Stéphane Peterhansel is no stranger to rally raiding in production vehicles, let alone winning. He won the 2001 Paris–Dakar Rally’s T1.3 subclass with a Nissan Terrano, then claimed three Dakar overall victories in the Super Production-spec (a sort of middle ground between stock and prototype) Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution in 2004 and 2005.

21 years later, he was back to his winning ways in a production car. The 60-year-old Peterhansel held off Defender teammate and Dakar winner Rokas Baciuška to claim the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal’s Stock category.

It was his first win in a production car since overalling the 2005 UAE Desert Challenge in the Pajero Evolution MPR11. The MPR12, which was introduced a year later, is considered to have deviated far enough from the original Pajero to be a prototype whereas the MPR11 and prior fell under Super Production rules. On Peterhansel’s Nissan that he drove to a 12th overall at the 2001 Dakar and the T1.3 win is regarded as being more squarely a “true” production raider.

Peterhansel had also topped the Experimental class in Defender Rally’s debut at last year’s Dubai International Baja, though that was because the D7X-R had not been homologated by the FIA yet.

For a less convoluted milestone, Portugal was Peterhansel’s second World Rally-Raid Championship victory since the 2022 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge with Audi.

“I’m really prouder of the work of the team,” said Peterhansel. “We know that this is a new project with Defender in the World Rally-Raid Championship. The Dakar Rally was perfect for the team, but here it was a completely different condition of track, more rain, more humid, a little bit more narrow. The team did a really good job.

“This is why I’m really proud. They adapted the car to the condition of the route, and it was not an easy job for the team. They worked hard for this. It’s a great feeling for me, but also for the team.”

After winning Dakar with Baciuška in January, Defender was keen on continuing the fight with Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body. Although TLC was signed up to earn points, Akira Miura’s promotion to the Ultimate class with Toyota Gazoo Racing effectively meant they will remain a Dakar and Morocco-only outfit in the W2RC.

Thus, Portugal was a battle of the Defenders. All three drivers won a stage, while Peterhansel was the only one not to do so twice. Sara Price’s hopes of winning the overall ended due to brake issues in Stage 3 that caused her to finish over an hour back, leaving Baciuška and Peterhansel to fight among themselves.

Entering Stage 3, Peterhansel trailed Baciuška by just 15 seconds. Winning that stage—along with Baciuška’s own tire puncture—propelled him into the lead with a seven-minute advantage, which Baciuška sliced in half after just one day. Although Baciuška won the final stage and Peterhansel was third, they were separated by only 1:25.

“We managed to gain back 1:25 over the last 100 kilometers, but it still wasn’t enough for the overall win,” Baciuška commented. “We were a few minutes short. That’s how short rallies go: one mistake can cost a lot.”

While Price settled for third, she was pleased with the podium and to get a chance at continuing her W2RC campaign. Unlike her teammates, Price is only contracted to Defender on a race-by-race basis since she doesn’t have consistent funding to go full time. Such a predicament previously kept her from racing for the title in the SSV class despite being a Can-Am ambassador.

Her plans after Portugal are unknown, but she hopes those two stage wins can yield an entry for the final three races.

“We had two corners that we didn’t quite make, and then took a while to get into reverse, so we wasted about 30 seconds there,” Price said after the last day. “I have to say, Rokas was faster than me today. We were very close, and it made for some really good racing.”

One might proclaim Portugal was a glorified test session for Defender since it was the only Stock team entered, not unlike Toyota Auto Body with the Dakar Rally for the past decade-plus. That, however, might be too much of a generalization.

Besides the trio competing against each other, Land Rover chose to compare their performances to the other classes. Baciuška used SSV as his frame of reference since he was often driving alongside them, and he found that the D7X-R was faster on straights whereas the side-by-sides had the edge in tighter sections like corners.

Jack Lambert went a step further by comparing them to Ultimate. While the prototypes were obviously faster than their production counterparts, Defender’s head of technical integration thought “Defender held its own amongst the T1s” quite well.

“We’re averaging approximately 2.4 seconds per kilometer slower than the T1 Ultimate cars, which is impressive,” Lambert commented after Stage 2. “It’s a great outcome and less of a pace difference than we expected here.”

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	16	500	Stéphane Peterhansel	Michaël Metge	Defender Rally	11:57:33	Leader
2	17	502	Rokas Baciuška	Oriol Vidal	Defender Rally	12:00:02	+ 2:29
3	30	504	Sara Price	Sean Berriman	Defender Rally	13:09:58	+ 1:12:25

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Driver	Total Time
Stage 1	19	Rokas Baciuška	1:40:23
Stage 2	26	Sara Price	3:03:10
Stage 3	16	Stéphane Peterhansel	2:59:56
Stage 4	23	Sara Price	2:59:47
Stage 5	22	Rokas Baciuška	1:07:39

Featured image credit: Kin Marcin / Red Bull Content Pool