Karolis Raišys is an ambassador for Land Rover in the Baltics, so it seemed appropriate that he’d show up to the Dakar Classic in one. Even then, his ride is so old that it’s actually the same age as the Dakar Rally itself.

After finishing third in 2025, he brought back his 1978 Land Rover 109 Series III for the 2026 race. With 2023 Tour de Corse Historique winner Christophe Marques in the navigator’s seat, the old fart dominated nearly from start to finish. Raišys racked up the fewest points in six of the 13 stages, taking the overall lead in Stage 5 and never relinquishing it.

By the end, he was the only driver to record a sub-thousand score. He had also achieved the feat last year, but so did Carlos Santaolalla and Lorenzo Traglio so he settled for third.

“I saw last year that he was third, so it was possible (for him to win),” Marques quipped at the finish. “In regularity, all is possible. All. Even the slowest car, the oldest car can win. That’s the magic of regularity rally.”

Raišys noted that he and Marques had only met in person for the first time when they arrived in Yanbu for the race. In a way, the opening test in the Prologue was basically their first training session together.

He wasn’t the only victorious Land Rover at Dakar, let alone from Lithuania, as Rokas Baciuška won the Stock class in his much more modern Defender Dakar D7X-R. While Raišys’ station wagon might not be as fast or strong as those built between the ’80s and 2005, beating them in something that technically predates Dakar itself (the inaugural Paris–Dakar Rally began in December 1978, but is considered the 1979 edition) was a thrill in itself.

Even with its age, Raišys said he “trusted the car a lot, especially in the first half of the day and the first half of the rally.” Indeed, that was where most of the stage wins came.

He didn’t have as much success in the second half as Ondřej Klymčiw and Maxence Gublin tried to close the gap, but he still finished top three in nearly every day. The only exception was a 20th in Stage 12 after going the wrong direction and losing time, getting points tacked on as a result. Still, the damage was negligible and more the product of him deciding to drive conservatively rather than take the risk.

“Maybe I trusted it too much,” he quipped about his Land Rover. “All our improvements after last year really paid off.

“I just can’t believe how deceptive its appearance is, how it looks from the outside and how good it is inside and what it really is. It’s a solid piece of aluminum and metal that’s a pleasure to drive. Even if it has small windows and is a tiny box that’s the oldest car, I don’t want to experience this process with anything else for a long time.

“Still, let’s not forget that in the Dakar Rally, the real goal is to finish first.
To finish first is one thing, but finishing first with a car you love is something else entirely.”

The victory also snapped a four-year Classic win streak for the Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80. Mariusz Pietrzycki was the highest placing HDJ80 in sixth.

Klymčiw finished second in his “Jurassic Dakar” Mitsubishi Pajero. He previously raced a Škoda from 2021 to 2024 before taking last year off, only wanting to return to the Classic if he had a reason to like charity work. Thus, he came up with the Jurassic Park theme since his philanthropic effort for the 2026 Classic revolved around helping kids battling cancer since they love dinosaurs.

While coming up short in the overall, he was still pleased to place so high in his comeback with two stage wins.

“The motivation was huge, to tell the world that not everyone is completely lucky, but that you can still play in it,” explained Klymčiw. “I’ve told my children all my life that you need to play with the cards that are on the table. Sometimes, they’re not dealt fairly sometimes.”

Santaolalla opted to switch to the Rally for 2026 after back-to-back Classic wins. While this meant a Traglio–Raišys on paper, the former was knocked out by a stomach bug and his Nissan Pick-Up breaking down before the start of Stage 5. Traglio had been running fifth overall before his DNF.

2023 Classic winner Juan Morera withdrew after a controversial 5,000-point penalty. While sitting second overall, the alternator belt broke off in Stage 10. Although he got it fixed and reached the finish without further issue, what he surmised was “bad advice” from the organizers led to him missing every checkpoint and section.

“Since we fell to 14th place or or 24th, I don’t know, we decided to retire and left quite angry. And that concluded our participation in this Dakar edition in which we were running second,” Morera stated. “We should’ve been first because there were cars that were cheating, so it was a bit of an ugly edition.”

Julian Johan and Shammie Baridwan pitched top-ten efforts in the first Dakar Classic for Indonesian drivers. They were the third and fourth of their country to compete at Dakar after Tinton Soeprapto and Kasih Hanggoro did the Rally in 1990 and 2010–2011.

Baridwan even went a step further by winning Stage 11. Incidentally, he had Ignas Daunoravičius as his navigator, who worked with Raišys at the 2025 Classic.

Jan de Rooy’s DAF Bull, in the hands of Tomasz Białkowski and Kamena Rally Team, was arguably the star of the show. Białkowski won Stage 3 outright ahead of Maxence Gublin and Traglio, the first truck to win a Dakar stage. He battled for a top-ten overall spot, which took a hit when the truck lost power in the closing stretch to Stage 11, but clawed back to finish ninth.

