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Defender Rally drivers Rokas Baciuška and Oriol Vidal today extended their overall lead in the Stock class through taking their third Stage win.
Rokas and Oriol finished the 483km timed section in 05:06:24, ahead of Defender Rally teammates Sara Price and Sean Berriman who finished 01:44 behind. Today’s stage result means Sara and Sean move into second place, currently 02:37:51 behind Rokas and Oriol.
Unfortunately, Stéphane Peterhansel and Mika Metge, who started today’s stage in second place, suffered a snapped alternator drive belt between KP 267 and KP 310. Though still on stage at the time of issuing this advisory, they will soon be en route back to the bivouac with the assistance of a competitor and the team expect them to be able to continue tomorrow.
Rokas Baciuška, Defender Rally driver, said: “Today’s stage was fast but long. We had a mix of everything, rocks and dunes, but everything was good and Oriol did a really good job. We didn’t spend a lot of time searching for the waypoints so we are happy, but tomorrow’s Marathon stage will be the key point of Dakar.”
Sara Price, Defender Rally driver, said: “Today was a really fun stage. It was fast, and our goal was to gain time on Toyota ahead of us. We just learned that we did move up, which was the goal today, but it’s really unfortunate that Stéphane is still out there. But yes, it was a good day for us with not many mistakes and really no issues.”
Jack Lambert, Head of Technical Integration, Defender Rally, said: “It was great to see Rokas and Oriol take their third stage victory today, and Sara and Sean also had a super strong day moving into second place in the Stock class. However, while we knew every stage in the Dakar would be tough, today was a particularly difficult one for us. Stéphane and Mika’s car suffered an alternator belt failure which stopped them on stage and wasn’t repairable. We’re confident, though, that they’ll be able to continue tomorrow.”
Stage 9 – the first part of the second Marathon stage – takes place on Tuesday 13 January 2026.
