Two-time Dakar Rally champion Ricky Brabec delivered a commanding performance on stage six of the 2025 Dakar Rally, securing victory by a narrow 23-second margin over teammate Adrien Van Beveren.
This marks Brabec’s 11th career Dakar stage win and his first of this year’s rally, solidifying his push toward the overall podium as he now sits fourth, just 23 minutes and 18 seconds behind the leader Daniel Sanders.
The rest day prior to stage six brought significant news, as stewards reinstated time to Adrien Van Beveren’s stage five result. This decision awarded the stage win to Van Beveren, previously held by Luciano Benavides, and gave a morale boost to the Honda squad heading into the second week.
Nacho Cornejo continued his consistent run, rounding out the top three on stage six. Meanwhile, overall rally leader Daniel Sanders finished ninth but retained his commanding position at the top of the standings.
Unfortunately, the day also saw heartbreak for two competitors. Ross Branch’s rally ended abruptly following a crash 48 kilometres into the stage. The Botswanan rider, who had been holding an impressive 4th place overall, was airlifted to Ha’il Hospital. Thankfully, a CT scan revealed no major injuries, and he rejoined his team later that evening. South Africa’s Bradley Cox, sitting 12th overall as the highest-placed privateer, was also forced to withdraw after a crash rendered him unable to continue. Kevin Benavides, still recovering from a previous injury, opted to withdraw after completing the first week.
Stage six offered competitors a gruelling challenge, covering 605 kilometres of special stage interspersed with a 172-kilometer untimed road section. Riders departed Ha’il, navigating rocky canyons before tackling formidable dunes en route to Al Duwadimi. The early part of the stage saw intense competition, with riders jockeying for position. However, it was Brabec who emerged victorious, showcasing his skill and resilience despite stopping to assist the injured Ross Branch.
“We’re not in first, so we’re not controlling the game, but we’re just trying to do our best to make up time to better our overall position,” the American said. “I think there’s other people out there playing games and right now we’re just trying to manage ourselves and do the best we can. With regard to the day I’m happy with my riding and navigation. I’m also happy that Ross is OK, I saw where he crashed and pushed the rescue button. I saw the helicopter was just across the valley so I figured for me, it was better to ride across to it for a few kilometres and get the helicopter rather than try to phone them. At the end of the day he’s good which is the main thing. We still have six days of racing with a lot of time to make up, so we’ll do our best and hopefully get some bonus time tomorrow.”
Adrien Van Beveren had his best day so far as he opened the stage and led it from stat to finish setting a blistering pace across his favoured sandy tracks to rack up every single one of the 6’11” bonus time available. Although narrowly pipped to the top spot today by Brabec, he has chipped away at his time in the general standings and gained a further five minutes on the overall lead of the rally while remaining in third.
“I’m very very happy about my day,” Van Beveren declared. “I opened all day and you know when you start first and you arrive still leading, it was a tough day of navigation. We had sand and dunes at the end as well, so normally you tend to lose a lot of time when you have to open that, but I’m really proud of what I’ve done today and looking forward to tomorrow and the next few days. I’m feeling really good on the bike but there are still a lot of kilometres to do so we will keep focused.”
Nacho Cornejo is in outstanding form, finishing his third consecutive stage in the top three. With another strong third-place finish, he is focused on securing a commendable result for the team at this year’s Dakar Rally.
“I finished third in the stage and didn’t lose much time so I am overall happy with the job done,” Cornejo reflected, “I’m sad that my teammate Ross had a crash and is out of the race. I wish him a quick recovery and hope he’s back on the bike soon. We will do our best to represent Basti and Ross in the rally and I want to have a good result for both of them. We will keep giving our best day by day!”
Second overall heading into the rest day, Tosha Schareina was determined to pile on the pressure and kept his head down throughout the 605kms today to arrive at the finish line fourth just 2’27” behind Brabec. Although he continues to hold his second overall, the gap to the leader Sanders has now been cut to 11’46” so he’ll look to the spend the coming days pushing hard to reduce that time even further.
“It was a hard day again with the two parts of the stage,” Schareina said, “The first part was more about navigation and the second was super fast with sandy sections and dunes. It was crazy out there with a lot of local cars. I knew that we were cutting down to Daniel and the guys in front, so I tried to push, but also wanted to arrive safely here at the bivouac so I’m ready for tomorrow’s stage.”
Second into the special, Luciano Benavides got his head down and pushed hard right from the start, maintaining a consistent pace to post the fifth-fastest time. The excellent result moved him up one place in the overall standings to sixth, just over 30 minutes down on teammate and rally leader Daniel Sanders.
