Tuesday, January 6, 2026, 2:37 p.m.
He had been somewhat hidden for three days and there were many glances directed at Honda. Tosha Schareina’s work was even in question, given that after three days – prologue and two stages – dominated with authority by Canet and Sanders it seemed that the KTM army could be the great dominator of this raid. Everything changed in the long Al Ula loop.
The tough conditions – with a complex area of rocks and harder terrain, but also with some areas of dunes – of the day meant that opening the track was hell. Thus, the current champion Daniel Sanders had to grit his teeth to open the track during practically the 421 kilometers of special timed, which in turn benefited his rivals. In this sense, both Schareina and his partner Ricky Brabec took gold from a complex day for everyone.
Proof of this is that Sanders, despite losing almost three and a half minutes with the Valencian at the finish line, had to grit his teeth at the end to not give up the lead, which he now has by just over a minute over the American and the Spaniard. The one who fell on this day was Edgar Canet, who did not have a good day and entered almost twelve minutes behind the winner, which now places him eight minutes and 46 seconds behind first place.
For Schareina it was quite a vindication. Last year’s runner-up won again on terrain that he likes, since in Al Ula he achieved his first stage victory in 2024. Winning on this day is key for the great marathon stage that will be held this Wednesday, not so much because of the position itself but because of the morale boost it represents. «I will run in the lead. It will be the start of the marathon stage, we will have to take care of the bike and the tires and fight for the first positions. I still don’t know how everything will go towards victory, many things can still happen, but I want to be well present in the fight,” he said. Regarding this Tuesday’s stage itself, the Valencian highlighted that despite the hardness of the stones he managed to complete “a clean stage” in which he got rid of the navigation traps that were on the route planned in the route sheet.
Ford dominance and gold for Gutiérrez
After the dominant Toyota quintet in stage two, Ford responded with a double that allows it to place five Raptors taking over the top five positions in the general classification in Al Ula. The American Mitch Guthrie took the victory of the day, with almost two and a half minutes of margin over the Czech Martin Prokop, who races with a semi-official structure. The American will arrive at the marathon as the new leader after a day in which the favorites and even the one who came in command of the general classification sank.
Nasser Al Attiyah, who started the day as leader of the classification, closed it by dropping more than 22 minutes due to navigation problems on one of his worst days. The Qatari falls to tenth place, with more than eleven and a half minutes behind the new leader.
As for the Spanish, the best placed national was Oriol Mena, Botterill’s co-driver in the Toyota 218 that entered third day. But as for drivers, the gift for the fans was left by Cristina Gutiérrez. The woman from Burgos equaled her best partial result of a day with a fifth place – the same one she achieved in the first stage of 2025 – and was just eleven seconds away from reaching fourth place, which went to her teammate Lucas Moraes with another of the Dacias. With this result, Gutiérrez rises to seventh position overall, almost six minutes behind Guthrie.
Nani Roma and Carlos Sainz entered sixth and seventh, respectively. Both planned the stage thinking of minimizing problems since they know that it will be in this Wednesday’s marathon when a good part of their options can be played. The Matador is just a stone’s throw away from the podium, as he gives up only three and a half minutes to Guthrie in the general classification, but he has a little more than two to his teammate Ekstrom, with Roma less than half a minute away in fifth place. The first five, five Raptors, are, therefore, in just four minutes, which makes the next stages critical when it comes to positioning candidates and favorites in view of the strategies that can begin to be considered for the definitive second week of the raid.
