Another Stage win for Defender bolsters Peterhansel’s Dakar legacy

They don’t call him ‘Mr Dakar’ for nothing. Stéphane Peterhansel, the most successful entrant in Dakar Rally history, is still breaking new ground. He banked his first-ever Stock class stage victory on Tuesday to head another Defender podium lockout, batting away a late charge from stablemate Rokas Baciuška to extend the team’s 2026 winning streak. 

The otherworldly canyons of AlUla played host to Stage 3. This picture-postcard patch of Saudi Arabia has become a firm Dakar favourite, but not for its good looks or forgiving nature. It’s a proper test of navigation. The fast-paced 422-kilometre timed route moved eastward via sandy paths, gravel, then rugged rockier terrain. As the course switched between plateaux and long descents, the prevailing wind did its best to blur the early tracks laid into the surface – an added headache for the co-drivers calling out directions.

Following her Stock category Prologue and Stage 2 wins, Sara Price was the fastest Defender driver across the opening 41 kilometres. She held a one-minute advantage over Peterhansel until slowing with a flat tyre. Seemingly with space still going spare in his trophy cabinet, 14-time Dakar winner Peterhansel marched into the lead over the next 70 kilometres. With his team-mates in pursuit, the French ace and co-driver Michaël Metge kept edging ahead to peak with a cushion of more than five minutes.

Then Baciuška, who won the opening stage, started to reel him in as Peterhansel picked up two punctures. Approaching the final third of the route, the gap was down to around a minute. The Lithuanian gave chase only to suffer a puncture of his own. A stubborn wheel removal left co-driver Oriol Vidal reaching for the tools to perform a roadside swap. All told, Peterhansel hung on to notch his first win in the Stock class for showroom-ready cars - the Defender Dakar D7X-R houses the same 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 as the Defender OCTA and features a production-spec gearbox, drivelines, bodywork and chassis. 

Underlined by great navigation, Peterhansel finished the course in just under five hours. To boot, the 60-year-old virtuoso helped maintain Defender’s 100% winning start to the 2026 Dakar (each driver pairing now boasts a stage win) on the team’s first official entry in the great rally-raid fixture.

“Today, it was a good stage I felt because this is the first victory for us in the Stock category,” said Peterhansel. “But also, because it was a little bit more easy to drive - less dust than yesterday, less cars to overtake. It was more clear during the stage. The navigation was perfect from Michaël. We got two punctures but that is something that happens really often in these conditions… We start to understand a little bit how is the race and also the Stock category with the new Defender. It’s nice; a different challenge but really interesting.”

Despite the tyre swap, Baciuška was just 66 seconds further back. In the combined times, he and Vidal retain the class lead by almost 29 minutes over the best-ranked Toyota Land Cruiser of Ronald Basso. Meanwhile, Peterhansel is now up to third despite copping a penalty for being late to hand in a timecard. 

Baciuška reckoned: “The stage was quite fast and the last part stoney – we got two punctures. We finished P2 in the stage and leading [overall]. Just keeping like that, let’s see until the rest day on Saturday. The second week, we can see where we are. For the moment, everything is quite OK.”

Fewer than 90 seconds behind Baciuška, Price and her navigator Sean Berriman sealed third place to complete a second-straight stage podium clean sweep for Defender. A legacy of a broken rear suspension arm early in the week, the American pair sit fourth on the overall Stock leaderboard. 

Price added: “Today’s stage was a lot of fun. A lot of flowing tracks so we got to have a good time out there. We did have a few setbacks with a few punctures, so that was something that put us behind but I’m really happy to finish the stage in a good position in third place for Defender – 1-2-3 again. Stéphane, seeing him win is pretty cool. We went back and forth all day, so it was quite fun out there battling with our team-mates.”

With the 2026 Dakar now at full steam, the notoriously difficult ‘Marathon Stage’ is next on the agenda. Returning to the schedule this year, the format essentially combines two days of running into one punishing endurance test. For Stage 4 on Wednesday, the car classes will roll out of AlUla ahead of a 451-kilometre timed route that mixes high-speed open plains with more technical snaking passes between hills. Then it’s military rations (really!) for tea. 

But here’s the nub of a Marathon Stage: if competitors hit trouble, they’re left to their own devices. The support crews aren’t allowed to help with repairs overnight at the bare-bones base camp. So, it’s down to the drivers and their navigators to fix any issues using the tools packed onboard. Expect those fortunate to emerge unscathed to pitch in getting their team-mates back up and running. Only when they reach the finish of Stage 5 on Thursday can the wider squad of mechanics give the cars a clean bill of health. Stay tuned for more updates.

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