Stéphane Peterhansel dominated the World Rally-Raid Championship’s Stock class in Defender Rally’s maiden season, winning three of the four races entered. Unfortnately for him, this does not mean he is the 2026 champion.

Peterhansel’s victory in the Rallye du Maroc notched him his third straight Stock victory after winning the Rally-Raid Portugal and Desafío Ruta 40. However, the lone non-victory was a fourth-place run in the season opener at Dakar, which left him in a massive hole that his wins couldn’t erase.

Although the W2RC season doesn’t end until the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Defender Rally opted to run just the first four rounds before focusing on the 2027 Dakar Rally. Since the team is the only Stock entrant to do every race thus far, the title battle was going to come down to the team’s trio of Peterhansel, Rokas Baciuška, or Sara Price.

Baciuška, who won Dakar, entered Morocco as the championship leader with 199 points. Peterhansel was second with 170 followed by Price with 164. Since only four cars were signed up for the RdM, everyone who finished each stage was guaranteed to receive bonus points (stage winners get five), meaning Peterhansel and Price’s best hopes were to grind out stage wins whereas Baciuška struggled and only got two points (for finishing fourth in a stage) or three (third).

Things played out in Price’s favor to start off when she won Stage 1. Surprisingly, Yasir Seaidan played spoiler for Toyota Auto Body by finishing second ahead of Peterhansel and Baciuška, the latter two struggling in the heat.

Disaster then struck Baciuška on the second stage when a hard landing in a riverbed destroyed the right-rear wishbone. Still, he got it fixed for the next day to keep his title hopes alive. Peterhansel claimed Stages 2 and 3 before Baciuška took the fourth. During Stage 3, Price suffered radiator damage that resulted in a 20-hour penalty for an engine change, taking her out of the picture for good.

Seaidan once again pulled a fast one over Peterhansel on the final day to beat him for the stage win by 2:29. Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body’s reign over the Stock class at Dakar ended in January, after which the team reshuffled its lineup by adding Seaidan and Christian Lavieille; while Seaidan went up directly against the Defenders, Lavieille took part in the Open class and won there.

While Toyota Auto Body wasn’t competing for the W2RC, Seaidan getting a stage win and finishing runner-up made Morocco a very successful campaign in the team’s books.

“These stages, this rally, weren’t easy,” said Seaidan. “It was very, very difficult. It felt like the Dakar stages, and it was an excellent experience for us. An excellent challenge. This category is about endurance, it doesn’t rely solely on speed or power. It tests how the car carries you. Our team was up against the Defender, and thank God, we managed to beat them.

“We were able to finish the entire rally without any problems. We had one puncture, but this is good compared to Defender. They had a good day today, but they also had problems. That’s right, it was a tough challenge, but we were able to overcome them through the power of perseverance.”

Peterhansel finished the season with 220 points. Despite his triple victories, he was 13 points back of Baciuška.

“This season, we were not super lucky at the Dakar Rally, but after that, we won the three races—Portugal, Argentina, and Morocco—so it meant that we had good speed,” Peterhansel remarked. “I have a good relationship with Mika (Metge), and we are really happy with our crew of mechanics and engineers. Every morning they gave us a good car, ready to start, ready to fight for the victory each stage. The spirit inside the team is really good too.

“We’ve enjoyed it a lot this full season. Except maybe Dakar, we expected a little more there, but this is motorsport, and we know that anything can happen. The season has been super enjoyable and again, the team spirit is amazing.”

Price concluded with 194 points. Despite not winning any races, she had high praise for the team and the D7X-R, saying she’s “just genuinely in love with it, it is my dream car. The fact that I get to race it through these environments and all around the world, is a dream come true, and can’t wait for what the future has in store for me.”

Baciuška secured his fourth World Rally-Raid Championship. He previously claimed the T4 crown in 2022 and 2023 followed by the Challenger title in 2024. A brief stint in Ultimate came last year before joining Defender Rally in Stock.

“It’s amazing to be Stock champions,” Baciuška commented. “It was a long season. Now, I’m a four-time rally-raid champion in different categories, two times in SSV, one time in Challenger, and this year now for Stock. I’ve won stages at Dakar in different categories too.

“To be the winner, especially in Stock for the first year for Defender, it’s really amazing. Thanks to all the team who support us all season. It’s not just about the job behind the wheel, it’s everyone behind the car, the mechanics and all the engineers, the team did a lot of important work, and we wouldn’t be able to achieve what we have without them.”

Being the lone full-time team means Defender also secured the inaugural W2RC manufacturer title for the Stock category. 2026 was also the first year that the class had its own driver and navigator trophies, respectively claimed by Baciuška and Oriol Vidal.

Ian James, the boss of Defender Rally, stated:

That’s a wrap on Rallye du Maroc and our debut season. It’s phenomenal to see all three cars and all three teams performing so well under some incredibly challenging conditions this week. 
Firstly, a congratulations goes to Toyota Land Cruiser’s Yasir Seaidan and Jean-Michel Polato for today’s stage win. Ultimately, the event itself has been Stéphane and Mika’s, so huge congratulations to them both for a fearless performance to win this event.

Of course, from a championship perspective, a huge congratulations to Rokas and Oriol for wrapping up the inaugural championship for Defender Rally and the D7X-R. It’s been an incredible year all round and I couldn’t be prouder of them, all of our crews, and of course, the team behind it all.

Results like this don’t just come from performance, they come from the camaraderie and the culture that you have within this team, and in that respect, this team is second to none. I hope they can now celebrate and celebrate hard. Believe me, we’ll be back next year, making sure that we can fight for that championship, for a win at each event and who knows, maybe we can try for a clean sweep of wins across the board.

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	38	500	Stéphane Peterhansel	Michaël Metge	Defender Rally	20:53:52	Leader
2	44	505	Yasir Seaidan	Jean-Michel Polato	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	21:50:21	+ 56:29
3	62	502	Rokas Baciuška	Oriol Vidal	Defender Rally	34:49:12	+ 13:55:20
4	80	504	Sara Price	Sean Berriman	Defender Rally	57:20:13	+ 36:26:21

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Driver	Time
Stage 1	57	Sara Price	3:33:49
Stage 2	46	Stéphane Peterhansel	4:14:53
Stage 3	23	Stéphane Peterhansel	4:18:15
Stage 4	59	Rokas Baciuška	4:04:47
Stage 5	43	Yasir Seaidan	3:47:41

Featured image credit: Kin Marcin / Red Bull Content Pool