By comparison, the highest finishing truck in 2025 was the Tatra 815 of Igor Pazdera in 34th. The Bull finished 70th with Janus van Kasteren Sr. that year.

Finishing a very nice 69th and the last car classified was the Mitsubishi Delica of Henry Favre. He had no expectations that the minivan would be remotely competitive, and was honest about spending Dakar making memories and entertaining fans who were following his race.

For that reason, much of his Dakar was focused on helping other competitors in danger or getting into other antics, which began as early as the first stage when his backpack of food and passports fell out mid-race. By the end, the Nokia 3310 phones and Woody from Toy Story doubling as the Delica’s quasi-nerf bars were caked in dirt but hanging on.

“This is the first van in history to cross the finish line, proving that it is still a competitive vehicle,” Favre quipped.

Results

Auto

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Class	Points	Margin
1	1	703	Karolis Raišys	Christophe Marques	Ovoko Racing	H1.A	735	Leader
2	2	710	Ondřej Klymčiw	Josef Broz	Klymčiw Racing	H2.B	1,003	+ 268
3	3	731	Josef Unterholzner	Franco Gaiono	R Team	H2.B	1,137	+ 402
4	4	705	Marco Leva	Alexia Giugni	R Team	H1.A	1,230	+ 495
5	5	773	Julian Johan	Mathieu Monplaisi	Compagnie Saharienne	H2.B	1,357	+ 622
6	6	780	Mariusz Pietrzycki	Kamil Jablonski	Podróże 4×4	H2.B	1,377	+ 642
7	7	766	Shammie Baridwan	Ignas Daunoravičius	Compagnie Saharienne	H1.B	1,393	+ 658
8	8	723	Francesco Pece	SImona Morosi	Tecnosport Rally	H2.B	1,513	+ 778
9	10	708	Jörg Sand	Onno den Boer	Völkel Rally Team	H1.A	1,615	+ 880
10	11	741	Daniel Vetter	Anton Frutiger	Team Desert Cruiser	H2.B	1,797	+ 1,062
11	12	726	Taz Harvey	Rocco Sbaraglia	Tecnosport Rally	H2.B	1,954	+ 1,219
12	13	721	Gian Paolo Cavagna	Francesco Proietti	Tecnosport Rally	H2.B	2,221	+ 1,486
13	14	729	David Bensadoun	Nicolas Ambriz	Boucou Compétition	H2.B	2,373	+ 1,638
14	15	724	Renato Rickler	Massimo Gabbrieleschi	R Team	H2.B	2,647	+ 1,912
15	16	712	Rafael Lesmes	Tabatha Romón	TH-Trucks Team	H2.B	2,670	+ 1,935
16	17	753	Giuliano Bergo	Gasperi Francesca	R Team	H2.B	3,108	+ 2,373
17	18	757	Lucas Grilli	Bruno Grilli	Vintage Rally Terville	H2.B	3,177	+ 2,442
18	19	775	Davide Facchini	Francesco Minghetti	R Team	H2.B	3,206	+ 2,471
19	20	770	Raúl Ortiz Correa	Raúl Ortiz Navas	Pedregà Team	H3.B	3,269	+ 2,534
20	21	752	Yann Thebault	Frédéric Murat	Pedregà Team	H2.B	3,800	+ 3,065
21	22	755	Alain Maria	Vincent Brotons	Team SSP	H2.B	3,859	+ 3,124
22	23	776	José Sole	Sergio Cerezo	TH-Trucks Team	H3.C	3,869	+ 3,134
23	24	709	Paolo Bedeschi	Iader Giraldi	Tecnosport Rally	H2.B	3,912	+ 3,177
24	25	738	Alessandro De Meo	Claudio Pelizzeni	R Team	H1.A	4,560	+ 3,825
25	26	749	Damiano Lipani	Maurizio Dominella	R Team	H2.B	4,910	+ 4,175
26	27	761	Kim Matzen	Chris Kelly	Compagnie Saharienne	H1.B	5,223	+ 4,488
27	29	719	Luciano Carcheri	Fabrizia Pons	Team Classic Carcheri–Pons	H2.B	5,445	+ 4,710
28	30	732	Hervé Solandt	Laurent Milbergue	Team SSP	H1.A	5,686	+ 4,951
29	31	764	Paweł Kośmiński	Bartosz Balicki	Völkel Rally Team	H1.A	5,776	+ 5,041
30	32	758	Michele Bini	Daniele Manoni	R Team	H2.B	5,890	+ 5,155
31	33	717	Mathieu Kurzen	Sébastien Dubois	K Motorsport	H2.B	5,930	+ 5,195
32	35	730	Douglas Bensadoun	Zeki Cengiz Tanç	Boucou Compétition	H2.B	6,400	+ 5,665
33	37	720	Juraj Šebalj	Dušan Bučan	Timeout Racing	H2.B	6,617	+ 5,882
