It really is a story from Arabia, a dream tale of a thousand and one dunes. Argentine driver Luciano Benavides, from KTM, won the motorcycle category of the 2026 Dakar rally, after an epic fight with North American Ricky Brabec, from Honda, who seemed to have victory in hand. But, in the Dakar – as so often happens in rallies – triumph is only assured after crossing the finish line in the last stage. And Benavides ended up winning the Dakar for the first time in his career, at the age of 30, after having already been in the top-10 five times. Ricky Brabec started the final stage, this Saturday, with three minutes and twenty seconds ahead of the Argentine. This is after there were several leadership changes throughout the competition, day after day. However, the North American driver made a navigational error in the final part of the 105 km timed stage of the thirteenth stage - race in the Yanbu region, in Saudi Arabia - and let the triumph slip through his fingers, as if they were grains of sand. The end of the 2026 Dakar, in this class, was worthy of a Hitchcock film: Benavides won by two seconds! In total, he totaled 49 hours and 41 seconds during the two weeks of the test; Brabec did 49 hours and 43! The third Dakar victory thus failed, after triumphs in 2020 and 2024. Best Portuguese: newcomer Martim Ventura The Portuguese drivers were unable to enter the top-10 of this Dakar, but Martim Ventura was close. The Honda rider, a newcomer to the competition, finished the race in 11th place, more than four and a half hours behind the winner. However, in the Rally2 class (less prepared bikes) he was placed third. Bruno Santos, on a Husqvarna, was the second best Portuguese, having finished the race in 17th place in the general motorcycle classification. Nuno Silva was 85th and Pedro Pinheiro dropped out in the seventh stage.