Dakar Day 3: Giniel still up front

CHILECITO, Argentina - Argentine Orlando Terranova claimed his second stage win of the Dakar Rally on Tuesday to move into third overall in the standings behind Mini team mate Nasser al-Attiyah.

Qatari al-Attiyah, 2011 champion, was fifth in the day's 542km Stage 3 which included 284km of specials.

South Africa's Giniel de Villiers, driving a South African- built Toyota Hilux, claimed his third consecutive second place ahead of another Toyota driven by Saudi Arabia's Alrahji Zayed.

SURPRISE FROM WALKNER

Spaniard Carlos Sainz, winner in 2010, finished fourth at 4min06, which moves him up to fourth in the overall standings, while fellow Peugeot veteran Stephane Peterhansel was seventh, nine minutes off the pace, to sit overall 16th at 1hr12.

Here’s a more in-depth report on the day… starting, for a change, with the bikes.

Being a debutant does not necessarily mean being slow. In any case, KTM’s Matthias Walkner gave a fine demonstration of speed to pick up his first stage victory on the Dakar today.

More importantly, he gained back a whole minute on Joan Barreda who did not tempt fate and instead made sure of a solid third to consolidate his leadership in the general standings.In the car category, Orlando Terranova enjoyed his second success in two days.

After finishing eighth on his very first special on the Dakar, then sixth on the longest special of 2015 between Villa Carlos Paz and San Juan on Monday (Jan 5), Walkner decided to take the quickest route to his first Dakar stage victory.

The Austrian three times MX1-MX3 World champion was in the leading trio at CP2 before going into overdrive, leaving the discipline’s specialists in his wake and writing the first entry on his roll of honour for the King of all Rallies at the finish in Chilecito.

This performance puts him definitively among the riders to watch – along with Marc Coma who’s being closely watched by all his rivals... After losing more than 10 minutes on Monday the Dakar title-holder staged a comeback to cross the line only 40sec behind Walkner.

Toby Price finished fourth on the stage to confirm the rookie’s form, ahead of Barreda’s nearest rival in the general standings, Paulo Goncalves.

Alain Duclos put in a fine performance at the end of the stage to put his Sherco in sixth while the rest of the French contingent is struggling, in particular the16th and 21st places of the Yamahas being ridden by Michael Metge and Olivier Pain.

Laia Sanz, the leading lady, enjoyed a noteworthy performance, finishing 17th on Tuesday’s stage.

THE QUADS

A regular occupant of a place of honour, Lucas Bonetto, accomplished his finest stage on a quad, having started 15^thon Tuesday morning.  

The Argentinean won in front of his home crowd thanks to a dazzling end to the special after trailing Sebastian Halpern at CP2 by three minutes before beating him by 58sec at the line, 2min14 behind the winner, Rafal Sonik, who took advantage of the mishaps suffered by Ignacio Casale to open up a lead in the general standings.

THE CARS (again, different angle)

After crashing at the end of the special on Monday, Mini driver Orlando Terranova had no intention of leaving his team mate Nasser al-Attiyah to lead the rally.

Argentinean Terranova, who has good knowledge of the tracks in his region, produced a sterling effort in the second part of the special after having reached CP1 with a time close to those of South Africa’s Giniel de Villiers and al-Attiyah.

In the end, he clawed back almost two minutes on the Toyota’s De Villiers and more than four minutes on Qatari al-Attiyah, the general standings leader.

This battle was joined by Alrajhi Yazeed, racing in his first Dakar and running a very impressive fifth in the general standings.

As for the Peugeot team, Carlos Sainz seems to be getting the hang of the new car and improving performance with the day’s fourth place, four minutes behind the day’s winner, even if the Spaniard is still far from being in an ideal position to battle for victory in Buenos Aires.

He’s trailing al-Attiyah by almost 20 minutes in the general standings.

Stéphane Peterhansel is also climbing back up the standings, even if the Frenchman did lose almost 10 minutes to Terranova on Tuesday while his former team mate Nani Roma finally put his mishaps behind him with sixth place this Tuesday evening in Chilecito.Third in the general standings on Tuesday morning, Toyota’s Bernhard Ten Brinke lost 30 minutes and dropped to eighth.

