60 years after Ford vs. Ferrari at Le Mans, there was Ford vs. Dacia at Dakar. Unlike Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon, Nani Roma and Mattias Ekström couldn’t get it done for the Blue Oval against Nasser Al-Attiyah.

After Toyota’s hopes of a repeat went out the window, the Dakar Rally became a duel between the Dacia Sandrider and Ford Raptor. Al-Attiyah faced challenges from Ekström and Roma before a frustrating penultimate stage for Ford all but assured him of his sixth title barring disaster on the last day.

The top five solely consisted of Sandriders or Raptors as Al-Attiyah led Roma, Ekström, his teammate Sébastien Loeb, and Carlos Sainz of Ford. Roma was the only other driver with a real chance at the overall as he tailed Al-Attiyah by 8:40 following Stage 11, but the second-to-last leg was a catastrophe as Al-Attiyah dominated to put more distance between them. 50 meters before the finish, Roma’s front axle broke off and would have forced him out of the race had Laia Sanz now towed him to the finish.

With 16 minutes between the top two and Stage 13 being just 105 kilometers, Al-Attiyah could afford to run the last stage at a more conservative pace. As such, Roma finished 12th to Al-Attiyah’s 36th in Ultimate, but they were only separated by less than seven minutes.

Al-Attiyah’s six overall wins are the second most by a driver in race history behind Stéphane Peterhansel’s eight, coming with four different manufacturers: he previously won in 2011 with Volkswagen, 2015 with Mini, and was in a Hilux when he won the 2019 and 2022–2023 editions. He also joined Peterhansel and Ari Vatanen in the 50 Stage Win Club when he claimed Stage 12.

“From the start, we believed we could win this race,” said Al-Attiyah. “We started from zero with this Dacia project and we’ve developed the car so much. Now, we’ve won the Dakar.”

Likewise, Dacia is the 13th different manufacturer to overall the Dakar. This company includes 12-time champion Mitsubishi, Peugeot who has seven, six-pack holder Mini, the four each for Citroën, Toyota, and Volkswagen, two apiece for Porsche, Range Rover, and uniquely Jean-Louis Schlesser’s prototypes, and the single victory that Audi, Dacia, Mercedes-Benz, and Dacia’s parent group Renault enjoyed.

“Today is a historic moment and the proudest moment for the whole Dacia brand, our partners and customers,” Automobile Dacia CEO Katrin Adt stated. “It’s the result of so much hard work by so many talented people and shows that the Dacia Sandrider is reliable and robust. All the team members deserve this result, and they should be so incredibly proud for what they have done, achieving victory so early in Dacia’s Dakar journey.”

Ekström held off Loeb for the last step on the podium. The top five was still a Ford and Dacia lockout, and very well could’ve been a 1–2–3–4–5–6 for the two if not for Mathieu Serradori’s stunning run in the Century CR7.

Century Racing’s Dakar began in inauspicious fashion when their hospitality and parts containers got trapped in customs; the former made it in time for the race, but the latter didn’t until Stage 4. Besides overseeing the factory team of Serradori and Brian Baragwanath as well as various clients, their hands were triply tied also working on debuting marques EBRO and Santana.

Despite the usual challenges that a smaller program without the support of full-fledged manufacturers might face, Serradori pulled off a stunning upset when he beat Al-Attiyah to win Stage 10. Perhaps making it all the more impressive, he did so at limited power with no air conditioning and non-vital functions disabled due to electrical problems. With Serradori previously claiming the opening leg in 2020, Century joined Mini as the only makes to win Dakar stages with both a 2WD and a 4WD model.

By the end, Serradori was able to beat Lucas Moraes for sixth. The defending World Rally-Raid Champion had moved from Toyota to Dacia for the 2026 season.

“It has been another tough edition as always, but our preparation and car development have kept us in touch with the big teams,” Century team manager Julien Hardy stated. “One stage victory (long overdue from our side…), third manufacturer and ahead of Toyota, and Mathieu also finished ahead of the reigning world champion Lucas Moraes.

“I hope we kept you on the edge of your seat during Stage 10 and hopefully we’ll be fighting for more stage wins next year!”

On the flip side, it was a frustrating Dakar for Toyota. The defending manufacturers’ champ had a new Hilux developed by Overdrive Racing that showed solid pace, but Toyota Gazoo Racing newcomer Toby Price would be the higher finisher in it as he placed eighth. Henk Lategan had contended with Dacia and Ford before he suffered wheel bearing failure in Stage 11.

