Stage 11 success steers Defender closer to a debut Dakar victory

Rokas Baciuška has gone and done it again. The Defender driver netted a sixth stage victory on the 2026 Dakar Rally on Thursday. That’s his fourth in a row. What a purple patch. Stage 11 success also builds his overall Stock class lead to a massive four hours and keeps up the brand’s 100% winning record as it makes debut in the off-road enduro. Team-mates Stéphane Peterhansel and Sara Price completing an eighth podium lockout only sweetened the deal.

Stage 11 showed exactly why you need to be a jack-of-all-trades to conquer the Dakar. Straight after two days in the dunes as part of the monster 48-hour Marathon Stage, the terrain changed completely. Now competitors had to show their pace on gravel. The fast 346-kilometre timed route away from Bisha to the new Al Henakiyah ‘bivouac’ base camp was sandwiched between an exhausting 536 kilometres of liaison section. Precise reading of the roadbook was also key, as junctions and crossings ensured the navigators were always busy. 

Fresh from three straight stage wins in the Stock class for production-based cars, Baciuška headed his Defender team-mates through the first checkpoint at 43 kilometres. Peterhansel soon responded, though, pulling past Price and Baciuška to lead by just 11 seconds – all three were running well clear of the rivalling pair of Toyota Land Cruisers. ‘Mr Dakar’ remained out front over the next 100 kilometres before Baciuška clawed his way back to the top. 

Only after 241 kilometres was there a smidge of daylight between the Defender Dakar D7X-Rs, which are equipped with a showroom-spec gearbox, drivelines, chassis and bodywork. The Lithuanian flexed the muscles of the 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 used in the Defender OCTA to sit clear of a hard-charging Price by about a minute. 

Price and Peterhansel remained in hot pursuit, but Baciuška and co-driver Oriol Vidal held on to convert victory on Stage 11 after three and a half hours at the wheel. That meant a rapid average speed of 100km/h on the way to maintaining Defender’s perfect winning record so far this year. 

Baciuška said: “Today was a long day – we had in the morning 320 kilometres to get to the start of the stage. It was then a mix of fast, narrow, twisty and in the middle of the day it was stony. We managed it quite good. Again a 1-2-3 for Defender. Let’s see how tomorrow’s day goes.”

Peterhansel classified second, the 14-time Dakar winner and navigator Michaël Metge a mere 49 seconds behind. That small gap was even more impressive given the heavy payload. See, Peterhansel copped a 24-hour penalty on Monday after a snapped alternator belt forced him to retire from Stage 8. With his chances of an overall Stock podium dented, Peterhansel will continue to perform, whilst also being the ultimate team player by supporting the team in any way he can. 

“Today, it was a fast stage at the beginning” said Peterhansel. “The middle had some rocky sections, but at the end the three Defenders stayed together – just in case of any technical problems because I carry more spare parts. While there was a lot of dust, a lot of places were nice to drive. We enjoyed it. The car was super nice to drive – good balance, the engine also is incredible. A good day.”

Price and co-driver Sean Berriman completed an eighth podium clean sweep for Defender in third, although the Americans earned a 30-minute penalty for changing a differential. While they remain second on the combined Stock leaderboard (helped by winning Stages 2 and 6), Baciuška takes a huge four-hour lead. Peterhansel is fourth behind Toyota’s Ronald Basso. 

“Today’s stage was a lot of fun,” added Price. “It was very fast, so we got to just go for it! That was really exciting for me. We just needed to get it out of our system to go fast today. It was so much fun – really fast sections going into really tight sections in between trees. We had a lot of dust, so I was just taking unique routes.” 

Eleven down. Two to go. Competitors can almost see the finish line of the 2026 Dakar. The penultimate Stage 12 on Friday adds a 310-kilometre timed course to a chunky 408-kilometre road section on the run from Al Henakiyah to the final ‘bivouac’ camp in Yanbu. High-speed tracks giving way to winding narrow paths and riverbeds rising into dune fields all mean it’s essential crews don’t let their concentration slip this late on. Follow here for more updates. 

Defender OCTA | Master of Extreme Performance, Everywhere