Engineered4Extremes - In Focus

Winning at the Dakar Rally owes as much to chemistry as to horsepower. The World Rally-Raid Championship opens with this gruelling event: thousands of kilometres of desert, dune and rock, designed to test endurance as much as speed. Defender’s first W2RC campaign in 2026 proved its production-based race car could take the punishment, but the achievement belonged equally to Castrol, whose products serve as first-fill in every production Defender and supply every lubricant and grease used on the Defender Dakar D7X-R, including Castrol EDGE engine oil. Under conditions that punish machinery relentlessly, that chemistry held. The result: victory in the Stock class on Defender’s Dakar debut, and a partnership proven where it matters most