Things weren’t any better for non-TGR Hiluxes either, lowlighted by a three-day stretch where a prominent Hilux retired. 2025 Dakar winner Yazeed Al-Rajhi retired after just four stages because he felt he wasn’t at 100% after his vertebra fracture at the Jordan Baja, Benediktas Vanagas from regional subsidiary TGR Baltics bowed out after a huge accident in Stage 5, and Isidre Esteve was a Stage 6 DNF when he hit a dune and his navigator José María Villalobos hurt his back.

While certainly disappointing, Toyota need not worry. TGR has been open about 2026 being a developmental year for the Hilux before stepping up in 2027 or 2028. Even then, they still won three stages.

Likewise, Red-Lined Motorsport had to be dismayed by their T1 showing. Aliyyah and Martin Koloc both failed to finish in their REVOs, the former after hurting her arm when she hit a ditch and broke the steering column in Stage 9 and the latter due to a gearbox failure in Stage 4. Meanwhile, Red-Lined partner DaklaPack Rallysport debuted their own T1+ called the DKR EVO Ultimate with Dave Klaassen; he experienced multiple problems with the crankshaft sensor, had to replace his gearbox early on, and lost a fender to a giant rock on the second marathon but completed the race in 51st.

Simon Vitse finished 15th to win the T1.2 subcategory for two-wheel-drive cars. 2WD vehicles have become increasingly rare in recent years as manufacturers prefer to build more powerful 4WD models, with the Century CR6 and MD Optimus being the only such cars taking part in 2026.

Sanz rounded out the top 20 in EBRO’s first Dakar, while Santana Motor’s debut was cut short by a massive crash for Jesús Calleja. A postmortem of the latter’s car found the engine, drivetrain, and electronics could be salvaged but everything else had to be discarded because the damage was that severe. In particular, Hardy noted “the steering is bent, the seats are damaged, the fuel tank isn’t leaking but got badly squashed. The next Santana car will be a new chassis, no doubt.”

The most unique Ultimate vehicle probably could’ve competed in Stock too as Nathan Hayashi brought his Ford Bronco Raptor from Canada, which was subclassed in the revived T1.3 for SCORE-eligible cars. Despite being probably the weakest T1 car on paper, he successfully reached the finish without major issue.

“It is incredible that a car off the showroom floor can handle that type of terrain,” Hayashi remarked after the second day. “There are no upgrades on this car and it just took everything the stage threw at us.”

Besides Spain, China was well represented too with six JJ3 T1+ cars and Han Wei Motorsport’s duo; the latter’s eponymous owner led the way in 26th with his new HWM T1+. Han knew the Chinese machines weren’t up to par with others, so his focus was mainly on testing rather than gunning for a good finish. He even called the final set of stages “garbage time” to try out new adjustments.

While he certainly would like to go all-out in a future Dakar, the current goal remains to develop the program he currently has.

“If you want to go fast now, the resources and coordination necessary are still lacking,” Han explained. “This is a problem. The data from China is still sorely lacking.

“The first condition is that we need to improve our systems, which seem to be different from the goals of foreign teams. They place more emphasis on competition; it’s deeply ingrained in their culture. I think this is because preparing for the Dakar Rally is incredibly difficult and it takes a whole year, perhaps even more, to prep for the following year’s race. This race is precious for everyone.

“If we don’t finish the race, it’d be like eating a tangyuan without knowing if the filling is sweet or savory. I think that would be even more disappointing.”

