Sainz lost a special Dakar lead suspended due to bad weather

“Deteriorating weather conditions does not allow the organization to guarantee security The contestants are in the best conditions”, the Dakar organization reported.

Chicherit victory

The victory of the stage was the French Guerlain Chicherit (Prodrive) (3h22:57), with South African Henk Lategan (Toyota), second and Argentinean Orlando Newfoundlandthird.

First overall, Saudi Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota) was the best in this part of the edition, taking fifth place overall, just behind Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel’s Audi.

The offended Al-Attiyah took 13th Almost 2:30 p.m. Saudi lagged behind, but the day turned out to be worse for leader Carlos Sainz. It had mechanical problems and was stopped twice which made the rally difficult, the first for around half an hour on 213km special setbacks.

Sainz, eighth overall

Now, ‘Matador’ is eighth overall, 33:11 behind new leader Al-Attiyah. The Qatari leads Al Rajhi at 13:20 and the French Peterhansel at 10:45.

After the tough second stage that cost many favourites, the Dakar seems to have turned into a duel between the Spaniard and Nasser Al-Attiyah, but this is unpredictable.

The Audi man led Qatari by 14 seconds after a 47km private ride. Saudi Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota) was the fastest at that point, 35 seconds better than Madrid.

France’s Guerlain Chicherit (Prodrive) set the fastest time at the 95th kilometer (50:26), while South African Henk Lategan (Toyota) second (50:43) and Sainz third (51:50) beat the reigning champion 1:40. .

Lategan took the lead 31 seconds ahead of Chicherit in the 147th minute (1h20:22). Argentina’s Orlando Terranova finished third (1:21:16) and Sainz dropped to fifth place (1:23:01), but with a 6:50 advantage over Al-Attiyah.

Passing 184, he separated Lategan from Chicherit by just 5 seconds, and in less than a minute, Terranova was ready to make up for Monday’s bad day. Sainz was behind the interim leader 3:21 with 6:17 in his fight against the Toyota Qatari.

wheel problems

It came towards the middle of the test because of problems for the man from Madrid. mechanical problems with the left rear wheel. Al-Attiyah was not doing well. At the 240 waypoint, Chicherit was ahead (1h59:59), Lategan was 45 seconds behind, Terranova was still third, but more than 3 minutes behind.

In the struggle for the general, Losing more than 12 (2h12:30) compared to the leader, Al Attiyah led Sainz 26:28.

The Spaniard, who started to fight fiercely to close the gap with the 2022 champion, reduced the distance to 20:53, ie 5.5 minutes, in the 288-kilometer special stage. Ahead, Chicherit dominated with 2:14 against Lategan.

But panorama got worse at the next checkpoint, which is at 335 kilometers. There he gave up 36:28 compared to the Qatari. The battle for victory was decided in favor of more and more Chicherit with a 3:43 lease.

Inclement weather interrupted the race and the organization approved times for the 377th kilometer in a Dakar that never ceases to surprise.

Barreda fifth on motorcycles with broken finger

Australian daniel sanders (GasGas) Won the third stage of the Dakar RallyBetween Al Ula and Hall in Saudi Arabia, with 447 private and 221 liaison officers, American Ricky Brabec (Honda) left after an accident, while the Spaniards joan barreda (Honda) signed fifth place 11:29 behind the winner.

Sanders had voluntarily slowed down to avoid the runway during the final episode of his stage two special – after undergoing six elbow surgeries he still doesn’t feel like he’s doing it – but He dared to win this Tuesday.

Castellon, for his part Barreda faced third stage with a fracture to the big toe of his left foot. Occurring on Monday. ‘Bang Bang’ had to endure the pain and managed to finish among the best.

Monday’s winner, Mason Klein, opened the circuit, but this time with compensation, a first for the Dakar: 1.5 seconds per kilometer for driver one, 1 for driver two and one and a half seconds for driver third. There were up to 6 bonus minutes between the start of the special event and the stop at the refueling point (240 kilometers).

It also gave the athletes an extra challenge on a fast stage, who had to deal with rain, wet ground and puddles.

Sanders set the fastest time at the 47th kilometer with 47 seconds against Ricky Brabec and 53 seconds against Skyler Howes.

Brabec cuts Sanders lead to nine seconds At km 95 and Slovak Stefan Svitko finished third with 1:45.

Toby Price suffered on stage and lost more than six minutes to Sanders after 147 kilometers. Barreda was in a similar situation at 5:45.

After the 2:15 special event, it’s time to apply the bonuses at kilometer 240. Howes took the lead with 3:40 compensation (2h14:51), with Klein leading the stage 38 seconds behind with 5:52. and seven seconds behind, Sanders was also five seconds ahead of Brabec.

From Honda, winner of 2020, He had to retire because he crashed 274 kilometers before the special race. The agency confirmed that the Honda pilot, who suffered from neck pain, was taken to the hospital for further testing. Defending champion is the second favorite of the fight after British Sam Sunderland (GasGas) was abandoned in the first place.

Returning to the slopes after 288 kilometers and with no new bonuses to open the race, Sanders regained the standings with Howes in 2:30, Klein in 2:47 and Argentinian Kevin Benavides in 3:11.

The South American began to pull back and was in 2:02 at kilometer 335, but Sanders rebounded and put him over four minutes in 378.

In the finish, the Australian took advantage of 1:07 against Klein (including bonuses), 3:05 against Howes, 3:14 against Howes, and 05:23 against Benavides.