MM Technology’s EVO 4 line of IVECO trucks has proven to be dominant since its debut, lifting Martin Macík Jr. to his second straight Dakar Rally victory in 2025 and sweeping the top two at last October’s Rallye du Maroc.

However, the EVO 4 faced one too many demons this time that ended Macík’s hopes of a Dakar three-peat and upended Mitchel van den Brink’s chances of his first. Instead, Team de Rooy’s IVECOs got the last laugh as Vaidotas Žala and Aleš Loprais finished 1–2.

“We’ve always said that competition is healthy,” Macík’s father and MM Technology head Martin Sr. commented. “Dakar 2026 was tough, but that’s exactly why it was so important for us, both in terms of development and experience. We know where we need to improve, and these results motivate us to push our trucks even further. We’re bringing home a lot of valuable data and lessons that will go straight into future development.”

MM was well represented at Dakar with nine trucks, six of which were EVO 4s. Van den Brink, who finished second in 2025, got off the ground early by winning the Prologue and quickly took the overall lead with a second in Stage 1 and another victory the day after.

Macík racked up two stage wins, taking advantage of a mechanical snag by van den Brink to pull ahead. However, he lost the lead just a day later when he misjudged the terrain and lost time, causing him to finish in the dark and fall over 35 minutes behind van den Brink going into the rest day. Behind him, Žala and Loprais were slowly approaching.

Disaster struck on Stage 8 when Macík couldn’t see Loprais at the crest of a dune, crashing into him. Both trucks were able to continue, but the damage dropped Macík over four hours behind the leaders. Van den Brink held a 34-minute edge over Žala going into Stage 10, which also happened to be his 24th birthday.

Alas, his present was a broken driveshaft that left him stranded because none of the passing trucks had the right replacement. Fellow EVO 4 driver Darek Łysek finally gave him one, but he eventually got stuck again. Van den Brink would finish 1:11:19 behind stage winner Loprais, which cycled Žala into the lead.

Žala was 19 minutes ahead of Loprais after the tenth stage. Even though Loprais finished ahead of him in Stages 11 and 13, the gap was too big for him to close.

The victory came in just Žala’s second Truck start, having made the switch from T1 cars in 2025.

“When I went for a change into trucks, I thought I either do it properly with the top team or don’t do it at all,” said Žala. “I can say the strategy paid off.”

Loprais settled for second ahead of van den Brink. All three were separated by less than half an hour.

“We can be happy with the rally despite what happened. We lost because of that broken driveshaft,” van den Brink stated. “We were able to compete for the win. A bit of bad luck is part of the Dakar Rally. It’s also about technique. We showed what we’re capable of. Given the circumstances, we’re perfectly satisfied. We have to learn from this and come back stronger.”

Claudio Bellina scored a top ten, a strong bounceback after withdrawing last year because of a medical scare. Marnix Leeuw rounded out the order as the youngest Truck driver in the field.

Teruhito Sugawara was set back by a broken transfer case. Like van den Brink, Egbert Wingens had a birthday during the race as he turned 56 on Stage 12, only to be slowed down by tire rack issues.