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	1	299	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Fabian Lurquin	Dacia Sandriders	T1+	48:56:53	Leader
2	2	227	Nani Roma	Álex Haro	Ford Racing	T1+	49:06:35	+ 9:42
3	3	226	Mattias Ekström	Emil Bergkvist	Ford Racing	T1+	49:11:26	+ 14:33
4	4	219	Sébastien Loeb	Édouard Boulanger	Dacia Sandriders	T1+	49:12:03	+ 15:10
5	5	225	Carlos Sainz	Lucas Cruz	Ford Racing	T1+	49:25:23	+ 28:30
6	6	214	Mathieu Serradori	Loïc Minaudier	Century Racing Factory Team / Serradori Racing Team	T1+	49:41:55	+ 45:02
7	7	223	Lucas Moraes	Dennis Zenz	Dacia Sandriders	T1+	49:44:43	+ 47:50
8	8	204	Toby Price	Armand Monleón	Toyota Gazoo Racing	T1+	49:49:00	+ 52:07
9	9	203	Seth Quintero	Andrew Short	Toyota Gazoo Racing	T1+	50:11:55	+ 1:15:02
10	10	213	Saood Variawa	François Cazalet	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	T1+	50:20:29	+ 1:23:36
11	11	212	Cristina Gutiérrez	Pablo Moreno	Dacia Sandriders	T1+	50:26:42	+ 1:29:49
12	12	228	Mitch Guthrie	Kellon Walch	Ford Racing	T1+	50:34:18	+ 1:37:25
13	13	206	Marek Goczał	Maciej Marton	Energylandia Rally Team	T1+	50:34:20	+ 1:37:27
14	14	218	Guy Botterill	Oriol Mena	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	T1+	50:40:30	+ 1:43:37
15	15	234	Simon Vitse*	Max Delfino	MD Rallye Sport	T1.2	50:44:16	+ 1:47:23
16	16	224	Brian Baragwanath*	Leonard Cremer	Century Racing Factory Team	T1+	50:54:43	+ 1:57:50
17	17	205	Eryk Goczał	Szymon Gospodarczyk	Energylandia Rally Team	T1+	51:25:03	+ 2:28:10
18	18	240	João Ferreira	Filipe Palmeiro	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	T1+	52:14:41	+ 3:17:48
19	19	209	Michał Goczał	Diego Ortega	Energylandia Rally Team	T1+	52:18:22	+ 3:21:29
20	20	232	Laia Sanz	Maurizio Gerini	EBRO Audax Motorsport	T1+	52:28:02	+ 3:31:09
21	21	202	Henk Lategan	Brett Cummings	Toyota Gazoo Racing	T1+	52:54:38	+ 3:57:45
22	22	230	Christian Lavieille*	Valentin Sarreaud	MD Rallye Sport	T1.2	53:07:49	+ 4:10:56
23	23	221	Martin Prokop	Viktor Chytka	ORLEN Jipocar Team	T1+	53:20:27	+ 4:23:34
24	24	239	Shaikh Al-Qisimi*	Khalid Al-Kendi	SVR	T1+	53:25:07	+ 4:28:14
25	25	235	Ronan Chabot*	Gilles Pillot	Overdrive Racing	T1+	53:55:57	+ 4:59:04
26	26	220	Wei Han*	Li Ma	Hanwei Motorsport	T1+	53:58:24	+ 5:01:31
27	27	243	Lu Binglong*	Sha He	JJ Sport	T1+	54:40:46	+ 5:43:53
28	29	210	Hernán Garcés	Juan Latrach	Overdrive Racing	T1+	54:47:23	+ 5:50:30
29	34	259	Tao Yongming*	Fu Liguo	JJ Sport	T1+	55:30:44	+ 6:33:51
30	35	208	Lionel Baud	Lucie Baud	X-raid Mini JCW Team	T1+	55:33:36	+ 6:36:43
31	41	217	Denis Krotov	Konstantin Zhiltsov	M-Sport Rally Raid Team	T1+	57:07:38	+ 8:10:45
32	42	222	Guillaume de Mévius	Mathieu Baumel	X-raid Mini JCW Team	T1+	57:08:14	+ 8:11:21
33	47	238	Jean-Rémy Bergounhe*	Anthony Pes	MD Rallye Sport	T1.2	57:34:55	+ 8:38:02
34	56	267	Mark Mustermann*	Michael Zajc	MM Rallye	T1+	59:10:14	+ 10:13:21
35	59	252	Benoît Fretin*	Cédric Duplé	YDEO Compétition	T1.2	59:48:38	+ 10:51:45
36	60	270	Khaled Al-Jafla*	Andrei Rudnitski	SVR	T1+	60:12:40	+ 11:15:47
37	61	258	François Cousin*	Stéphane Cousin	Compagnie des Dunes	T1.2	60:16:43	+ 11:19:50
38	62	246	Karel Trněný*	Václav Pritzl	X-Force Racing	T1+	60:51:40	+ 11:54:47
39	63	242	Miroslav Zapletal	Marek Sýkora	Offroadsport	T1+	60:56:59	+ 12:00:06
40	67	261	Xu Benyang*	Tian Lei	JJ Sport	T1+	62:15:32	+ 13:18:39
41	68	248	Maria Luís Gameiro*	Rosa Romero Font	X-raid Mini JCW Team	T1+	62:16:30	+ 13:19:37
