'Some of the guys and girls out there haven't slept in 36 hours' — With Defender in the dunes of Dakar

The unique moments of motorsport make it joyful. The change of direction of a Formula One car as it cuts a hole through the air; the brutal speed of a 400mph+ streamliner tearing down the Bonneville Salt Flats; the impossible angles of a leaning MotoGP rider as his knee grazes the tarmac.

There is another, that might be the most spectacular of all; a purpose-built rally raid machine cutting through the desert, tackling bumps, rocks and sand dunes in ways that make you reconsider what’s possible on two or four wheels. This is Dakar, the world’s most gruelling endurance rally, which takes in nearly 5,000 miles of Saudi Arabia’s wildest terrain.

There’s also the sheer variety of vehicles that take part. This year, a new ‘Stock’ class was introduced alongside the wild T1 prototypes, the Challenger and SSV buggies, trucks and motorcycles. Making things even more interesting was Defender, who entered a works team for the first time, running a slightly modified version of the brutish Defender Octa, going head-to-head against Toyota’s own Land Cruiser in a battle of the 4x4 titans. The Stock category is challenging because teams must retain the original engines, gearboxes and chassis of the donor road vehicle — only roll cages and the suspension can be modified. It’s arguably the purest Dakar category, aside from the Original by Motul bike class, but more on that later.

The colossal event comprises 13 stages raced over a two-week period, with the longest stage a mammoth 570 miles. A test of endurance, skill and reliability from the drivers, co-drivers and engineers who keep each vehicle alive, Dakar’s toughness is unmatched. I experienced some of this first hand, when I dropped into the Defender camp of the 'Bivouac' — a makeshift paddock that moves with each stage — after stage 2 of the rally in AlUla. 'Some of the guys and girls out there haven't slept in 36 hours', said team principal of Defender Rally, Ian James. 'It's been a brutal introduction to Dakar up for some of us. Some of the team obviously have done it before — they've got huge, massive experience. For others, it’s completely new to them, but this is really a culmination of a huge amount of work and effort gone into a very, very short period of time.'

The Bivouac is an intoxicating place. Walking around the huge makeshift camp, which houses up to 4,000 people during Dakar, there is always something to see. The Defender team sets up their collapsible garages as they await their machines finishing the stage. Elsewhere, mechanics work around the clock fixing, tightening, and changing parts on each car. There is a large catering tent that serves food all day and night, medical facilities, support crews and officials going about their business. During the day, the team’s engineers sleep in small tents, on the side of trucks or anywhere else they can find. At night it thrums, as hundreds of teams and personnel toil away to make the whole thing tick.

Some of the hardest workers are those who compete in the Original by Motul category. These motorcyclists enter without any external assistance and must conduct all mechanical maintenance themselves. They are the most hardcore of the lot, allowed only one regulation size trunk with a sleeping bag and tent, tools, one set of spare tyres and a spare headlight.

The Dakar wasn’t always held in Saudi Arabia. The original iteration, the Paris-Dakar, saw competitors begin in the French capital and descend the continent into Africa. The idea was dreamt up by Thierry Sabine, who in 1977 got lost on his motorcycle when competing in the Abidjan-Nice rally. He found himself alone in the Libyan desert and subsequently became obsessed with the idea of adventure and derring-do that the vastness of the sands offered. He returned home with the idea of starting his own rally, and the following year he did just that, with 182 vehicles taking off from the Place du Trocadéro, south across to Algiers, crossing Agadez before ending up in Dakar in Senegal.

The first winner was 22 year old French motorcyclist Cyril Neveu, who took victory on his trusty Yamaha XT500. Nobody knew quite how challenging the 6,200 mile route would be, and most vehicles were vastly underprepared. The only modification on one competitor’s BMW R65 was the addition of saddlebags, to carry his luggage. Neveu summed up the experience well: 'I was 21 years old and I had already experienced Africa during the Abidjan-Nice rally. I was just like everyone else, a simple guy grabbing onto the handlebars of his 500 XT. Without any leather satchels….' Just 74 vehicles finished, attesting to its difficulty.

The Paris-Dakar rally resulted in plenty of tales of heroism and danger over the years. In 1982, Margaret Thatcher’s son Mark entered, and subsequently went missing for six days in the Sahara desert. A search effort involving nearly £2,000 of the Prime Minister's own money helped find him. Before the race he told the BBC, 'I've now raced in Le Mans and other things — this rally is no problem'. After being rescued, he seemed equally unaffected, saying all he needed was 'a beer and a sandwich, a bath and a shave'. He later told the Guardian, 'I did absolutely no preparation. Nothing. I did half a day's testing and the day after that we were driving out of the Place de la Concorde in Paris. I was thinking, OK, I wonder how this is going to go? I soon found out.'

Tragedy did strike in 1986, when Dakar founder Thierry Sabine and four others died in a helicopter crash during a sandstorm at the rally. The race carried on, but it would never quite be the same. Other events demonstrated the danger of Dakar. In 1996 a Citroen support truck hit a landmine in the Sahara, killing driver Laurent Gueguen, and in 2008 the event had to be cancelled due to terror threats by Al Qaeda. It then moved to South America in 2009, before Saudi Arabia took the mantle in 2020. Today, Dakar is just as demanding as it’s ever been.

For Defender, the challenge is entirely new, and its car, the Defender D7X-R, was untested. Based on the most powerful road-going Defender, the Octa, it shares many of that car’s architecture. It has the same 4.4-litre turbo V8, although restricted to FIA power regulations, and the same wheelbase and bodywork, which has been altered at the front and rear to improve ground clearance. A huge 550-litre fuel tank takes up most of the boot space, while Bilstein suspension replaces the complex 6D Dynamics set up on the road car. The tyres too are different, with a wider track and 35in height for better grip and a smaller 17in rim for improved sidewall protection. The result is dramatic in the metal, with the slick desert-inspired livery ensuring the Defender looked the part.

It went well too. Drivers include 14-time Dakar winner Stéphane Peterhansel, Lithuanian Rokas Baciuška and American Sara Price, who each wrestled their D7X-R with remarkable speed through the desert. Seeing each one carve through the landscape, a plume of sand in their wake, was a site to behold. They did so well in fact, that by the end of the two weeks Defender won the Stock class, finishing 1-2 overall. Baciuška and co-driver Oriol Vidal came first, Price and Sean Berriman second, with ‘Mr Dakar’ Peterhansel and Michaël Metge finishing fourth.

'Dreams come true,' said Baciuška, 'and it was my dream to win Dakar. For the first year for Defender, it's amazing. Our mechanics did a great job — what they do is unbelievable, working every day until early in the morning to prepare the cars for the next stage. I give my thanks to them, the engineers, the entire team because without them, we would not be here.'

The Defender Rally team is set to compete at the next round of the championship in Portugal in March. Having already conquered Dakar in its first outing, hopes are high for a repeat performance, and a potential overall victory at the end of the year. 'Honestly, I couldn’t be more proud of the entire team,' said James. 'Not only the fact that we've won Dakar in the way that we have, but the manner in which everybody's pulled together and worked so hard throughout has been simply outstanding. A huge thank you for the efforts in getting us to this point, and long may it continue.'