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Mechanic	Team	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	40	604	Vaidotas Žala	Paulo Fiúza	Max van Grol	NØRDIS Team de Rooy FPT	T5.1	56:58:38	Leader
2	43	602	Aleš Loprais	David Křípal	Jiří Stross	Loprais Team de Rooy FPT	T5.1	57:18:56	+ 20:18
3	46	601	Mitchel van den Brink	Bart van Heun	Jarno van de Pol	Eurol Rally Sport	T5.1	57:27:41	+ 29:03
4	64	600	Martin Macík Jr.	František Tomášek	David Švanda	MM Technology	T5.1	61:34:44	+ 4:36:06
5	66	607	Richard de Groot	Martijn van Rooij	Jan Hulsebosch	Firemen Rally Team	T5.1	62:11:46	+ 5:13:08
6	72	614	Michal Valtr	Lukáš Kvasnica	Radim Kaplanek	Valtr Racing Team	T5.1	63:16:57	+ 6:18:19
7	73	616	Kay Huzink	Rob Buursen	Gerrit Schoneveld	Kuipers-Jongbloed Hybrid	T5.1	63:17:34	+ 6:18:56
8	80	606	Martin van den Brink	Rijk Mouw	Peter Willemsen	Eurol Rally Sport	T5.1	64:40:45	+ 7:42:07
9	102	610	Claudio Bellina	Brno Gotti	Marco Arnoletti	Italtrans Racing Team / MM Technology	T5.1	71:38:21	+ 14:39:43
10	106	620	Marnix Leeuw	Marco Siemons	Bart van Donkelaar	Leeuw Rallysport / Team de Rooy	T5.1	73:53:15	+ 16:54:37
11	108	621	Darek Łysek	Darek Rodewald	Jacek Czachor	WhiteReds	T5.1	80:20:39	+ 23:22:01
12	109	611	Ben de Groot	Ad Hofmans	Govert Boogaard	De Groot Sport	T5.1	80:20:43	+ 23:22:05
13	114	617	Egbert Wingens	Marije van Ettekoven	Martijn Beekmans	DDW Rallyteam / Rebellion Spierings	T5.1	83:39:33	+ 26:40:55
14	115	618	Manuel Borrero	Charly Gotlib	Adrian Lopez	Dacia Sandriders	T5.1	86:11:06	+ 29:12:28
15	118	608	Teruhito Sugawara	Hirokazu Somemiya	Yuji Mochizuki	HINO Team Sugawara	T5.1	91:47:30	+ 34:48:52
16	119	648	Jordi Esteve	Francisco José Pardo	Jordi Pujol	Tibau Rally Assistance	T5.2	92:03:53	+ 35:05:15
17	138	629	Tomáš Tomeček	Metoděj Tomeček	Grant Ballington	Tom Racing / South Racing	T5.2	170:10:55	+ 13:12:17
18	140	615	Karel Poslední	Petr Schweiner	Filip Škrobánek	Buggyra ZM Racing	T5.1	179:44:45	+ 22:46:07
19	142	630	Pol Tibau	David Nadal	Daniel Vaz	Tibau Rally Assistance	T5.2	185:27:57	+ 28:29:19
20	144	609	Gert Huzink	Hugo Kupper	Mario Kress	Kuipers-Jongbloed Hybrid	T5.1	196:39:00	+ 39:40:22
21	146	603	Martin Šoltys	Vlastimil Miksch	Tomáš Šikola	Buggyra ZM Racing	T5.1	197:36:32	+ 40:37:54
22	148	623	Alberto Herrero	Paulo Oliveira	Mario Rodriguez	TH-Trucks Team	T5.2	202:33:11	+ 45:34:33
DNF	DNF	612	William de Groot	Koen Hendriks	Remon van der Steen	De Groot Sport	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	619	Jean-François Cazeres	Nicolas Falloux	Jérôme Detouillon	Boucou Compétition	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	624	Tariq Al-Rammah	Samir Benebekhti	Serge Lambert	STA Competition	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	625	Zsolt Darázsi	Pierre Calmon	Palco Lubomir	Team SSP	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	626	Dave Ingels	Johannes Schotanus	David Lopez	SVR	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	628	Mathias Behringer	Moichael Helminger	Philipp Rettig	Motorsport Behringer	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	631	Dave Berghmans	Sam Koopman	Peter Ulenaers	Overdrive Racing	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	632	Richard Gonzalez	Franck Maldonado	Jean-Philippe Salviat	Sodicars Racing	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	633	Louis Lauilhe	John Cockburn	Joël Sarron	STA Competition	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	634	Javier Jacoste	Gustavo Ribas	Francisco Ester	Buggy Masters Team	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	635	Sylvain Besnard	Sylvain Laliche	Patrick Prot	RIC Rallye Assistance	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	636	Didier Monseu	Olivier Jacmart	Nicolas Vandommele	Dacia Sandriders	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	637	Jesús Borrero Gómez	Emilio Fiz	Alberto Fiz	Tibau Rally Assistance	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	638	Dušan Randýsek	Laurent Lalanne	Victor Bouchwalder	Team SSP	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	639	Alberto Alonso	Gustavo Ibeas	Raul Arteaga	TH-Trucks Team	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	640	Alexandre Lemeray	Anthony Robineau	Fabien Lecaplain	Normandy Racing Solutions / Team HoleShot Compétition	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	643	Jérémie Gimbre	Didier Belivier	Téo Calvet	Sodicars Racing	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	645	Sébastien Fargeas	Marc Dardaillon	Frédéric Baché	Boucou Compétition	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	646	Antoine Vitse	Alain Coquelle	Damien Cousin	Team Solurent Racing	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	647	Philippe Perry	Philipp Beier	Florent Drulhon	Boucou Compétition	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	649	Francisco Javier Herero	Alfonso Herrero	José María Casas	TH-Trucks Team	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	650	Bader Al-Barrak	Marco Piana	Pacotille Fernandez	4×4	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	651	Ahmed Benbekhti	Bruno Seillet	Mickaël Fauvel	Rebellion Spierings	T5.2	DNF	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Driver	Total Time
Prologue	80	Mitchel van den Brink	13:05.4
Stage 1	51	Aleš Loprais	3:42:15
Stage 2	46	Gert Huzink	4:42:45
Stage 3	56	Mitchel van den Brink	4:52:59
Stage 4	38	Martin Macík Jr.	5:40:19
Stage 5	63	Martin Macík Jr.	4:30:26
Stage 6	41	Aleš Loprais	4:10:50
Stage 7	42	Vaidotas Žala	4:27:24
Stage 8	46	Mitchel van den Brink	5:03:42
Stage 9	34	Aleš Loprais	4:26:43
Stage 10	53	Aleš Loprais	5:35:54
Stage 11	47	Aleš Loprais	3:19:59
Stage 12	41	Mitchel van den Brink	3:58:47
Stage 13	41	Kay Huzink	54:41

Featured image credit: Antonin Vincent / DPPI / ASO