For any off-road vehicle, there’s no better way to prove its worth and what it can truly do than in competition. From early Camel Trophy expeditions to the modern Defender Trophy, Land Rover has set the bar for decades, and the British marque has now conquered a new frontier.
In its debut appearance at the world’s most demanding off-road race, Defender Rally has won the 2026 Dakar Stock class in Saudi Arabia, led by Rokas Baciuška and co-driver Oriol Vidal in the Defender Dakar D7X-R. Their winning time of 58 hours, 9 minutes, and 45 seconds capped a campaign that saw the team finish first and second in class, with Sara Price and Sean Berriman close behind, and 14-time Dakar Rally winner, Stéphane Peterhansel and Mika Metge completing the rally in fourth.
“Dreams come true, you know, and it was my dream to win Dakar,” Baciuška said. “For the first year for Defender, it's amazing.” Price described the emotional payoff at the finish. “We had a goal at the final stage to get to the finish line as a team together,” she said. “To get this team to the finish line in P1 and P2 is just, wow, incredible.”
Across 13 stages, the team with three Works vehicles logged ten separate 1-2-3 class finishes and covered nearly 15,000 miles of competition terrain, ranging from soft dunes to rock-riddled high-speed sections across the vast Saudi Arabian desert. The decisive moment came on Stage 13, where Baciuška secured the overall Stock class win with a time of 55 minutes and 51 seconds.
The D7X-R’s significance lies in how close it remains to the road-going Defender OCTA. Each race vehicle starts life on the same aluminum body assembly line in Nitra, Slovakia. Built on the 110 chassis, the Dakar variant retains the D7X architecture, transmission layout, and the OCTA’s 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 engine. For rally duty in W2RC competition, it gains a wider track, increased ride height, revised suspension, and enhanced cooling, changes required to survive sustained heat, low-speed load, and long stages.
For Defender, Dakar also served as the opening round of the 2026 World Rally-Raid Championship. Team principal Ian James added, “Honestly, I couldn’t be more proud of the entire team. Not only the fact that we've won Dakar in the way that we have, but the manner in which everybody's pulled together and worked so hard throughout has been simply outstanding.”
Also, for Jaguar Land Rover, key models such as the Defender and Range Rover Sport sit at the heart of the company’s volume and profitability strategy globally, and such real-world accomplishments further reinforce the models' reputation and capability, which should inevitably help bolster sales. With more manufacturers expected to join the Stock class, Defender’s debut win sets an early benchmark. The campaign continues next in Portugal this March.
