Defender kicks off the second half of Dakar 2026 with another stage win

If there was any concern that a rest day might interrupt Defender’s momentum on the 2026 Dakar Rally, it definitely didn’t show as the second week of the off-roading epic got going. The team picked up where it left off in Saudi Arabia, by scoring victory in the Stock class on Stage 7. This time, it was the turn of Stéphane Peterhansel to keep up the 100% winning record as he led Rokas Baciuška and Sara Price to a sixth straight podium lockout.

Instead of gently easing competitors back into the action after the quick break on Saturday, the Dakar organisers threw them right in at the deep end with the frenetic Stage 7. On top of the 418-kilometre road section, a 459-kilometre timed leg stretched southbound away from the capital city of Riyadh. The largely gravel route opened with fast tracks before diving into a dune field. As the path became rockier, it alternated between wide valleys and flat plains and then ended through a narrow canyon passage on arrival into Wadi ad-Dawasir. 

Courtesy of winning Stage 6 on Friday, Sara Price was the first Defender driver to take to the course as the team’s three cars started one after another in 30-second intervals. But it was Peterhansel who threw down the early gauntlet in the Stock class. The 14-time event winner and his co-driver Michaël Metge were quickest across the first five checkpoints up to 178 kilometres. The crews having finally blasted past half-distance on the 2026 Dakar, Peterhansel led Baciuška by a minute while Price sat 2min21s adrift in third place.

Over the next 150 kilometres, which included Peterhansel taking a wrong turn, the top two swapped positions. Hoping to add to his Stages 1 and 6 victories, Baciuška pounced on his team-mate’s setback to move ahead by 11 seconds. However, with Peterhansel recovering and then retaliating, that gap came down to just five seconds at the penultimate checkpoint. He kept pushing on the run to the line to retake top spot from the young Lithuanian. Peterhansel completed a hat-trick of stage wins, stopping the clock in 4 hours 20 minutes and 29 seconds. On this unforgiving terrain, that’s a staggering average speed of 106 km/h. Even more impressive, the turn of pace put the Defenders behind only the best of the ultimate, bespoke-built T1+ cars. 

“It was a different kind of stage,” reckoned Peterhansel. “The first week, I said we’d seen approximately all the different kind of terrain that we could find. But today, it was different. It was super fast with a very high average speed and, also in the middle, there was 50 kilometres of dunes. But the dunes were not close together - they were more open. So for our car, it was the perfect terrain, the perfect stage. Really fast, nice to jump and today I took a lot of pleasure in driving - it was the perfect stage for the Defender.”

A tight 21 seconds back, Baciuška finished runner-up in the production car-based Stock class. Riding aboard the Defender Dakar D7X-R - which uses a showroom-spec gearbox, drivelines, chassis and bodywork plus the 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 from the Defender OCTA – he and co-driver Oriol Vidal now lead the overall category standings by 44 minutes in front of Peterhansel.

Baciuška added: “The stage today was very nice with some dunes and some rocky sections. It was actually very enjoyable with beautiful landscapes. It was very close with Stéphane. I lost 21 seconds from him, but the rest is all good. The team did a good job and just day by day, we try to cross the finish line.”

Shaking off a hefty front impact and clipping a tree to shed a wing mirror, Price rounded out a sixth consecutive stage podium clean sweep for Defender. The American and co-driver Sean Berriman arrived home 6 minutes 25 seconds behind Peterhansel to hold station in fourth on the combined Stock leaderboard. Crucially, they were 20 minutes faster on Stage 7 than the Toyota Land Cruiser of Ronald Basso. That means just 19 minutes separates them from P3 in Defender’s bid to claim an overall class 1-2-3 on the brand’s first official Dakar entry. 

Price said: “Today was good. We just tried to finish the day and take care of everything, but we did have to take it easy in some parts today to avoid some overheating. We were battling a lot of dust all day and trying to keep it together. But we’ve made good progress. It was a really fast day overall. I’m glad we’ve made some time on the Toyota, so now I just have to keep doing that and just make sure the car gets back to base every day.”

Attention now turns to Stage 8. It marks the first time the Dakar convoy has raced directly through the Wadi ad-Dawasir valley region since 2022. The crews will have ample time to (re)familiarise themselves with the stunning scenery. A 481-kilometre timed loop is the longest competitive stage on this year’s event. Blending fast passes through off-road plateaux, complex canyons and sudden changes of direction that’ll put strain on the navigators, this is one for the all-rounders. Check back here for more updates. 

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