Defending champion Ricky Brabec grabbed a last-gasp Dakar Rally stage win at the weekend, sending a stern warning to race leader Daniel Sanders.
Two-time Dakar Rally winner Brabec timed his ride to perfection as he took victory on stage six at the weekend by 23 seconds over his Honda team-mate Adrien Van Beveren.
It was the second consecutive stage victory for Monster Energy Honda HRC in Saudi Arabia after Van Beveren’s first place on Friday making it 112 stage victories for Honda since Christian Desnoyers kicked off their winning ways back in 1979 on the original Paris-Dakar.
The rest day gave the Monster Energy Honda HRC riders a much-needed boost as it prepared them for the super long stage on their Honda CRF450 RALLY bikes, where 605km of special stage was the task split up by an untimed 172km road section.
This interlude would offer competitors a brief break from the stoney canyons as they exited Ha’il before they faced challenging dunes on their way south to Al Duwadimi.
The early part of the stage saw plenty of chopping and changing at the top as the riders looked to take the advantage heading into the transfer section, but it was American rider Brabec who powered his way through the final phase amongst the dunes to take his 11th Dakar Rally stage victory, his first of 2025.
Although he stopped to assist a stricken Ross Branch, it was a brilliant performance by the American as he kept his nerve to move closer to the overall podium as he now is just 23’18” off the lead of the rally in fourth.
Following a steward’s decision on Saturday to re-instate some time to Van Beveren’s stage time from stage five the day before, the Frenchman was declared the winner of that stage during the rest day on Sunday to further boost the morale of the squad as they went in to the second week of the rally.
It worked too as Adrien had his best day so far on this 2025 Dakar Rally as he opened the entire stage and led it from start 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 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.
Second overall heading into the rest day, fellow Honda rider Tosha Schareina was determined to pile on the pressure and kept his head down throughout the 605kms to arrive at the finish line just 2’27” behind Brabec.
Although he continues to hold his second overalll, the gap to the leader, Australian Sanders (KTM Factory Racing Team), 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.
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.
It was a close-run affair amongst the top rally-raid riders in the world as Pablo Quintanilla completed the top 10 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.
The next stage, 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’ll tackle 411km against the clock as they head up into the mountains on a loop from Al Duwadimi.
Ruben Faria, Honda General Manager: We arrive in Al Duwadimi after a very exhausting day, it was very tough for the riders as there was also a long liaison, then the long stage and also a transfer in the middle of it.
Adrien opened the stage with a really good pace, his navigation was excellent and with the bonus he finished second.
“It was amazing what he did today. Ricky set off from a good position and he took care of the bike, settled into a good rhythm and then won the stage. Tosha also did a good job finishing fourth which keeps him in second overall.
“I believe he can get some good results over the coming days. Skyler made a small mistake in the beginning of the stage and then struggled with the bike a little bit in the dunes. He got to the end in eighth so he will have a good starting position for tomorrow. Pablo rounded out the top ten so it was a really good day for Monster Energy Honda HRC.
Tomorrow’s stage is a loop around Al Duwadimi, it has been reduced in distance because a lot of riders didn’t finish today, but no doubt it’ll be another tough day on this year’s Dakar Rally.
Brabec, fourth overall in the standings thus far, said: “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. 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.”
Rally GP Results – Stage 6:
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team
Time/Gap
1 BRABEC Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC 05:00:51
2 VAN BEVEREN Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 00:23
3 CORNEJO FLORIMO José Ignacio 11 CHI Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 00:51
4 SCHAREINA Tosha 68 SPA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 02:27
5 BENAVIDES Luciano 1 ARG KTM Factory Racing Team + 03:36
6 SANTOLINO Lorenzo 15 SPA Sherco TVS Rally Factory + 03:47
7 KLEIN Mason 43 USA BAS World KTM Racing Team + 04:22
8 HOWES Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 05:09
9 SANDERS Daniel AUS KTM Factory Racing Team + 05:43
10 QUINTANILLA Pablo 7 CHI Monster Energy Honda HRC + 05:46
Rally GP Provisional Standings after Stage 6:
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team
Time/Gap
1 SANDERS Daniel AUS KTM Factory Racing Team 35:18:49
2 SCHAREINA Tosha 68 SPA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 11:46
3 VAN BEVEREN Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 19:11
4 BRABEC Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 23:18
5 HOWES Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 27:25
6 BENAVIDES Luciano 1 ARG KTM Factory Racing Team + 30:08
7 QUINTANILLA Pablo 7 CHI Monster Energy Honda HRC + 40:52
8 CORNEJO FLORIMO José Ignacio 11 CHI Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 44:39
9 SANTOLINO Lorenzo 15 SPA Sherco TVS Rally Factory + 01:09:28
10 SVITKO Stefan 142 SLO Slovnaft Rally Team + 01:30:44
Photo courtesy Honda
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