42	76	257	Roger Grouwels*	Rudolf Meijer	Shiver Offroad	T1+	64:14:30	+ 15:17:37
43	77	272	Jordi Torras*	Santiogo Costa	MD Rallye Sport	T1.2	64:18:24	+ 15:21:31
44	79	268	Silvio Totani*	Tito Totani	MD Rallye Sport	T1.2	64:36:50	+ 15:39:57
45	82	253	Janus van Kasteren*	Marcel Snijders	Shiver Offroad	T1+	65:11:05	+ 16:14:12
46	83	247	Tim Coronel*	Tom Coronel	Team Coronel	T1+	65:11:51	+ 16:14:58
47	87	241	Gintas Petrus*	Nursaltan Abykayev	Petrus Racing Team / MV Sport	T1.2	66:38:24	+ 17:41:31
48	89	249	Maik Willems*	Jasper Riezebos	Bastion Hotels Team	T1+	67:04:59	+ 18:08:06
49	93	262	Wang Guorui*	Tian Yu	Longmai Motorsport	T1+	69:25:14	+ 20:28:21
50	94	231	Nandu Jubany*	Marc Solà	MD Rallye Sport	T1.2	69:26:41	+ 20:29:48
51	103	254	Dave Klaassen*	Tessa Klaassen	DaklaPack Rallysport	T1+	72:12:18	+ 23:15:25
52	122	260	Bruno Miot*	Cristophe Crespo	MD Rallye Sport	T1.2	103:53:31	+ 54:56:38
53	123	237	Marcos Moraes*	Fabio Pedroso	SVR	T1+	105:08:52	+ 56:11:59
54	125	278	Jean-Pierre Strugo*	Kevin Morel	MD Rallye Sport	T1.2	110:16:57	+ 61:20:04
55	131	215	Zhang Biaobiao*	Ma Wenke	JJ Sport	T1+	134:07:07	+ 85:10:14
56	135	245	Po Tian*	Ha Simuren	Hanwei Motorsport	T1.1	152:54:12	+ 103:57:19
57	136	256	Jürgen Schröder*	Stuart Gregory	PS Laser Racing	T1+	153:02:08	+ 104:05:15
58	141	271	Fan Gaoxiang*	Zhao Kai	JJ Sport	T1+	183:55:24	+ 134:58:31
59	145	265	Nathan Hayashi	Shane Hairsine	The Gear Shop Technical Motorsport Team	T1.3	196:58:24	+ 148:01:31
60	150	266	Pedro Peñate*	Daniel Mesa	TH-Trucks Team	T1.2	233:29:09	+ 184:32:16
DNF	DNF	201	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Timo Gottschalk	Overdrive Racing	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	207	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	Pascal Delacour	JLC Racing	T1.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	216	Benediktas Vanagas*	Aisvydas Paliukėnas	Gurtam Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	229	Daniel Schröder	Henry Carl Köhne	PS Laser Racing	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	233	Isidre Esteve	José María Villalobos	Repsol Toyota Rally Team	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	236	Romain Dumas	Alex Winocq	Ford Racing / RD Limited	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	244	Jesús Calleja*	Edu Blanco	Santana Motors	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	250	Aliyyah Koloc	Marcin Pasek	Buggyra ZM Racing	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	251	Martin Koloc	Mirko Brun	Buggyra ZM Racing	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	255	Zhao Yuqiao*	Gui Haibo	JJ Sport	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	263	Michiel Becx*	Wouter de Graaff	Shiver Offroad	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	269	Jourdan Serderidis	Grégoire Munster	M-Sport Rally Raid Team	T1+	DNF	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Driver	Total Time
Prologue	1	Mattias Ekström	10:48.7
Stage 1	1	Guillaume de Mévius	3:07:49
Stage 2	1	Seth Quintero	3:57:16
Stage 3	1	Mitch Guthrie	4:04:32
Stage 4	1	Henk Lategan	4:47:08
Stage 5	1	Nani Roma	3:54:42
Stage 6	1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	3:38:28
Stage 7	1	Mattias Ekström	3:44:22
Stage 8	1	Saood Variawa	4:20:35
Stage 9	1	Eryk Goczał	3:46:42
Stage 10	1	Mathieu Serradori	4:48:27
Stage 11	1	Mattias Ekström	2:47:22
Stage 12	1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	3:21:52
Stage 13	1	Mattias Ekström	46:14

Featured image credit: Charly López / ASO