We recap Stage 5 of the 2026 Dakar Rally, which took place on 8 January.
Wednesday’s second half of the marathon stage saw the Ford Racing crew stage a major comeback in the 2026 Dakar, with Nani Roma and Mitch Guthrie managing a factory 1-2, with the Raptor of Martin Prokop (Orlen Jipocar Team) third fastest.
The Ford Racing crew was quickest to the 39 km checkpoint, with Mitch Guthrie, Carlos Sainz, and Mattias Ekström only seconds apart. Seth Quintero (Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC) was the leading Hilux at that point, fourth fastest, and leading the Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa entries of Guy Botterill and Joao Ferreira. Nani Roma (Ford Racing), Lucas Moraes (Dacia Sandriders), Saood Variawa (Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa), and Mathieu Serradori (Century Racing) completed the fastest 10 by that point.
By the 66 km mark, Roma was closing in ahead of his teammates, 17 seconds behind Botterill, and overtook all but Guthrie at the 100 km checkpoint. Brazilian Moraes also steadily moved up through the field and, by 125 km, was less than a minute behind Roma; running in third overall until clocking a quicker time than the Spaniard two checkpoints later, at 208 km into the stage.
Denis Krotov (M-Sport Rally Raid Team) also worked his way up the stage’s fastest, from eighth quickest to fourth fastest by 237 km with his Raptor. Ekström overtook Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia Sandriders) in the overall rankings by that point, as well, but the Qatari pushed hard to make up time.
“It was not an easy stage. From the beginning, we tried to manage without any mistakes or punctures. I think we did a good job. Henk Lategan did a really good run, and we just stayed behind him – we didn’t really need to pass because it was so risky, and the navigation was not really easy,” said Al-Attiyah
In the end, South African Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC) would continue to lead the race overall, with Al-Attiyah in second and Ekström in third, leading the Raptors of Roma, Sainz and Guthrie.
Friday’s Stage 6 will see the Dakar field move to the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, via 589 km of liason and 331 km of timed special with the first real dunes of this year’s event.
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Also read
- Dakar 2026: Toyota’s Henk Lategan dominates Stage 4 to lead overall standings
- 2026 Dakar Rally: Ford’s Mitch Guthrie takes overall lead with Stage 3 win
- All the South Africans competing in the 2026 Dakar Rally
- 2026 Dakar Rally: Seth Quintero wins Stage 2 for Toyota Gazoo Racing WR2C
- 2026 Dakar Rally: Guillaume De Mévius Wins Stage 1 for X-Raid Team
- 2026 Dakar Rally: Mattias Ekström Wins Prologue for Ford
