STAGE 3: BP ULTIMATE RALLY-RAID PORTUGAL, ROUND 2 (W2RC) - 20th March 2026
Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel and co-driver Mika Metge (#500) finished first in the Stock class in Stage 3 of the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal today, achieving a time of 2:59:56. This propels the crew into first place overall in the Stock standings, overtaking car #502 of Rokas Baciuška and Oriol Vidal.
In second place, Rokas Baciuška and co-driver Oriol Vidal (#502) were seven minutes, 12 seconds slower with a Stage 3 time of 03:07:56, losing time due to a puncture.
Sara Price and Sean Berriman (#504) stopped during the stage due to mechanical issues with the brakes. The delay meant they finished 1:11:06 behind Peterhansel’s time, completing the stage in 04:11:02 overall.
Peterhansel, Baciuška and Price placed 16th, 25th and 47th respectively in the Car category, ranking amongst competitors in the Ultimate class once again.
Jack Lambert, Head of Technical Integration, Defender Rally, said: “Another successful day for Defender Rally. Stéphane took the win, so we’ve now had a win for all three of our drivers which is really nice. Given that we’re the only competitor in the class, it’s a true demonstration of the performance and reliability across the cars and crews. Performance-wise for the Defender Dakar D7X-R, Stéphane had a clean run, Rokas had a puncture, and Sara had some issues with braking throughout. We’re still investigating the cause, but there’s no concern about getting the car back out on stage tomorrow.”
Stéphane Peterhansel, Defender Rally driver, said: "It was an interesting stage and the only stage entirely in Spain. We took pleasure in driving the Defender today and it was a different route for us - it started fast, then it was narrower and twisted through the mountains, then when it rained it got slippery, and the end was super fast again. There were no issues with the car, no need to manage the brakes, just full throttle.”
Rokas Baciuška, Defender Rally driver, said: “Today’s stage was a little tricky, as the terrain was very slippery. There was lots of traffic that cost us time, and we were stuck amongst the SSVs. We had to stop for a puncture, and it was a struggle to change the tyre because there was so much mud around the wheel nuts, so that lost us a few minutes.”
Sara Price, Defender Rally driver, said: “Today’s stage was another long one, and it was a lot of very fast roads with sharp turns. It was pretty sketchy; you’d be going fast and wouldn’t know the turn was coming up. Overall, it was a fun stage but early on we had an issue with the brakes, and we battled that all day. We probably got out of the car three times which lost us time, and we had to be careful with them.”
Stage 4, the penultimate stage, takes place on Saturday 21st March 2026 and takes competitors back into Portugal. It spans 637km, including a timed section of 314km.