Price, Al-Attiyah Add to Stage Win Totals at Dakar; Howes Takes Over Motorcycle Lead

For the second time in three stages, both Nasser Al-Attiyah and Toby Price can call themselves stage winners at the 2021 Dakar Rally after the 403-kilometer loop to and from Wadi Ad-Dawasir. The pair of multi-time Dakar winners paced the car and motorcycle classes

Price’s stage win allowed him to bounce back to fourth overall after a disappointing 15^th place yesterday, but American Skyler Howes’ consistency has him in the overall lead on the bikes. A fourth place finish in the dunes today has Howes up by 33 seconds on Argentina’s Kevin Benavides, with France’s Xavier de Soultrait in third. Defending Dakar winner and fellow American Ricky Brabec slid to 13^th in the overall classification after a disappointing 25^th place in today’s loop.

Al-Attiyah’s time of 3:17:39 allowed him to eat into the overall lead of Stephane Peterhansel, as the duo have established themselves as the current front-runners in the car division. Peterhansel’s Mini JCW X-Raid teammate Carlos Sainz, previously his closest challenger, slid back to fourth overall thanks to a navigation error that led to a 21^st place result on stage. While no lead in the Dakar is ever truly safe, Peterhansel’s advantage is just over five minutes on Al-Attiyah, with Mathieu Serradori 26 minutes adrift in third.

In its first year separate from the SSVs, the T3 lightweight prototype class is producing a compelling fight of its own among Red Bull-backed teammates. Seth Quintero won his second stage in a row ahead of teammates Mitch Guthrie Jr. and Cristina Gutierrez Herrero earlier today, although Gutierrez Herrero continues to lead the class by more than eight minutes.

Chaleco Lopez continues to control the T4 SSV division, winning today’s stage to continue leading the overall event, but American Austin Jones is fighting back after losing ground on Monday. The Monster Energy Can-Am driver finished second on stage today to climb back to third overall, just over seven minutes behind Lopez for the class lead but only 1:05 back of teammate Aron Domzala for second.

On the quads, Nicolas Cavigliasso scored his first stage win of the year, while Giovanni Enrico took over the event lead, with four racers separated by just eight minutes. American Pablo Copetti is the last of the four, backing up yesterday’s stage victory with a fifth place result today. Siarhei Viazovich took today’s truck stage victory to maintain second overall in that class, but Dmitry Sotnikov continues to dominate with a 17-minute lead. Finally, Marc Douton remains in complete control of the Dakar Classic, once again besting the field with just 77 points on the day and a 506-point advantage over Juan Donatiu in the standings.

Tomorrow’s stage departs Wadi Ad-Dawasir for Riyadh, with 337 kilometers of special stages bookended by 476 kilometers of transit. As always, coverage of the event can be seen in the US on the NBC Sports Network, with a full hour recapping the previous two days of action beginning at 6PM ET/3PM PT.

2021 Dakar Rally Stage 3 Winners

• Motorcycle: Toby Price, 3:33:23
• Quad: Nicolas Cavigliasso, 4:25:49
• Car: Nasser Al-Attiyah, 3:17:39
• Lightweight Prototype: Seth Quintero, 4:22:37
• SSV: Chaleco Lopez, 4:20:57
• Truck: Siarhei Viazovich, 3:45:14
• Classic: Marc Douton, 77 points

2021 Dakar Rally Overall Rankings