- Following the historic Dakar 2026 victory in the Stock class, Defender Rally will continue its FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) campaign in the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, 17-22 March
- Winners of the Dakar Rally 2026 Stock class, the Defender Rally crew of Rokas Baciuška and Oriol Vidal will head to Portugal aiming to defend their lead in the W2RC
- Driving alongside Rokas and Oriol in the Defender Dakar D7X-R – derived from the production Defender OCTA – will be Sara Price/Sean Berriman and Stéphane Peterhansel/Mika Metge
- Between them, these three Defender Rally crews took victory in all 13 stages of the 2026 Dakar Rally, and will be looking to take that momentum into bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal
Defender Rally will return to FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) action in the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal on 17 March. Following its Dakar Rally success, the Defender crews of Rokas Baciuška/Oriol Vidal, Sara Price/Sean Berriman and Stéphane Peterhansel/Mika Metge will return to competition in Portugal in the Defender Dakar D7X-R.
In the team’s debut at the 2026 Dakar Rally, drivers Rokas Baciuška and Oriol Vidal won the Stock class in the Defender Dakar D7X-R, with Sara/Sean finishing in second place. The trio of Defender Rally crews achieved a ‘123’ result across 10 of the 13 Dakar stages. Now, it’s onto bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal to build on that success.
Rokas currently leads the W2RC Stock class driver standings, followed by Sara and Stéphane in second and third place on 107, 87 and 69 points respectively. Oriol, Sean and Mika are also respectively in first, second and third places in the navigators’ standings.
Ian James, Team Principal, Defender Rally, said: “There’s no doubt that Portugal poses an entirely different challenge to Dakar. With tighter, more technical stages, consistency and precision are key. Reliability is everything, especially in Stock, and Dakar showed that the Defender Dakar D7X-R is extremely competitive. The aim is to build on that Dakar momentum as we focus on the W2RC that lays ahead.”
For 2026, event organiser Automóvel Club de Portugal (ACP) has reshaped the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid route. Grandola remains as the start, followed by Badajoz in Spain’s Extremedura region, but Loulé in the Algarve is this year’s finish-line spot. The rally consists of five stages and covers 2,175km in total, including 1,320km of timed sections. The ACP has said this year’s route has been redesigned to reach the Atlantic, promising a terrain more varied than in 2024 and 2025 and a technical challenge for the teams competing. Compared to the season’s opening round in Saudi Arabia, Portugal consists of much narrower stages and demands higher average speeds. In spring weather is also uncertain in the region, often with heavy rainfall for drivers to contend with.
Rokas Baciuška, Defender Rally driver, said: “Dakar was an amazing debut for us and the whole Defender Rally team, and we aim to take the same consistency we showed there into the Portugal race. At Dakar, our priority was to look after the car and bring it to the finish – in Portugal, the terrain is much rockier and the course is narrower, but we’re focused on doing the same and maintaining our position in the W2RC.”
Derived from the Defender OCTA, the Defender Dakar D7X-R maintains the same robust D7x body architecture, transmission and driveline layout of the production car, but is built to the new FIA Stock class regulations for the W2RC. For rally-raid, Defender Rally has carried out a range of developments to ensure the D7X-R is ready to take on the extreme challenge provided by the championship – a wider track, increased ride height to tackle rocky terrain and updated suspension are key adaptations.
With the support of partners Castrol, Bilstein, YETI and Bell & Ross, and suppliers Shackleton and Alpinestars, the Defender Rally team will complete a pre-rally test programme in Portugal ahead of the five days of competition from 17-22 March.