THE TRUCKS

Sixth on the first stage then third on the second, Airat Mardeev has continued his progression with a first stage victory on the Dakar 2015, enabling him to take the lead in the general standings.

The Kamaz driver managed to open up a gap of almost two minutes over a second Kamaz driven by Andrey Karginov, winner in 2014, and a gap of 4min30 over the ever-consistent Gerard de Rooy.  

In the general standings, Mardeev now has a lead of eight minutes over his main rivals.

Stay with Wheels24 for daily coverage of the 2015 Dakar Rally.

Results after Stage 3 of the 2015 Dakar Rally on January 6 from San Juan to Chilecito in Argentina:

Auto

1 Orlando Terranova/Bernardo Graue (ARG/ARG/Mini) 2hr57min28
2 Giniel De Villiers/Dirk Von Zitzewitz (RSA/GER/Toyota) +1min54
3 Yazeed Alrajhi/Timo Gttschalk (KSA/GER/Toyota) +2min52
4 Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (ESP/ESP/Peugeot) +4min06
5 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Matthieu Baumel (QAT/FRA/Mini) +4min18
6 Nani Roma/Michel Prin (ESP/FRA/Mini) +5min58
7 Stephane Peterhansel/Jean Paul Cottret (FRA/FRA/Peugeot) + 9min26
8 Erik Van Loon/Wouter Rosegaar (NED/NED/Mini) +11min57
9 Ronan Chabot/Gilles Pillot (FRA/FRA/Smg) +15min49
10 Christian Lavieille/Pascal Maimon (FRA/FRA/Toyota) +16min28.

Overall standings

1 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Matthieu Baumel (QAT/FRA/Mini) 9hr21min26 (penality: 2:00)
2 Giniel De Villiers/Dirk Von Zitzewitz (RSA/GER/Toyota) +5min18
3 Orlando Terranova/Bernardo Graue (ARG/ARG/Mini) +18min05
4 Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (ESP/ESP/Peugeot) +19min32
5 Yazeed Alrajhi/Timo Gttschalk (KSA/GER/Toyota) +20min08
6 Krzysztof Holowczyc/Xavier Panseri (POL/FRA/Mini) +25min24
7 Erik Van Loon/Wouter Rosegaar (NED/NED/Mini) +27min43
8 Bernhard Ten Brinke/Tom Colsoul (NED/BEL/Toyota) +36min22
9 Carlos Sousa/Paulo Fiuza (POR/POR/Mitsubishi) +41min52
10 Christian Lavieille/Pascal Maimon (FRA/FRA/Toyota) +43min38.

Motorcycles

1 Matthias Walkner (AUT/KTM) 2hr34min28
2 Marc Coma (ESP/KTM) 40sec
3 Joan Barreda Bort (ESP/Honda) +1min53
4 Toby Price (AUS/KTM +2min45
5 Paulo Goncalves (POR/Honda) +2min49
6 Alain Duclos (FRA/Sherco Tvs) +3min11
7 Ruben Faria (POR/KTM) +3min26
8 Jeremias Israel Esquerre (CHI/Honda) +4min02
9 Jordi Viladoms (ESP/KTM) +4min36
10 Juan Pedrero Garcia (ESP/Yamaha) +5min21.

Overall standings
1 Joan Barreda Bort (ESP/Honda) 9hr 43min 05sec
2 Paulo Goncalves (POR/Honda) +5min33
3 Matthias Walkner (AUT/KTM) +10min33
4 Marc Coma (ESP/KTM) +10min50
5 Ruben Faria (POR/KTM) +12min10
6 Toby Price (AUS/Ktm) +12min24
7 Jordi Viladoms (ESP/KTM) +14min07
8 Jeremias Israel Esquerre (CHI/Honda) +18min33
9 Helder Rodrigues (POR/Honda) +18min34
10 Juan Pedrero Garcia (ESP/Yamaha) +23min02