Dakar 2011: Leg 3

End of SS3: San Miguel de Tucuman-San Salvador de Jujuy Cars: 500Kms Trucks: 226Kms Bikes/Quads: 521Kms

Carlos Sainz still sits the top of the leader board after SS3 of this year’s Dakar Rally. On the run from San Miguel de Tucuman to San Salvador de Jujuy, he finished second to his team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah, who gained back 25 secs on Sainz. Stéphane Peterhansel took third, just under a minute slower than the Qatari driver.

Sainz lead the car class into the 500Km stage, the longest stage so far on the rally. Cyril Despres opened the proceedings today, running first on the road. The bikes and quads again made a detour, which made their route 21 Kms longer than the car’s route. Today, however, the trucks also made a detour. As part of the stage was run through a dense forest, the truck’s windscreens would be at the same height as the branches, a hazard to the safety of the truck crews. The trucks would instead drive an extended road section.

The weather stayed good throughout the stage, with lots of dust being kicked up by the cars. The stages are now beginning to move away from the WRC-type stages, instead moving towards more traditional Dakar stages.

Al-Attiyah won his first stage of the 2011 Dakar, beating Sainz by 25 secs. Third was Peterhansel, who was 59 secs slower through the stage than Al-Attiyah. Al-Attiyah was fastest through the first Checkpoint, and kept his foot firmly on the throttle, to stay there. Sainz still holds the overall lead but Al-Attiyah is now 3 mins 34 secs behind in second. Third is still Peterhansel, but the gap is now at 4 mins 19 secs.

The Top 3 are now well separated from the rest of the field, with VW driver Ginnel de Villiers over 12 mins behind Peterhansel. The rest of the Top 10 is basically the same as yesterday, but Nani Roma has begun to find his feet on this year’s rally, taking ninth from Christian Lavieille. Roma took just under four mins out of the Frenchman over the course of the stage.

Guerlain Chicherit is now making huge strides in the General Classification, jumping from 21^st to 14^th. The MINI is now beginning to show its potency on the Dakar stages. Chicherit took ninth on today’s stage. He is now sitting 1 hr 22 mins off the lead.

Moving to the ‘big boys’ (in tonnage terms, anyway), the Chagin/Savostin/Shaysultanov team now lead the truck class in their Kamaz 43269. They now take the lead from the Loprais/Holan/Kalina team (Tatra T185-2) after flying through the stage to take a massive 6 mins 50 secs out of the then leaders, Kabirov/Belyaev/Mokeev. The truck class is now the most spaced out class, with almost 30 mins separating third and fourth.

To the ‘little boys’ (again in tonnage terms), Cyril Despres retains his lead over Marc Coma but Spaniard Coma is now on a charge, with only 14 secs separating Despres and an on form Coma. Coma won the stage by 2 mins 14 secs, but it wasn’t enough to take the lead. The penalty gained by Ruben Faria now seems to have demoralised the Portuguese, who is now over 9 mins 30 secs off the lead. Faria is now coming under fire from fourth placed Paulo Goncalves, who took 2 mins 10 secs out of the Faria on today’s stage.

In the quads section of the rally, Sebastian Halpern now leads the class after former leader Josef Machacek lost over 20 mins to fall down to 5^th overall. Halpern holds 12 secs over second placed Patronelli, with Maffei, who won today’s stage, a further minute behind Patronelli. The Yamaha Raptor still seems to be the quad of choice for the class, with Yamaha Raptors holding the Top 6, and 7^th place Jorge Santamarina on his Honda TRX 700 XX over 10 mins behind 6^th place.