The 2026 edition of the Dakar Rally kicked off today in Saudi Arabia however unlike the Bike category of the event the Prolouge/ SS0 would not count and act as a shakedown for the crews. Every winner of the event since 2010 is at this years event with names such as Stéphane Peterhansel, Sebastian Loeb, Mattias Ekstrom, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Carlos Sainz (SNR) and Seth Quintero who recently was announced as Toyotas ARA factory driver for Next season. It was a short sub 11 minute stage for the crews in the cars category with Mattias Ekstrom fastest over Ford teammate Mitch Guthrie and Belgian rally ace Guillaume De Mévius with Nasser Al-Attiyah and Seth Quintero 4th and 5th resprectively. Unusually however, Sebastian Loeb was 17th, hopefully this isn`t a preview of the next 2 weeks for the French veteran. A dissapointing introduction to the world of Rally-Raid for 8x World Rallycross champion Johan Kristoffersson as according to Kristoffersson via Facebook “I just came too fast into some camel grass and the first two sent us off line and the third broke the left front, not how we wanted to start our first Dakar” said Kristoffersson. There had been worry over the severity of the damage to Kristofferssons Can-Am machine however he has since confirmed that the cage is ok and should restart for tomorrow. German Driver Daniel Schroder crashed out of the Prolouge in dramatic style

And that concludes the first dasy of action from the 2026 Dakar Rally. The crews will now face over 300 competitive kilometeres tomorrow for the first Stage of Dakar 2026.

Written by Tony Griffin “Bear”