Sara Price & Co-Driver Sean Berriman Wins Stage 2 in Portugal
March 19, 2026 - American Sara Price and co-driver Sean Berriman placed first in the Stock class in Stage 2 of the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal. Competing in car #504, the pair finished with a time of 3:03:10.
In second place, Stéphane Peterhansel and co-driver Mika Metge (#500) completed the route that brought competitors into Badajoz, Spain, just 47 seconds slower than Price, with a final time of 3:03:57.
Rokas Baciuška and Spanish co-driver Oriol Vidal (#502) took third place, losing time due to fixing a puncture. The crew achieved a time of 3:04:42 and retain their lead in the Rally-Raid Portugal.
Over the course of today, the winning Defender’s stage time was just 2.4 seconds per kilometre slower on average than the T1 Ultimate cars. Price, Peterhansel and Baciuška placed 26th, 29th and 31st respectively in the Car category, ranking them alongside competitors in the Ultimate class.
Jack Lambert, Head of Technical Integration, Defender Rally, said: “A really successful stage today. As a team, we aim for all three cars and crews back safe, and that’s what we have. A few minor technical issues to catch up on with the team, but overall, the performance of all cars’ and crews is really strong in what has been challenging conditions. We're averaging approximately 2.4 seconds per kilometre slower than the T1 Ultimate cars, which is impressive. It's a great outcome and less of a pace difference than we expected here. We’ll regroup with the team and go again tomorrow.”
Sara Price, Defender Rally driver, said: “I had to work hard today to secure the top spot! The Defender crews are all fast, so you don’t want to lose time as it’s tough to gain it back. I came in 47 seconds ahead of Stéphane so it was pretty close, but it’s a lot of fun racing with legends like him and my teammates.”
Stéphane Peterhansel, Defender Rally driver, said: "Stage 2 was a long day, we started super early but it was a nice stage. A little slippery at the beginning but more dry towards the end. We had a small issue with the brakes, so we drove slowly towards the end to control it, but the result is still good for us.”
Rokas Baciuška, Defender Rally driver, said: “Today was a good day, with a mix of rivers, muddy sections and stones. I did make a mistake on a corner as I thought it’d be shorter, so we had a bit of an impact. Luckily, we only got a puncture, so we stopped for a couple of minutes to change it but managed to gain time back at the end. It’s different conditions to Dakar, it was slippery on the brakes today, but we're ready for Stage 3 tomorrow – it’s a big one and we’ll push again.”
Stage 3 takes place on Friday 20th January 2026 with a 296km timed stage, and an additional 204km liaison, entirely on Spanish territory.