“That was pretty good, I made a small mistake this morning and Nacho passed me, so we then rode together for most of the special,” Benavides explained. “I pushed hard and managed to catch the leader by the end. The first part was tricky, and I had to be super careful to stay on the bike. After the rest day, it’s great to get back into it, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the week.”
Sherco’s Lorenzo Santolino faced some challenges warming up during the liaison but quickly found his rhythm once the special stage began. He joined Pablo Quintanilla at kilometre 90, riding alongside him for much of the course. Santolino delivered a strong performance, finishing 6th in today’s stage, just 3 minutes and 47 seconds behind the winner, and moving up to 9th in the provisional standings.
“Today was a very long day,” Santolino said. “At first, I took it easy because it’s hard to get into the rhythm after the rest stage. Around kilometre 90, I met up with Pablo Quintanilla and we rode together during the first part. In the second part, we kept swapping positions and maintaining the pace until the end. I had some difficulties finding one waypoint, but later I managed to maintain a good rhythm. For the first day back in action, it wasn’t bad at all. We keep moving forward! A tough stage, but we’re staying strong. Let’s go for more tomorrow!”
Starting from 42nd this morning, Mason Klein set the fastest times throughout the special, only to fade right at the end. The Kove factory rider finished seventh on the day, 4′22″ off the pace. In the overall standings, his recurrent misfortunes have dropped him to 44th, over 9 hours behind the leader.
“My only fall all day was right at the red flag. I went to make the turn and the flag was like a little bit inside. I really went for it and I got stuck under the bike. And I couldn’t get the bike off my boot like right in front of everybody to finish. Pretty annoying,” Klein lamented. “I’m not good at dunes. I just can’t do it, I guess. I need more practice for sure. I think I’m definitely missing some speed, kind of everywhere in the dunes. I just need more practice. I don’t get out in the dunes. It’s kind of my first time in the dunes, well, since last Dakar, really.”
Eighth-placed Skyler Howes got through the first part of the stage with a small navigation error that lost him a bit of time but while clawing it back with a strong pace he was unfortunately hit by some bike set up issues in the dunes in what was a frustrating stage for the American rider.
“The morning actually started out fine, the first section was going well even though I made a bit of a small navigation mistake. I was making my way back and gained a little bit of time back, but in the dunes I had some bike setup issues and so I lost a bit more time and didn’t really nail that second half. It was a bit frustrating as it was a super long day out there, but I’m happy to be back in the bivouac to rest and gear up for another day tomorrow,” Howes said.
Daniel Sanders initially fell victim to some tricky roadbook notes, straying from the route which cost him some time. However, quickly getting back up to speed, the Australian posted the second-fastest time at the 96-kilometer mark. Losing a little time in the second half of the special, Sanders dropped to ninth place as he crossed the line. At the close of stage six, Daniel retains his lead in the overall standings with an advantage of nearly 12 minutes.
“It’s always tough to try and get back into a rhythm after the rest day, but I’m happy with my result today,” Sanders declared. “It gives me a great starting position for tomorrow, so I’ll definitely make the most of that. It was cool having such variety in the stage from the really rocky first part to the dunes. I’m feeling great and excited for tomorrow.”
It was a close run affair amongst the top rally-raid riders in the world as Pablo Quintanilla completed the top ten on a day where just 5’46” separated him from the stage win. Amongst the front runners early on, Quintanilla was caught out by many spectators’ cars in the dune section and in the ensuing confusion he lost a couple of minutes while he got himself back on track.
Australian privateer Toby Hederics delivered another solid performance on stage six, finishing 28th despite a minor crash. His consistent efforts have moved him up to 22nd in the overall standings.
“I knew today was going to be tough, and it was brutal out there—over 800 km in total,” Hederics reflecteded. “I had a good day going before the refuel, sitting well inside the top 20, but once we hit the dunes, I just couldn’t get a flow going. I had a fall, which resulted in me bending my clutch lever, and that didn’t help either.”
Meanwhile, Andrew Houlihan continues to push through the rally despite facing significant physical challenges, including a broken nose, a torn bicep, and numerous bruises and scratches from several crashes. Houlihan persevered to finish 97th on stage six and currently holds 93rd overall.
Tomorrow’s stage seven has been amended and the riders will now start with a 188km road section to get them to the new start line before they tackle 411km against the clock as they head up into the mountains on a loop from Al Duwadimi.
