Rally Raid
Carlos Sainz and Ricky Brabec strike with stage wins on day 3 of the Dakar
Two-time Dakar Rally winner Carlos Sainz wins Stage 3 in the Car class to lead the race overall, while Honda's hope Ricky Brabec opens a lead in the Bikes on the third day of racing in Saudi Arabia.
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The third day of the Dakar Rally 2020 saw more drama and further changes in the leading order across all five classes, as the competitors left the bivouac at Neom and took on a 414km loop that finished back where they started.
With a mixture of terrain on the special stage, the teams encountered massive rocks, canyons and tough navigational challenges, and as the rally visited its highest point of 1,400m there were some big crashes and major gains and losses among those aiming for a top result come the race's end. Check out who started to show that they mean business as the 2020 Dakar Rally really started to get going on Stage 3.
Ricky Brabec takes Bike lead as favourites falter
Sam Sunderland slipped from the lead to 9th on Stage 3
© Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Content Pool
For the top two riders in the overall standings overnight, Sam Sunderland and Pablo Quintanilla, Stage 3 would prove to be one to forget. They were forced to sit back and watch as Honda's Ricky Brabec put on a masterclass in the Saudi Arabian sand to win his first stage of this year's race and move into the overall lead.
Red Bull KTM's Sunderland slipped down from the overall lead back to ninth as the convoy tackled the 414km loop. The British rider struggled on Stage 3 and after just over 250km of racing he was running 10 minutes behind Brabec. Stage 2 winner and 2019's top rookie, Ross Branch, also had a tough day and arrived at the second neutralised zone 55 minutes behind the leader, following a fall.
Brabec was in a class of his own at the front of the field however and had established a lead of almost eight minutes over nearest challenger, Jose Cornejo, by the 350km mark.
Stage 1 winner Toby Price battled closely with Xavier de Soultrait for third place on the day, although both and had to recover from navigational issues late in the stage, whilst Price's team-mate Sunderland and Quintanilla both found themselves over 20 minutes behind Brabec.
Brabec proved irresistible on the day to win the stage by almost six minutes ahead of Cornejo and Kevin Benavides to lead home a Honda 1–2–3 for the stage and assume the overall lead over Benavides by nearly five minutes. Matthias Walkner finished the stage in fourth to maintain third in the overall rankings keep his, and KTM's, hopes alive.
Dakar Rally 2020 Bike standings (after Stage 3)
- Ricky Brabec (USA) 10h 39m 4s
- Kevin Benavides (ARG) +4m 43s
- Matthias Walkner (AUT) +6m 2s
- Joan Barreda (ESP) +11m 2s
- Jose Ignacio Cornejo (CHI) +11m 19s
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Carlos Sainz claims Cars lead after 33rd stage win
Carlos Sainz jumped to the lead of the Car class with an strong drive
© Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Content Pool
The third day of competition at the Dakar Rally proved to be pretty intense, as the Cars hit Tuesday's 414km loop in the Saudi desert and it was Carlos Sainz who claimed the overall rally lead after claiming his 33rd Dakar stage win ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah and Jakub 'Kuba' Przygoński.
Heading into Stage 3 of the rally, Orlando Terranova held the lead, but by the 200km point the Argentine was already eight minutes adrift of the battle for the stage lead, which was being fought out between MINI's Sainz and Toyota's Al-Attiyah. Of the former Dakar winners, it was Sainz who made the best start, adjusting to the conditions well and leading Al-Attiyah and Stéphane Peterhansel by around nine seconds at the 250km mark.
Stage 2 winner Giniel de Villiers couldn't repeat his success from Monday's coastal stage and struggled to keep pace in the Toyota. Stage 1 winner Vaidotas Zala also had no answer for the pace of the front runners and lost almost 30 minutes.
Two-time Dakar Rally winner Sainz used all of his desert racing experience to keep ahead of Al-Attiyah and a hard-chargingPrzygoński, making it two MINIs on the podium for the day, while Fernando Alonso finished a superb fourth place in just his third Dakar Rally stage and Peterhansel settled for seventh place to remaining in touch of the overall lead.
The third stage of the rally witnessed a couple of sizeable incidents, as Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi suffered a big crash that saw him roll his vehicle multiple times but emerge uninjured. Similarly, Russian Vladimir Vasilyev and his co-driver had a fiery crash after 284km, whilst running ninth, but they also luckily escaped unharmed.
Dakar Rally 2020 Car standings (after Stage 3)
- Carlos Sainz (ESP) 11h 20s
- Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) +4m 55s
- Orlando Terranova (ARG) +8m 9s
- Yazzed Al Rajhi (SAU) +18m 58s
- Stéphane Peterhansel (FRA) +19m 0s
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Casey Currie moves into SSV overall lead
Casey Currie finished third in the SSV class on Stage 3 to take the lead in the general standings, just 15 seconds ahead of Chaleco López,as Gerrard Farrés claimed a fantastic stage win.
