Stage Three of the Dakar Rally

The third stage of the Dakar Rally saw a change at the top of the car class and a former Dakar winner and top contender this year retiring in the quad class.

Spaniard Nani Roma won stage three in the car class and in doing so took the overall lead in the class, the third different leader of the class in as many days. Roma defeated Polish driver Krzysztof Holowczyc by one minute and seven seconds with South African Leeroy Poulter finishing third, three minutes and nineteen seconds back. Argentine Orlando Terranova finishing fourth, four minutes and fifty-four seconds back. Guerlain Chicherit finished fifth, six minutes and fifty-two seconds back with Robby Gordon finishing ten seconds back of Chicherit in sixth. Nasser Al-Attiyah finished seventh, ten minutes and nine seconds back.

Roma takes the lead overall by nine minutes and six seconds over Terranova with Al-Attiyah ten minutes back. Carlos Sainz finished eighteenth on the day and drops back to fourth, twelve minutes and two seconds back but the Spaniard jumps Stéphane Peterhansel who drops from the lead to fifth, twenty-four minutes and eight seconds back. The eleven-time Dakar winner finish twenty-ninth in stage three.

Robby Gordon moves up from fifty-seventh to forty-first overall with his sixth place finish today. He is three hours forty-six minutes and nine seconds back. The other American driver in the car class BJ Baldwin finished forty-second in stage three and is sixty-eighth overall, six hours eight minutes and eight seconds back of Roma.

In the bike class, Joan Barreda Bort extended his overall lead to thirteen minutes and four seconds over Cyril Despres with another stage victory. Barreda Bort defeated Despres by four minutes and forty-one seconds to take the stage victory with Marc Coma finishing another two minutes and fifteen seconds back. Coma is third overall, thirteen minutes and fifty-six seconds back of his fellow Spaniard. Frenchman Alain Duclos finished fourth on the day and remains fourth overall for the third consecutive day.

Chilean Francisco López Contardo drops from second overall to fifth after finishing sixteen minutes and thirty-six seconds back on the day. Stage two winner Sam Sunderland finished seventy-fifth, two hours twenty-eight minutes and six seconds back of Barreda Bort on stage three. He drops from third to thirtieth overall, two and a half hours and thirty-nine seconds back of Barreda Bort overall.

American Mike Johnson finished 113th on stage three, six hours twenty-two minutes and twenty seconds back of Barrdea Bort. Johnson was assessed a one-hour penalty and finds himself 107th overall, ten hours five minutes and twenty-five seconds back of the lead in the bike class.

In the quad class, Rafał Sonik won by three minutes and fifty seconds over stage one winner Ignacio Casale. Sergio Lafuente of Uruguay finished another twelve seconds back with Dutchman Sebastian Husseini finishing four minutes and fifty-one seconds back.

The surprise of the day was the announcement that leader of the quad class entering stage three Marcos Patronelli has retired from the Dakar Rally after an accident sent his ATV down an ravine. Patronelli has won two of five Dakar Rally since the introduction of the quad class in 2009 including last year's edition.

Sonik holds a six minutes and ten second lead over Casale overall, seven minutes and nineteen seconds over Husseini and is seven minutes and twenty-six seconds ahead Lafuente.

Russian Andrey Karginov won the truck class today by two minutes and forty-two seconds over Gérard de Rooy. Czech driver Aleš Loprais finished third on the day another two minutes and twelve seconds back. De Rooy increased his overall lead in the class to eighteen minutes and forty-nine seconds over fellow Dutchman Marcel van Vilet. Karginov moves up to third with the stage win, thirty-nine minutes and ten seconds back.