2026 Dakar Stage 6 Results – Maximum Al-Attackiyah

The 2026 Dakar Rally is at the end of the first week of action. 2026 Dakar Stage 5 was another dominated by Ford. Henk Lategan maintained the lead of the overall rally (as you can read here) going into stage six. Read our Dakar 101 article here if you are still learning about the race. 2026 Dakar Stage 6 had two long open-road sections split by a 331-km timed special for a total of over 900 km. The race route was almost entirely raced over sand and dunes with a short rocky section towards the very end.

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Leading from the Back

The race has proven stage after stage that those who set off first suffer on the timesheets. This is due to the fact that crews that start first have little or no reference in terms of where the route goes. Those that follow have some guidance to verify their own navigation and can therefore pick up the pace. This proved to be the case once again as those who started early faltered. Teams must already be planning how they aim to finish stages in the latter part of next week as the rally draws to a close.

The Ford Raptor squad were all out of the gates early thanks to their great performance on stage five (as you can read here). As a result they bled time to those starting slightly later. Among the fast chargers today were the Toyota Hiluxes of Joao Ferreira (Toyota Gazoo Racing SA) and former stage winner this year, Seth Quintero (Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC). The two traded times atop the timesheets taking the lead at different points through the day. Nani Roma in his Ford Raptor was making good progress as well.

Click here to read about Mathieu Baumel’s heroic return to competition at this year’s Dakar Rally.

King of the Dunes

As mentioned earlier, 2026 Dakar Stage 6 was about dunes, and lots of them. When it comes to this terrain, one man comes to the fore: Nasser Al-Attiyah. The Qatari surfed the dunes in his, aptly named, Dacia Sandrider. The five-time winner was taking minutes out of his nearest rivals while those trailing were simple dealing with seconds over each other. His teammate, Sebastien Loeb, was also making short work of the sandy conditions as he aimed to get onto the podium for the day. Watch the Sandriders in action in the video below.

As the Fords lost time, the baton was taken up by Toyota. Quintero, Ferreira and, former two-wheel Dakar winner, Toby Price all rose to the top of the timesheets to challenge for a spot on the stage six podium. The overnight rally leader Henk Lategan seemed to be taking it a little easier, but he still set times that kept him in the top ten. Perhaps the 2025 runner-up is already planning for stage seven, as a lower finish today puts him in a preferential starting spot for Sunday’s special.

Stage Winner

Al-Attiyah was unbeatable as he claimed the stage victory, the 49th of his 19-year Dakar career. One more stage win will equal the all-time record in the car category held by Ari Vatanen and Stéphane Peterhansel. The five time winner was two and a half minutes quicker than his French teammate. This was only Dacia’s second stage win after netting its first in 2025. Loeb was also quick to make it an historic Dacia 1-2 on the day. Toyota drivers Quintero, Price and Quintero kept up their pace to finish 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively. Roma and Sainz were the fastest Ford drivers in 6th and 7th. SA lad Guy Botterill was ninth while countryman and overnight leader Lategan was classified 12th.

New Leader

The Qatari’s stage win and searing pace on 2026 Dakar Stage 6 means that Al-Attiyah is the new outright leader of the rally. He took almost nine and a half minutes out of overnight leader Lategan, who drops back to second, for a lead of over six minutes. Nani Roma climbs the order as does Sainz, both have usurped teammate Mattias Ekstrom. Loeb now finds himself in sixth overall.

Cars and drivers get to rest as the rally takes its, now traditional, mid-race break. There will be plenty of maintenance taking place on cars and driver before action resumes on Sunday, 11 January as the race enters its second, and final week.