The 48th Dakar Rally came to an end Saturday with a 105-kilometer stage that finished in the Yanbu Commercial Port along the Red Sea. Despite being the shortest non-Prologue leg and the final day, one still couldn’t afford to make a mistake.

Unfortunately for Ricky Brabec, he’s the case study.

Brabec led Luciano Benavides by 3:20 going into Stage 13, having regained the overall lead after winning on Friday. However, a navigation error in the closing stretch cost him significant time. He already faced some challenges as the first bike out, and had to bank on the starter bonus to mitigate the damage.

Alas, he only got 1:22 and was classified eighth in RallyGP for the day with a time of 52:31. Benavides finished second with a 49:09, and that margin was just barely enough to leapfrog Brabec in the overall by just two seconds.

While he got to celebrate his overall triumph, Benavides’ brother Kevin also had his fun in the Saudi sun as he won the stage in Challenger.

“It’s a historic day for our family and a historic day for the Dakar,” Kevin stated. “I’m so proud of my brother Luciano. I was not with him on the bikes this year as I raced in the Challenger class. It was a tough start to life on four wheels in the first week, but we didn’t give up. The second week was much better for us and I’m learning with every kilometer I drive.”

Brabec wasn’t the only person to run into trouble on the last day. Lucas Moraes had a flat tire halfway through, which gave Brian Baragwanath a scare as he ran in Moraes’ dust. Baragwanath also nearly looped his CR7 in the closing stretch but saved it and kept going.

Like Mitchel van den Brink’s 24th on Wednesday, Mathieu Baumel got a disappointing 50th birthday present when he and Guillaume de Mévius had a mechanical issue. Still, all that mattered to him were that he achieved his main goal of becoming the first amputee to win a stage, he reached the finish, and his family was there with him in Yanbu.

Van den Brink, who was taken out of contention by a driveshaft issue on his 24th birthday, was leading the Truck class by over a minute on Saturday until a tire tread came off. Forced to slow down, he settled for second for the day behind Kay Huzink.

Huzink dedicated the stage win to his father Richard, who raced a GINAF at the 2012 Dakar and passed away in 2013.

After his chaotic finish the day before, Nani Roma was relieved to make it home on Saturday with a 12th in class. Teammate Mattias Ekström won the stage by eight seconds on Sébastien Loeb.

Stage 13 was a fairly casual run for Mission 1000 and the Dakar Classic. Like in Stage 2, all seven Mission 1000 teams completed the 51.44-km course and beat the 48-minute benchmark time by wide margins to earn 20 points each. The Classic’s 53-km leg ran along the coast with not much pressure, which led to the first and only case of a tie in 2026 as Karolis Raišys and Filippo Colnaghi recorded the same number of points.

Stage 13 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	226	Mattias Ekström	Ford Racing	46:14
Challenger	29	347	Kevin Benavides	Odyssey Academy by BBR	52:28
SSV	44	408	João Monteiro	Can-Am Factory Team	55:09
Stock	52	502	Rokas Baciuška	Defender Rally	55:51
Truck	41	616	Kay Huzink*	Kuipers-Jongbloed Hybrid	54:41

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	49:03
Rally2	4	14	Michael Docherty	BAS World KTM Racing Team	49:53

Other

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Points
Classic	703 754	Karolis Raišys* Filippo Colnaghi*	Ovoko Racing	20
Mission 1000	N/A	All Competitors*	N/A	20

Overall winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	299	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia Sandriders	48:56:53
Challenger	28	336	Pau Navarro	Odyssey Academy by BBR	54:46:21
SSV	31	401	Brock Heger*	LOEB FrayMédia Motorsport	55:11:56
Stock	52	502	Rokas Baciuška	Defender Rally	58:09:45
Truck	40	604	Vaidotas Žala*	NØRDIS Team de Rooy FPT	56:58:38

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	77	Luciano Benavides	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	49:00:41
Rally2	9	16	Toni Mulec	BAS World KTM Racing Team	51:57:59

Other

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Points
Classic	703	Karolis Raišys*	Ovoko Racing	735
Mission 1000	1040	Jordi Juvanteny*	KH-7 Ecovergy Team	237

Featured image credit: Florent Gooden / DPPI / ASO