The 2026 Dakar Rally has finished its first of two two-day marathon stages today and racers across the field had to deal with racing on worn tires from yesterday. We predicted that tire issues would cause a shakeup in the overall standings and it sure did with early front runner Edgar Canet of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team suffering the worst of it, losing his rear mousse on the stage and having to limp his bike to the finish in Hail. Canet would be the last finisher on the day, losing more than four hours on race time, and more than 10 after penalties were assessed at the end of the day. His race at the front is over, but he does race tomorrow and will continue to be a factor in the stages if he stays healthy. American Skyler Howes predicted he'd have tire issues today and he did, having to take it easy on the day and sacrificing more than 20 minutes to get to the finish. 

Another victim of the day, albeit not because of tires, was the previous two days' winner Tosha Schareina, the Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally pilot lost ten minutes today almost immediately as he failed to enter the course between the required flag markers. His error cost him ten minutes on the day, and dropped him from sharing the lead to fourth place overall, almost 12 minutes behind the leader.

Today's stage was great for Luciano Benevides, the factory KTM racer made strategic choices to push at the end of the day to leap ahead in the standings and take his first stage win of the year. He now sits in third overall, as well. This was after a very high-speed crash, to boot. Likewise, Nacho Cornejo from the Hero squad rode a great stage, taking second overall for Hero, a result they desperately needed after Ross Branch dropped back in the standings today. 

Daniel Sanders came in third today, giving away almost six minutes to his teammate. 

In the general ranking, it's Sanders in control with a two minute gap to Ricky Brabec (fifth today), and then Benevides nearly six minutes behind Sanders in third. 

Tomorrow's stage is massive, over 900 kilometers on tap and a 4am start time for Benevides in the morning. The only repreive is the following day is Rest Day in Riyahd. 

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.