Ford double victory in the prologue of the 2026 Dakar Rally: Mattias Ekström wins ahead of Mitch Guthrie – Loeb not in the top 10 – Canet leads the motorcycles
Mattias Ekström made his mark at the start of the 2026 Dakar Rally. The Swedish Ford factory driver won Saturday’s prologue, narrowly beating his teammate Mitch Guthrie into second place.
The prologue covered a 95-kilometer route around the Saudi port city of Yanbu. As only 22 kilometers counted towards the overall classification, the times at the top of the field were extremely close.
In his V8-powered Ford Raptor, two-time DTM champion Ekström set the fastest time of the day in 10:48.7 minutes. This marks his third prologue victory in five appearances, having already triumphed with Audi in 2023 and 2024. Guthrie finished eight seconds behind Ekström, completing a one-two for Ford at the start of the US brand’s second factory entry.
X-raid driver Guillaume de Mevius finished just two-tenths of a second behind Guthrie in third place, establishing Mini as the closest challenger to the Ford team. De Mevius was once again joined by four-time Dakar winner Mathieu Baumel as his navigator.
For the Frenchman, this marks a remarkable return to active competition after losing his right leg in an accident in January last year. Dakar star Nasser Al-Attiyah led the Dacia contingent, finishing fourth, another three tenths of a second behind De Mevius. Fifth place went to Toyota factory driver Seth Quintero, closely followed by 2025 winner Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who finished sixth in his Overdrive Hilux alongside co-driver Timo Gottschalk.
Sebastien Loeb off to a cautious start
Nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb got off to a relatively unremarkable start in the Dakar, finishing 17th in his Dacia, more than half a minute behind the leaders.
Unlike in the motorcycle category, the times from the prologue do not count towards the overall standings for the cars. Nevertheless, the results are of strategic importance: the ten fastest drivers from Saturday have the right to choose their starting positions for the first real stage on Sunday in Yanbu. In the motorcycle category, KTM factory rider Edgar Canet secured victory in the prologue, narrowly beating defending champion and brand colleague Daniel Sanders into second place. Canet mastered the mix of sand and stones in 11:31.9 minutes, three seconds faster than Sanders. Behind the KTM duo, Honda rider Ricky Brabec followed in third place.
Luciano Benavides (KTM) and Ross Branch (Hero) completed the top five, while Michael Docherty was the best Rally2 rider in sixth place. Austrian Tobias Ebster (Hero) narrowly missed out on the top ten, finishing eleventh, 45 seconds behind.
