Land Rover Defender set to tackle 2026 Dakar Rally
The Defender is looking to conquer the unforgiving landscape of the famed event in the Stock category
The Dakar Rally is just about the toughest motorsport race on the planet, but to prove the mettle of the Defender, Land Rover is entering its premium, family-friendly SUV into the 2026 event as part of a full FIA World Rally Raid Championship (W2RC) programme.
Between 2026 and 2028, two Defenders will take part across the full five rounds of the W2RC, with a third participating in the Dakar, which acts as the Championship’s halo event.
The Dakar will get a good look at the Defender in the meantime because in the 2025 event (which runs from 3-17 January), it is the “official car partner” and Land Rover will supply no less than 20 ‘recce’ vehicles to support Dakar Rally officials.
On the entry itself, Land Rover said: “A comprehensive Defender competition development programme is already underway which will culminate in a competitive test event during autumn 2025, followed by a full team launch ahead of Dakar 2026.”
All this should stand Land Rover in good stead for its debut in the Dakar in 2026. We don’t know what technical changes will be made to the Defender in order for it to compete, although Land Rover confirmed details about the “future Defender rally raid competition programme” will be announced during Dakar 2025.
Mark Cameron, Defender Managing Director, said: “We have chosen to compete in the ‘Stock’ category to showcase the toughness and dependability of the production Defender.” James Barclay, JLR Motorsport Managing Director added: “It will be an incredible adventure from both human and engineering perspectives, and the team are already working hard to develop Defender within the new ‘Stock’ FIA W2RC rules for 2026 that will make for such a competitive category.”
The 2024 Dakar Rally event was won by Audi on its third attempt with the RS Q e-tron. The car shared virtually nothing with Audi’s all-electric e-tron road car range and we expect Land Rover’s entry in 2026 will also be fairly unrecognisable from the Defender road car.
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