STAT OF THE DAY: A FAMILY THAT WINS TOGETHER STAYS TOGETHER
In a historic first, stage 7 of the 2026 Dakar saw two brothers take the spoils in two different classes. As the clock ticked towards noon, Luciano Benavides crossed the finish line with the fastest time in the motorbike field, and a few hours later it was his older brother Kevin, who won the event on two wheels in 2021 and 2023, who showed his decision to switch to Challenger was the right one by defeating fellow Argentinian Nicolás Cavigliasso by 5′40″ to claim his maiden win in his new class. It was perfect timing by the Benavides Bros. who had already delivered a couple of memorable family performances back when they both rode KTMs. A mere 3 seconds separated Luciano from Kevin at the top of stage 13 in 2023. The boot was on the other foot in stage 8 of the 2024 edition, when Kevin finished 31 seconds ahead of Luciano.
They also surpassed the performance of Khalifa and Nasser Al Attiyah in stage 7 in 2021. The former, a Dakar rookie at the time, won the SSV stage, but his even more illustrious brother only managed to finish third in his class.