34	38	750	Roland Gaál	Mihály Eigner	Tireman Classic Racing	H2.B	7,340	+ 6,605
35	39	754	Filippo Colnaghi	Daniele Bottallo	Tecnosport Rally	H2.B	8,062	+ 7,327
36	41	727	Peter Brabeck-Letmathe	Jean-Michel Gayte	Team Casteu	H2.B	8,878	+ 8,143
37	43	728	Maxence Gublin	Anthony Sousa	Bolides Racing Team	H1.A	10,326	+ 9,591
38	44	782	Paolo Fellin	Werner Gramm	Sikkens Motorsport / R Team	H2.B	11,084	+ 10,349
39	45	759	Hervé Diers	Alain Brousse	La Ch’ti Friterie	H3.B	11,358	+ 10,623
40	46	744	Stéphane Gutzwiller	Hilde de Sutter	Team SSP	H2.B	11,449	+ 10,714
41	48	718	François Abrial	Sébastien Baronnet	Team SSP	H2.A	12,794	+ 12,059
42	50	742	Christophe Chabeuf	Thierry Fresard	Team SSP	H2.A	13,064	+ 12,329
43	51	706	Javier Velez	Gastón Mattarucco	Be Racing	H4.B	13,248	+ 12,513
44	52	746	Fabrice Morin	Magalie Morin	YDEO Compétition	H3.B	14,693	+ 13,958
45	54	777	Lorenzo Fluxa	Sergi Fernandez	LJS Racing Team	H2.B	15,226	+ 14,491
46	57	707	Jordi Segura	Enric Segura	Be Racing	H3.C	16,216	+ 15,481
47	61	768	Kateřina Vánová	Petr Vána	Gold Motorsport	H2.B	17,932	+ 17,197
48	62	747	Maxime Lorenzini	Daniel Lorenzini	Vintage Rally Terville	H2.B	18,164	+ 17,429
49	65	743	Sophie Bié	Christine Bernard	Team SSP	H2.B	20,015	+ 19,280
50	66	762	Michael Vandewoestyne	Simon Roy	La Ch’ti Friterie	H2.B	21,045	+ 20,310
51	67	779	Szabolcs Balázs	László Tempfli	DD	H2.B	22,286	+ 21,551
52	68	748	Sébastien Coran	Thierry Emond	Vintage Rally Terville	H2.B	22,585	+ 21,850
53	69	765	Ulrich Schmidt	Brigitte Reitbauer	Völkel Rally Team	H1.A	22,965	+ 22,230
54	70	774	Stéphane Debair	Jean Bernard Matouillot	Bolids	H2.C	23,562	+ 22,827
55	71	735	Gabriel Valentin	Brice Laborie-Brondino	Team DB–VIO	H1.A	23,632	+ 22,897
56	73	797	Francesco Valente	Vichi Carlevaris	Team Desert Crows	H3.C	24,157	+ 23,422
57	74	739	Philip Pryor	David Steer	TH-Trucks Team	H2.B	25,747	+ 25,012
58	75	763	Maximilian Loder	Laurence Loder	delta4×4	H1.A	26,140	+ 25,405
59	76	769	Luis Antonio Pires	Mateu Riera	LJS Racing Team	H4.C	27,359	+ 26,624
60	77	725	Jean-Noël Gaviot	Yves Baud	Team Popeye 2B Autosport	H3.B	29,248	+ 28,513
61	80	704	Tomasz Staniszewski	Stanisław Postawka	P-Rally Team	H1.A	36,550	+ 35,815
62	82	781	Lorenzo Delladio	Guido Guerrini	Sikkens Motorsport / R Team	H2.B	38,329	+ 37,594
63	83	737	Helen Tait Wright	Marcella Kirk	Gazelles Offroad Team	H1.A	38,381	+ 37,646
64	84	756	Daniel Pycock	Francisco Javier Gomez	Pedregà Team	H2.B	39,253	+ 38,518
65	85	767	Jan Vins	Jiří Kopřiva	Gold Motorsport	H2.B	40,727	+ 39,992
66	86	771	Thierry Campos	Laurent Campos	La Camposienne	H1.A	46,205	+ 45,470
67	87	778	Sladjan Miljic	Marcel Adelmann	Oasis Rally Team	H4.B	50,054	+ 49,319
68	88	714	Nicolas Fantin	Lucien Fantin	Pom’Family Racing	H1.A	51,622	+ 50,887
69	90	751	Henry Favre	Alessandro Iacovelli	R Team	H1.A	57,131	+ 56,396
DNF	DNF	735	Lorenzo Traglio	Rudy Briani	Tecnosport Rally	H2.B	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	702	Juan Morera	Lidia Ruba	Momabikes Raid Team / Nantes Prestige Autos	H2.B	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	722	Sanjay Takale	Maxime Raud	Compagnie Saharienne	H3.B	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	736	Gérard Mattiussi	Serge Dumas	Team SSP	H1.A	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	745	Raul Pascual	Marco Antonio Cabrera	Pedregà Team	H2.B	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	760	Stephan Lamarre	Alexandre Laroche	Team Elite	H3.C	DNF	N/A