López started the third day of Dakar competition leading the SSV class, but ended up almost five minutes behind early leader Reinaldo Varela, who was hotly pursued by Currie and Austin Jones,with less than a minute covering the top three.
Varela led the early stages, but at the end of the stage it was Farrés who was celebrating. Farrés was in fifth place after 352km and made up for a catastrophic Stage 2 by powering on in the late stages to claim a fine win in Neom, just 18 seconds ahead of Sergei Kariakin,with Currie in third maintaining the overall lead.
Cyril Despres and Mike Horn managed to reach the second neutralised zone thanks to a tow from their team's assistance truck, after their engine gave up after 273km.
Dakar Rally 2020 SSV standings (after Stage 3)
- Casey Currie (USA) 13h 15m 16s
- Francisco 'Chaleco' López (CHI) +15s
- Jose Antonio Hinojo Lopez (ESP) +1m 40s
- Sergey Karyakin (RUS) +7m 41s
- Austin Jones (USA) +12m 39s
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Enrico claims first Quad win as Casale maintains lead
Igancio Casale consolidated his Quad lead on Stage 3
© Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Content Pool
With Ignacio Casale looking to make it a hat-trick of stage wins, all eyes were on his closest rival Rafał Sonik and whether the Polish rider, who trailed the Chilean by just over nine minutes, could put pressure on the double Dakar winner.
Casale started off well, but for the first time in the 2020 Dakar Rally he found himself under real pressure, not from Sonik, but from Giovanni Enrico, who sat just 22 seconds behind Casale after 200km of Stage 3. Sonik was in third and struggling to keep up after admitting before the stage, "It's difficult to focus on riding when you're in such a beautiful landscape."
By the 352km mark, the duel between Chileans Casale and Enrico raged, with Enrico managing to overhaul the rally leader and establish an advantage of 1m 45s to claim his first stage win of the race. He was followed home not by Casale, but by Simon Vitse, who delivered a late burst of pace to beat Casale to second place.
Dakar Rally 2020 Quad standings (after Stage 3)
- Ignacio Casale (CHI) 13h 38m 5s
- Rafał Sonik (POL) +14m 29s
- Giovanni Enrico (CHI) +19m 39s
- Simon Vitse (FRA) +27m 28s
- Manual Andujar (ARG) +1h 23m 35s
Viazovich keeps Trucks lead as Karginov closes in
Andrey Karginov, Andrey Mokeev and Igor Leonov in the mighty KAMAZ
© Florent Gooden/DPPI/Red Bull Content Pool
In the always spectacular Truck category, it was the Byelorussian Siarhei Viazovich who ended the day with his rally lead intact, but not as healthy as it was on Monday, afgter KAMAZ driver Andrey Karginov executed a fantastic performance to win.
It wasn't a good start to day three for two of the three Kamaz trucks, as second place Dmitry Sotnikov and 2019 champion Eduard Nikolaev both ground to a halt, with the latter losing nine minutes and leaving the remaining KAMAZ of Karginov to establish a lead of 1m 41s at the 125km point over Maz driver Viazovich.
352km into the stage Karginov's lead over Viazovich was over five minutes and this was how it remained as the trucks returned to Neom, with Viazovich retaining his overall lead but seeing his advantage reduced from almost five minutes to just over two minutes. Anton Shibalov took third, as both Sotnikov and Nikolaev struggled home to dent their chances in the overall standings.
Dakar Rally 2020 Truck standings (after Stage 3)
- Siarhei Viazovich (BLR) 11h 34m 1s
- Andrey Karginov (RUS) +2m 18s
- Anton Shibalov (RUS) +20m 1s
- Martin Macik (CZE) +38m 59s
- Eduard Nikolaev (RUS) +50m 12s
Quote of the day
"It was a really nice stage. The landscape was fantastic, even if we didn't have time to stop and enjoy it properly. Lucas (Cruz, co-driver) made a really good job with the navigation and we were able to attack." – Carlos Sainz
It's still very early and anything can happen, but so far so good.
Stage 4 preview: Neom – Al-`Ula
Stage 4 of the 2020 Dakar Rally takes the convoy west, with the route leaving behind the Red Sea and travelling across spectacular moonscape terrains to Al-`Ula via a timed special stage of 453km.
Competitors will tackle equal parts sandy stretches and gravel sections, mostly on tracks, and the navigation will require some clear choices. History buffs will be keen to get their cameras out as they pass close to the Nabatean temples.
Catch the action from Saudi Arabia live with Red Bull TV's Daily Dakar show.
Dakar Daily – Stage 3
Catch up with all the off-road action and highlights from the third stage of Dakar Rally 2020 in Saudi Arabia.
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