2026 Dakar Rally stage eight results where an impressive performance from Luciano Benavides sees the Red Bull KTM rider take the race lead with start to finish win ahead of Daniel Sanders and Monster Energy Honda’s Ricky Brabec.

Dakar 2026 Stage 8 summed up:

Today the 2026 Dakar dogfight turned upside down. The three contenders, and we can call it a three-way fight for the win after stage eight, were impressive, flying through what everyone said would be a tougher stage but it wasn’t it was another top gear razz across the desert and sandy valleys.

The longest timed special of the 48th edition at 483 kilometres was “one of those stages where you feel like you’re just travelling” and after four hours and 26 minutes of racing saw a change in lead, a start to finish win and a maiden ascendancy to the top of the rankings.

Results shake-up

The story of the day is that the first guy away this morning, Luciano Benavides, was impressive keeping a pace fast enough to keep clear of anyone. Riding alone out front meant big bonus time accumulated and, across the 483km, that was a huge 7m:28s.

It made all the difference in the world for Luciano to bring a second stage victory on the bounce, an eighth Dakar career stage in total and the overall race lead by 10 seconds from his KTM teammate, Daniel Sanders.

If you were thinking maybe this is a two-horse race for the Tuareg trophy between Sanders and Monster Energy Honda’s Ricky Brabec, think again.

Sea of red in the results

The net result is Benavides wins ahead of Sanders by 4:50 with Ricky Brabec third 5:02 behind followed by Tosha Schareina fourth at 9:47, Adrien Van Beveren fifth at 11:56 and Skyler Howes sixth and 12'32’’ behind.

Benavides’ eighth stage win (his brother Keven has 11 in the bike category) means he leads the Dakar for the first time in his career ahead of Sanders by 10s and Brabec by 4:47. Schareina has dropped back to 20 minutes behind.

Full stage results and classification below.

Sanders and Brabec, you got company

Previously first and second in the rankings, Daniel Sanders and Ricky Brabec had riders to chase today but, despite both being more or less equally the fastest riders on the stage, all they saw was dust in the distance.

We think it is fair to say both started the stage expecting to close down riders in front but the rapid stage didn’t allow it as everyone went fast and largely error-free on the navigation. The outcome is Sanders loses the lead and Brabec makes no ground on it.

Sanders has the consolation that he will again have a teammate out front who is fast and can be of help tomorrow. If Sanders catches up to Benavides on stage nine, they both accumulate bonus time, then it will go back in the Australian’s favour.

Ricky Brabec meanwhile has to catch them both up tomorrow morning because time is running out. But if the American pulls that off it would be a huge swing in his favour. It will be risk versus reward on part one of the second marathon stage (more on that below).

Say What? Lead riders explain their stage:

Luciano Benavides: “I did a good job and pushed all day. The last two stages are super-fast and I feel on these conditions I can read the roadbook good and take decisions and put it to my advantage. It was not easy to navigate with the wind, especially the last part where it was hard to see the piste. Today was super-fast and it looks like I have a lot of minutes with the bonus and that makes it a good day for me.”

Daniel Sanders: “The last two days have been high speed and today was a little bit easier with the nav and it was hard to make up time on Luciano, he did a really good job. It was unlucky for anyone not opening or even second to try and make up the time and starting from fourth, if you made a mistake, there was no chance to catch the front. He did good and it made the race a fair bit tighter.

“Let’s see what happens tomorrow. The first week was so difficult and then yesterday you could see the faster pace coming with easier navigation and today was just incredibly fast again. The iwn d was really hard and pushing the bike so we couldn’t reach top speed. It was dusty and windy and if you didn’t have face protection it was like hail or pins in your face. So it was really hard to see in the last part.”

Ricky Brabec: “Yesterday wasn’t so great for us and I was thinking today I could make a strong push and try to make time back but today was super-fast and with the wind in the second part it was a little bit difficult. It was making a top layer of sand blowing across the desert ground.

“I made zero mistakes today and tried to ride as fast as I could and unfortunately it wasn’t enough to do what I was trying to do.

“I don’t even know how many days I have left at this point but we’ll keep trying and I keep not being able to do anything with these good positions I get myself in so hopefully one of these days, things will happen.”

KTMs are faster or was it just maths?

Asked how he accounts for the difference in speed between the KTMs and the Hondas, Brabec hinted there might be more at play than meets the eye: “I don’t know how they’re so much better than us or if they know things that we don’t know about certain stages. It is what it is. If we tried our best and our best isn’t good enough then I’m not satisfied and we gotta try harder somewhere.”

But the reality is he is just was fast as Sanders today and Benavides had the huge bonus time in his favour. Ricky and Daniel have impressive speed and if you look at the overall stage times below, ignoring the stage winner, they’re minutes quicker. Former MXGP rider Edgar Canet was seventh and 15 minutes slower.

Rally2

The battle in Rally2 remains as intense as ever, despite three of the leading contenders not actually being in the fight for victory. Michael Docherty was in it to win it again, despite his non-classified status, but crashed near the end to lose a chunk of time.

Frenchman Neels Theric won the day in the Rally 2 class by 15 seconds in front of the Portuguese rookie Martim Ventura with the pair P9 and P10 scratch. Toni Mulec was third in class and continues to chip away at Preston Campbell’s overall lead in the R2 classification which remains at a comfortable but not unassailable 9:36 over the Slovenian.

OBM

Josep Pedro took the win in the Original by Motul class (OBM), 2:12 ahead of Benjamin Melot who retains the lead overall, but the Spaniard is now just 38 seconds behind.

Marathon stage incoming – more tyre dramas?

Stage nine is part one of the second marathon stage of the 2026 Dakar and will be a long special at 418km to a tent and not mechanical assistance including for any tyre damage. Another cautious day lies ahead then, although riders will hope for less rocks and different riding conditions for a less devastating outcome to the two days ahead after week one’s tyres disasters. “First week shook things up on the marathon so let’s see what happens tomorrow.” Brabec said today.

Dakar 2026 Stage 8 provisional results:

Provisional classification after stage 8, RallyGP:

Provisional classification after stage 8, Rally2:

Photo Credit: Marcelo Maragni | Red Bull Content Pool + Honda Racing + Edo Photo + A.S.O. | J.Delfosse | DPPI