Monster Energy Honda HRC on Dakar podium after historic final stage

The last day of Dakar 2026 didn’t bring the result we were expecting, but this is Dakar — this is rally raid. Six kilometres from the end of the final stage, Ricky turned left slightly too early. He didn’t take the correct track, lost a significant amount of time, and crossed the finish line just two seconds behind Luciano.

Going into today, Ricky had a good margin thanks to the time bonuses — a gap of 4 minutes and 42 seconds over second place. With that small mistake, we lost the Dakar by just two seconds. Of course, we wanted more. We wanted to win, but we have to accept the result.

Overall, it was still a strong performance for the team: Ricky finished second, Tosha third, Skyler fourth, and Adrien sixth. Ricky delivered a very solid Dakar. Tosha made a mistake in the first week but still managed to finish with a strong overall result. Skyler struggled during the first week but recovered well in the second. Adrien lost almost an hour when a cable that was in the middle of nowhere got stuck in his wheel , yet he had an excellent second week.

Naturally, we expected more — the goal was to win, and we finished incredibly close. This has never happened before. We’ll keep pushing, aim to win the next races, and come back even stronger for the next Dakar. The team did a great job, and the Honda bikes performed extremely well throughout the rally.

This Dakar was a real fight from start to finish. On the final stage, a quite confusing note led me to choose a line that wasn’t the correct one. When I turned back, Luciano was coming behind me and, seeing the situation, he stayed on the right track, which made the difference in such a close battle.

A lot of crazy stuff out there. I’m super happy to make it to the finish line of this one, a lot of adversity, some things to overcome and some really good riding. I’m happy with how I rode, the team did a great job, they did awesome with the mechanics, the logistics and I’m super happy to be a part of Monster Energy Honda HRC and to make it to the finish line of this one. A lot of things to clean up on my end. As far as everything else that went for me this race, stage one I needed a little bit more patience. I got really lucky this time, my mom is looking over me and she made sure I got to the finish line of this one. So I’m super proud of that and this one is for her.

They often say that just finishing a Dakar is a victory in itself, and I want to take heart from that, but I also feel like I could've used a third week! I had a tough first week, struggling a bit to find my rhythm and dealing with all sorts of drama: a crash, a coil of wire getting caught in my wheel. It was a hyper-eventful opening week. The second week started much better; the stages were really solid, we bagged a win and I was in the hunt every day. That's what I am going to take away from this to come back in 2027. I think I took a bit of a knock to my confidence in Portugal. Getting your mojo back after a crash like that takes time, and I think that process was just what I needed.

A few years ago, I was fighting just to be in the race. Today, standing on the podium almost feels like business as usual. But I have to be realistic; it feels so good to stand on the podium. I've fought my whole life for this. I'm happy that we have put two Hondas on the podium. I still need to find a few gains in certain areas, but I'm on the right track. The penalty didn't help me in the overall, so I had to pivot my strategy. Sometimes you have to pay more attention to those details or the navigation, and I was also a bit off the pace in the high-speed sections.