Stage three saw our first repeat stage winner of the 2015 Dakar Rally but two class leads changed, one because of a penalty. We start this stage three recap with the news that bike competitor Michal Henrik has died. The Polish rider was competing in his first Dakar Rally and was 84th in the bike classifications. Henrik was 39 years old.
Orlando Terranova won his second stage as the Argentine won by a minute and 54 seconds over Giniel de Villiers. Yazeed Alrajhi followed his Toyota teammate in third position, finishing 58 seconds behind the South African. Carlos Sainz finished fourth, four minutes and eight seconds back with Nasser Al-Attiyah finishing eight seconds behind the Peugeot driver and retaining the overall lead.
Nani Roma finished sixth on stage three, five minutes and 58 seconds back of his Mini teammate Terranova but has a lot of work to do after a disastrous first stage. Stéphane Peterhansel finished seventh, nine minutes and 26 seconds off of the Argentine.
Krzysztof Holowczyc finished 12th, 19 minutes and 14 seconds back while Robby Gordon came home 15th, 21 minutes and 56 seconds after Terranova.
Al-Attiyah holds a five minute and 18 second lead over de Villiers. Terranova jumps to third after his stage victory but is 18 minutes and five seconds behind his Mini teammate. Sainz and Alrajhi round out the top five with the Spaniard 19 minutes and 32 seconds back and the Saudi trailing by 20 minutes and eight seconds. Holowczyc is 25 minutes and 24 seconds back in sixth position.
Peterhansel is an nearly hour and 13 minutes behind Al-Attiyah in 16th position. Gordon is in 40th, four hours and 24 minutes back with Roma up to 55th, nearly nine and a quarter hours behind his teammate.
Austrian Matthias Walkner won stage three for KTM by 40 seconds over fellow KTM rider Marc Coma. Class leader Joan Barreda finished third, a minute and 53 seconds back, enough for the Honda ride to retain the lead. Toby Price finished two minutes and 45 seconds behind Walkner in fourth position. Paulo Gonçalves rounded out the top five, finishing four seconds behind the Australian Price.
Alain Duclos finished three minutes and 11 seconds back in sixth with Ruben Faria finishing seventh, fifteen seconds after Duclos. Jeremias Israel Esquerre came home in eighth position, four minutes and two seconds back with Jordi Viladoms finishing 34 seconds after the Chilean Israel Esquerre. Rounding out the top ten, five minutes and 21 seconds after Walkner was Juan Pedrero Garcia. Stage one winner Sam Sunderland finished two seconds after Pedrero Garcia.
Barreda leads Gonçalves by five minutes and 33 seconds with Walkner jumping to third overall, five minutes behind the Portuguese rider. Coma is 17 seconds behind the Austrian with Faria rounding out the top five, 12 minutes and 10 seconds behind Barreda.
Price is 14 seconds behind Faria in sixth. Viladoms is 14 minutes and seven seconds behind with Israel Esquerre in eighth, 18 minutes and 33 seconds back. Hélder Rodrigues dropped to ninth after finishing fifteenth on stage three. The Portuguese rider is a second behind Israel Esquerre. Pedrero Garcia rounds out the top ten, 23 minutes and two seconds back.
Duclos is 38 seconds back of Pedrero Garcia in 11th. Olivier Pain fell to 19th, nearly 38 minutes behind Barreda after finishing 21st on the stage. Sunderland jumps to 50th but is two hours and 37 minutes off the overall lead.
Lucas Bonetto made it two victorious Argentines as he won the quad class riding for Honda. Bonetto won by 58 seconds over fellow Argentine Sebastian Halpern. Rafał Sonik finished third, two minutes and 14 seconds back as did Gaston Gonzalez, who made it three Argentines in the top four. Despite his finish, Sonik will not have the quad lead heading into stage four as the Pole was handed a 15-minute penalty. Mohammed Abu-Issa finished fifth, two minutes and 29 seconds back with new class leader, Sergio Lafuente finishing ten seconds behind the Qatari in sixth. Defending quad winner Ignacio Casale came home in seventh, five minutes and 24 seconds after Bonetto.
Lafuente leads Casale by 41 seconds with Halpern in third, seven minutes and 28 seconds back. The 15-minute penalty drops Sonik to fourth, ten minutes and five seconds behind the Uruguayan. Abu-Issa remains fifth, 16 minutes and 38 seconds back.
The lead change occurred in the truck class as Airat Mardeev took the lead after winning stage three. Mardeev won the stage by a minute and 51 seconds over defending winner Andrey Karginov. Gérard de Rooy finished third, four and a half minutes behind Mardeev. Aleš Loprais finished fourth, seven minutes back. Russian Dmitry Sotnikov rounded out the top five, finishing 32 seconds after Loprais.
In the overall truck standings, Mardeev leads Loprais by seven minutes and 55 seconds with Karginov three seconds back of the Czech. Eduard Nikolaev is fourth, eight minutes and seven seconds after finishing eighth on stage three. Martin Kolomy is 15 seconds behind Nikolaev after finishing sixth on stage three and being handed a 30-second penalty.
Siarhei Viazovich is sixth, 30 seconds behind Kolomy. De Rooy was also handed a 30-second penalty and is now seventh, a minute behind Viazovich. Truck leader entering the stage, Hans Stacey dropped to eighth overall after finishing ninth on the stage and behind handed a minute penalty. The Dutchman is now 12 minutes and 42 seconds back of Mardeev.
Stage four will take the competitors to Chile as the stage heads to Copiapo from Chilecito.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
