Nasser Al-Attiyah conquered the world’s most famous, and gruelling, off-road race for a sixth time, but never had he done so with a Dacia between his fingertips.
Ford swept up the silverware too courtesy of Nani Roma and Matias Ekström – an impressive, and important, result in equal measure for both Ultimate class projects which were properly born in 2025.
Neither, however, matched what Defender achieved in 2026.
Lining up for its very first Dakar in the new ‘Stock’ class, the Dakar D7X-R filled out three of the top-four places, including a formation 1-2 finish at the top of the rostrum.
Pride, exhilaration and amazement were all words used by team personnel, and who could blame them?
Baciuška delivered Defender a win on its Dakar debut
“Dreams come true, you know?” beamed the winner, Rokas Baciuška, “and it was my dream to win Dakar. For the first year for Defender, it’s amazing.
“Our mechanics did a great job – what they do is unbelievable, working every day until early in the morning to prepare the cars for the next stage. I give my thanks to them, the engineers, the entire team because without them, we would not be here. It’s great to be P1 and P2.”
Sara Price picked up the runner-up spot in her Defender; two years since her Dakar journey began.
“We had a goal at the final stage to get to the finish line as a team together, so to see the whole Defender team sitting there at the finish line and all their excitement and emotions, it just shows what this is all about and what it means,” she said.
“To get this team to the finish line in P1 and P2 is just, wow, incredible.”
Sara Price was a key part of Defender's dream result
Achieving a 1-2-3 result on 10 of the 13 stages, only an opening-stage steering problem and then a snapped alternator drive belt on stage eight for Dakar legend Stéphane Peterhansel robbed Defender of a podium lockout.
“The main target was to win the Stock class, and Rokas finished first and Sara second. For us, it was a little bit more complicated, but what I keep in my mind is that it was a nice adventure with a super good team, super team spirit between all the members – the mechanics and all the staff,” Peterhansel reflected.
“Then me and my co-driver, we were already close together. So yes it’s not exactly the result that I expect for me, but I’m super happy because it was a really nice Dakar for me.”
Defender’s World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) program continues at Rally-Raid Portugal (March 17-22).
Ronald Basso finished third in a Toyota Land Cruiser.