Truck

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Mechanic	Team	Class	Points	Margin
1	9	902	Tomasz Białkowski	Dariusz Baśkiewicz	Adam Grodzki	Kamena Rally Team / DAF de Rooy Classics	H1T.A	1,553	Leader
2	28	919	Stefan Gehrmann	Sebastian Gatz		SG Racing Nordheide	H1T.B	5,368	+ 3,815
3	34	912	Andrea Cadei	Marcelo Valentini	Stefano Sbrana	Tecnosport Rally	H1T.A	6,154	+ 4,601
4	36	901	Martin Stopa	Lubomír Dočkal	Martin Horák	Loprais Team	H2T.A	6,462	+ 4,909
5	40	924	Rachele Somaschini	Monica Buonamano	Serena Rodella	Tecnosport Rally	H1T.B	8,188	+ 6,635
6	42	910	Dorian Bardeau	Lourdes Puigmal		Boucou Compétition	H1T.C	9,512	+ 7,959
7	47	909	Olivier Guillory	Reynald Prive	Jean Pascal Petrelli	Bolides Racing Team	H1T.C	11,916	+ 10,363
8	49	922	Vivien Bertrand	Franck Puchouau	Jean-Pierre Grangeon	Boucou Compétition	H1T.B	13,050	+ 11,497
9	53	911	Michael Devillers	David Lhermelin	Marc Houllemare	Normandy Racing Solutions	H1T.B	14,912	+ 13,359
10	55	907	Jérôme Pélichet	Michel Charret	Ludovic Ecochard	Raid Lynx	H2T.B	15,556	+ 14,003
11	56	908	Marino Mutti	Angelo Fumagalli		Tecnosport Rally	H1T.C	16,137	+ 14,584
12	58	900	Nuno dos Santos	João Antonio Lota	Albert Casabona	TH-Trucks Team	H1T.A	16,660	+ 15,107
13	59	905	Ibrahim Al-Muhna	Faisal Al-Suwayh	Raed Abo Theeb	Al-Muhna Racers	H2T.B	17,091	+ 15,538
14	60	921	Jean-Philippe Beziat	Vincent Albira	Jérémy Athimon	Team SSP	H1T.A	17,873	+ 16,320
15	63	915	Jean-Baptiste Lecot	Johann Valognes	Morgan Meslin	Team Les Copains Du Désert / Normandy Racing Solutions	H1T.A	18,529	+ 16,976
16	64	913	Jaime Martinez	Nekane Abin	Iker Etxebarria	R Team	H1T.A	19,112	+ 17,559
17	72	903	Giuseppe Simonato	Syndiely Wade	Alexander Sorbelli	GeaLife Motorsport	H2T.B	23,736	+ 22,183
18	78	917	Andrea Pozzetti	Enea Corna	Luca Macrini	R Team	H1T.B	30,484	+ 28,931
19	79	914	Giorgio Porello	Simone Casadei	Gianluca Capelli	GeaLife Motorsport	H1T.B	33,205	+ 31,652
20	81	920	José Manuel Salinero	Javier Benito	Sergio Molina	GUARDIA CIVIL Rally Raid	H1T.B	37,508	+ 35,955
21	89	923	Alexander Schmidt	Daniel Schatz	Jan Dippel	Völkel Rally Team	H1T.A	55,122	+ 53,569
22	91	918	Robert Thiele	Jan Holtz	Daniel Lörtscher	Völkel Rally Team	H1T.A	60,567	+ 59,014

Stage winners

Stage	Driver	Points
Prologue	Francesco Pece	3
Stage 1	Marco Leva	71
Stage 2	Karolis Raišys	48
Stage 3	Tomasz Białkowski	97
Stage 4	Karolis Raišys	24
Stage 5	Karolis Raišys	43
Stage 6	Karolis Raišys	58
Stage 7	Karolis Raišys	61
Stage 8	Ondřej Klymčiw	22
Stage 9	Maxence Gublin	22
Stage 10	Ondřej Klymčiw	28
Stage 11	Shammie Baridwan	22
Stage 12	Maxence Gublin	52
Stage 13	Karolis Raišys Filippo Colnaghi	20

Featured image credit: Aurélien Vialatte / ASO