Here is the full Dakar Rally 2026 schedule featuring a prologue and 13 full stages that will kick off the FIA-FIM World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC).
The 48th edition of the endurance classic will run from 3 to 17 January 2026 as a 15‑day loop beginning and ending in Yanbu on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, creating close to 8,000 km of racing and liaison distance across the Kingdom.
The event is designed to be one of the longest and most punishing Saudi‑era Dakars with almost 4,900–4,880 km of timed special stages, two demanding marathon stages and a rest day in Riyadh, placing an intense focus on endurance, navigation and mechanical management from the first kilometre to the finish.
The 2026 Dakar Rally keeps Saudi Arabia as its exclusive host for the seventh consecutive year, but the route has been reworked into a large clockwise loop that showcases the country’s varied geography, from the Red Sea coastline to rocky plateaus, deep canyons and wide dune seas.
The rally will start with a coastal bivouac in Yanbu before heading inland through AlUla, Hail and Riyadh, then diving south into Wadi Ad Dawasir and Bisha, and finally turning back north via Al Henakiyah to reach Yanbu again on 17 January, completing a massive desert circuit.
Organisers have confirmed that the infamous Empty Quarter will not feature in 2026, but they have compensated by loading the second week with extensive dune sections and long navigation‑heavy legs that are expected to test crews as hard as any previous visit to the Rub’ al Khali.
In terms of overall distance, competitors in the car category are set to cover roughly 7,994–8,000 km over the two weeks, with around 4,840–4,880 km against the clock and the rest made up of road sections linking stages and bivouacs.
The event will again open the FIM World Rally‑Raid Championship season, meaning that riders and drivers in the world championship categories will have immediate title implications resting on decisions they make from the prologue onwards.
A key sporting change for 2026 is the removal of the 48‑hour chrono concept that was trialled in previous years and became a defining feature of the 2024 route in the Empty Quarter.
Instead of that experimental ultra‑long timed route, the organisers have opted for a more traditional Dakar structure built around two “refuge” Dakar marathon stages in which competitors are deprived of their usual external service support and must manage their machines with only limited tools and assistance between themselves.
Full Dakar Rally 2026 schedule
| Date | Stage | Location | Distance | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Jan | Prologue | Yanbu | 98km | 23km |
| 4 Jan | Stage 1 | Yanbu | 518km | 305km |
| 5 Jan | Stage 2 | Yanbu – Al Ula | 504km | 400km |
| 6 Jan | Stage 3 | Al Ula | 666km | 422km |
| 7 Jan | Stage 4* | Al Ula | 526km | 451km |
| 8 Jan | Stage 5* | Hail | 417km | 356km |
| 9 Jan | Stage 6 | Hail-Riyadh | 920km | 331km |
| 10 Jan | Rest day | – | – | – |
| 11 Jan | Stage 7 | Wadi Ad Dawasir | 876km | 462km |
| 12 Jan | Stage 8 | Wadi Ad Dawasir | 717km | 481km |
| 13 Jan | Stage 9* | Wadi Ad Dawasir – Bisha | 540km | 418km |
| 14 Jan | Stage 10* | Bisha | 417km | 371km |
| 15 Jan | Stage 11 | Bisha – Al Henakiyah | 882km | 347km |
| 16 Jan | Stage 12 | Al Henakiyah – Yanbu | 718km | 310km |
| 17 Jan | Stage 13 | Yanbu | 141km | 105km |
*Dakar marathon stages
READ MORE:
The Ultimate Endurance Test :Dakar’s 48-hour Chrono Stage explained
