2026 Dakar Stage 9 Results – Drama Aplenty And A New Leader

The 2026 Dakar Rally is more than 2/3rds complete. 2026 Dakar Stage 9 was contested over 410 km. The stage took place in a loop that started in Wadi ad-Dawasir and ended in the desert. Read our Dakar 101 article here if you are still learning about the race. It was the start of the second marathon of the 48th edition of the rally raid. Marathon, in this case, means that racers start off for the stage from the overnight camp and end in the middle of the desert, where they will spend the night. No outside assistance is allowed except from others at the same overnight camp. Crews will sleep in tents, use open fires to stay warm and eat military style rations.

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Losing Time

As always, the starting order for a stage is determined by the finished order of the previous day. But those that lead the way lose time as they try to decipher the road book heading into the great unknown. Those that leave later down the order have the benefit of tracks to follow, simply confirming their own navigation. That almost always means that starting early will cost you time as the day progresses. That effect is amplified when the cars and bikes have different routes, as was the case today.

Balancing Speed and Risk

In addition, crews would not have benefit of technical help and extra parts from the support team. As a result, drivers would have to balance speed versus risk to their vehicles and the ever-present threat of punctures. To alleviate the latter, race organisers set up a mandatory mid-stage pit-stop for fresh tyres and quick help, the last the crews would have until the end of stage 10.

Click here to read why the Dakar Rally is such an alluring racing event.

First Casualty

South Africans Saood Variawa (TGR SA) and Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC) opened the path today, which meant they were the first to lose time to those starting later. The early part of the day was a complete mish-mash of times as crews that started lower down were smashing the times set by the early starters. There was no clear indication as Toyota, then Dacia and Ford all occupied top spots on the stage rankings.

Click here to read about the herioc comeback of De Mevius’ navigator, Mathieu Baumel.

Lategan provided the big drama early in the day. His Hilux limped into the pit-stop with no power steering. The team set to work, replacing the pump in 14 minutes before sending him on his way. The prolonged stop seemed detrimental to his chances of winning today and the rally overall. With nothing to lose, Lategan had the hammer down and was clawing back massive chunks of time. He lost time at the stop, but there was more drama to come. Not long after the stop a branch destroyed the windscreen of his Hilux. It cost him and his navigator six minutes to remove the screen then continue without it. Check out the video at the bottom of this post.

Late Charge

Out of left field Carlos Sainz (Ford) rose to the top of the timesheets late in the day. In the process he momentarily took the overall lead of the rally. But there was even more drama to come. The stage seemed to have tricky navigation towards the very end. The GPS tracking system showed cars zig-zagging as they tried to find the last few check points. In addition, cars down the order were flying through checkpoints. This brought some unlikely candidates into play for stage honours.

Stage Winner

It was unclear who would top the timesheets thanks to all the mid-stage drama. A stage winner was not known until dozens of the fast crews arrived at the finish line. It was privateer Eryk Goczal who drove his privately entered Toyota to the top of the timesheets for his first win in the Ultimate category. He was seven minutes quicker than his uncle Michal in second. Toby Price finally realised his goal of netting a stage podium in the car category. His finished made it a 1-2-3 for Toyota today.

South African Brian Baragwanath drove his locally made Century buggy to fourth with early stage winner Guillame de Mevius (Mini) in fifth. Lategan finished 16th one place behind Guy Botterill (TGR SA) and one place ahead of Al-Attiyah. Variawa was 18th with Loeb suffering a late stage stoppage, with power steering issues, that dropped him down to 22th.

A New Leader

The race now has a new overall leader in Nani Roma. The Ford driver took advantage of other’s woes to rise to the top of the general classification after starting the day in fourth position overall. His teammate Carlos Sainz lies just 57 sec off the leader. Were it not for a late speeding penalty of 1 min 10 sec the Spaniard would be leading. Al-Attiyah drops from first to third, just a few seconds behind. Lategan remains in fourth, having made no dent, but not losing time, to the race leader. Loeb remains in sixth. Price climbs into the top ten by virtue of his fast stage time today.