Stage 3: Bisha – Al Henakiyah Stage 327km, liaison 465km
Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet bounced back from their collision on Monday to take a nail-biting win on stage three and become the youngest ever stage winner in the Ultimate class. It was a stellar performance by both the crew and the technicians at TGR SA who put in an all-nighter to rebuild the wrecked Hilux in time to take the start of the stage on Tuesday morning.
The 19-year-old Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa pair started out in 29th place and had set the seventh best time by waypoint one after 36km in spite of racing hard in the dust. Over the next 100km, he worked his way into second and by the end of the stage Variawa had pipped Gurlein Chicherit and Alex Winocq’s X-Raid Mini JCW by 33 seconds.
“We had a moment yesterday, an unfortunate incident with Giniel, but nonetheless, this is a good comeback”, said Variawa.
Initially, the top seven fastest teams were within the same minute, and the fierce battle continued with the top four, then the top three remaining within the same minute until the bitter end.
Variawa and Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz traded second and third fastest times across the stage with the American youngster finally ending third in his Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux, a minute and 48 seconds off the winning time.
Gregoire de Mevius/Mathieu Baumel brought their X-Raid Mini JCW home in fourth, followed by the diesel-powered Mini of Joao Ferraira/Filipe Palmeiro, the two teammates separated by 80 seconds.
Nasser Al-Attiyah/Edouard Boulanger ended sixth on the day, just over 3½ minutes off the lead. His teammate and nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb rolled at the 12km mark but carried on, stopping again at km 69 but persevered and reached the finishing line 1:03’20’’ after Variawa.
“It wasn’t the kind of day we prefer. We lost an hour and we got the feeling that we were in ‘it’ up to our necks… But it is what it is, we just have to continue. We’ll keep on racing and we’ll see, even if winning the rally is starting to look complicated”, was Loeb’s understated comment at the finish.
Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist was the leading Ford in seventh, having initaially having initially run in the top two over the opening 70 or so kilometers. A puncture halted their charge somewhat.
Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier kept the century Racing flag flying high with eighth overall in the CR-7, five minutes off the pace.
Toyota Gazoo’s Lucas Moraes/Armand Monleon brought their Hilux home in ninth ahead of TGRSA’s Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zietzewitz, another amazing performance considering the condition their car arrived in after the 48-hour stage.
Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy, having started the stage 141st, blasted past dozens of trucks, SSVs and fellow Ultimate rivals to take 11th in the Ultimate class and 50th on the road. “We overtook a hundred vehicles”, he reported at the overnight bivouac.
The Dakar overall leader Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings set a consistent pace but suffered a malfunctioning navigation system early on in the stage and had no way of letting the cars ahead know they were close behind. In spite of finishing 12th and 7½ minutes behind their teammates, they have a 7min 17 second lead over Al-Attiyah in the overall standings.
Yazeed al Rajhi, winner of the 48-Hour Chrono stage, ended 17th overall and dropped to fourth in the overall standings.
On two wheels, Daniel Sanders was not delighted at the finish of the 48 HR Chrono stage despite winning, and for good reason: the Australian knew he would have to open the way today and feared losing time as well as his advantage in the general rankings. This is indeed what happened, bringing a close to his series of three consecutive victories. Skyler Howes has closed in in the general rankings to within 1’57’’ of the official KTM rider and Ross Branch is now just 2’05’’ behind. Sanders and Branch are the only two riders who have not been of the provisional podium since the beginning of the race. Three different brands remain at the forefront: KTM, Honda and Hero.
Overall positions after Day 3: (Provisional)
- H. Latagen/B. Cummings Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux 19:04:53
- N. Al-Attiyah/E. Boulanger Dacia Sandrider +7:17
- M. Ekstrom/E. Bergkvist M-Sport Ford Raptor +9:34
- Y. Al Rajhi/T. Gottschalk Overdrive Toyota Hilux +11:45
- L. Moraes/A. Monleon Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux +19:40
- T. Price/S. Sunderland Overdrive Toyota Hilux +20:17
- M. Serradori/L. Minaudier Century Racing CR-7 +21:15
- M. Guthrie/K. Walch M-Sport Ford Raptor +23:40
- J. Ferreira/F. Palmeiro X-Raid Mini JCW +32:07
- S. Quintero/D. Zenz Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux +35:04
