my body and it wasn’t nice at all ,especially in the dunes.”

More on this from Snaders in our sperate story: Red Bull KTM's Daniel Sanders Crashes out of Dakar Race Lead

Kudos to Ricky Brabec

When Sanders crashed, he was riding with Honda factory rider Tosha Schareina, BAS KTM rider Michael Docherty and two-time Dakar champion and chief rival for victory in 2026, Ricky Brabec.

At the point of the crash the Honda rider Brabec stopped to check Chucky was ok and picked his KTM up for him – huge kudos to the American for helping his main rival to the Dakar title without a blink.

Brabec said, “Daniel had a big crash, we stopped for a few minutes with Tosha, and we'll get some time back. I think we're still in a good position to push tomorrow. I would've preferred to start further back, but today we gained bonuses, and I think I did a good job…there are still plenty of days ahead, lots of kilometres to navigate, and to do the best we can.”

Le Touquet champ finally shines

It wasn’t all sand and dunes on stage 10, but there was a lot of super-soft stuff which massively helped the former Le Touquet beach race winner and sand specialist, Adrien Van Beveren. The Honda factory rider started in P7 but was able to haul ass through the early stage dunes to close down the leaders.

AVB also gained time bonuses as he fought with Luciano Benavides for the stage win and went on to grab a first stage victory of the 2026 Dakar by a healthy 4:04.

“It was cool in the soft sand. I was really able to make the difference and I pushed hard.” Said AVB. “After I caught them up but it was too early, I did 50ks with them in the dunes. Two or three places further back would have been better.

Explaining the terrain today, Van Beveren says it was unpredictable, “There were some very hard parts like cement and very soft dunes. So you lean back to take the soft dune so you don’t go over the bars because they’re like quicksand but then you hit the hard parts and the bike accelerates. It was quite hard visually to see when you have the grip and when you don’t.”

Benavides yo-yos back to the top

Other riders making big time gains by closing in the sand included Skyler Howes (P4 today) and Luciano Benavides who is yo-yoing in the results this Dakar. After a dramatic stage win just two days ago, the KTM rider then a plummet yesterday to P9, 11 minutes off the pace.

Despite getting stuck in a dune today – which required Bradley Cox and Neels Theric to help him get out – the Argentine was back up and chasing from behind to clock the day’s third fastest time and close right in on the race lead.  

Game on for the race win

While KTM still have Benavides fighting for the race lead, Honda is swarming all over the results with AVB winning, Brabec and Skyler Howes second and fourth, plus Schareina eighth

The big winner is Ricky Brabec. Morally for stopping and helping Chucky but on the time sheets he takes the lead of the race for this first time this Dakar. After looking a little like hope had lost him a couple of days ago it is a turnaround.

The advantage is slim and there is a lot to play for with just 56s separating the Honda rider from Benavides. Tosha Schareina is third but remains a distant 15+ minutes adrift. Game on.

Rally2 remains open

Stresses on the engines is an issue at this stage of the Dakar, particularly in the soft sand and notably Neels Theric hit problems today. The Kove rider has already changed an engine and today his second one expired putting him out of the race.

Another rider going out was Chilean Ruy Barbosa who was in a podium position at the start of today but crashed at km 307 and retired due to pain in his right shoulder.

With Michael Docherty mixing it with the RallyGP boys (but we remind you not eligible for the R2 result) Preston Campbell remains in charge of the second category but has Toni Mulec making huge gains of nearly 15 minutes today to finish just 3:23 behind.

Benjamin Melot was sixth in R2 category today and easily best Original by Motul rider who now almost six minutes ahead of Josep Pedro in OBM class.

Dakar 2026 Stage 10 provisional results:

*Riders with stars are out of the running

**Results will update in full once they become official

Provisional classification after stage 10:

Photo Credit: Edo Photo + Honda Racing + A.S.O. Charley Lopez