Stephane Peterhansel has moved to the top of the 2013 Dakar Rally leaderboard as Carlos Sainz faced trouble on the third day of competition.
Sainz, who was given back the Dakar lead yesterday from Peterhansel after organizers found out that a satellite issue had cost him time, lost half an hour due to an electrical problem on his buggy.
Peterhansel now leads Nasser Al-Attiyah by 6 minutes and 33 seconds; the Qatari went quickest of all in stage three and now holds second place ahead of Luico Alvarez‘s Toyota. His Red Bull Buggy teammate Carlos Sainz dropped to fifth overall.
Krzysztof Holowczyc, a potential winner, crashed out less than 48 kilometers into the stage. The Pole suffered from back and rib injuries and had to be airlifted to safety.
Overall results after stage three:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Stephane Peterhansel X-raid Mini 5h34m26s 2. Nasser Al-Attiyah Red Bull Buggy + 6m33s 3. Lucio Alvarez Overdrive Toyota + 18m11s 4. Leonid Novitskiy X-raid Mini + 21m10s 5. Carlos Sainz Red Bull Buggy + 21m16s 6. Giniel de Villiers Imperial Toyota + 30m22s 7. Nani Roma X-raid Mini + 32m56s 8. Orlando Terranova X-raid BMW + 35m13s 9. Bernard Errandonea SMG Buggy + 38m32s 10. Ronan Chabot SMG Buggy + 39m40s