DAKAR 2025

Loeb rolls over, leaving Al-Attiyah alone against Ekström and the Toyota

There are no transition stages or moments in which to relax in the Dakar. Today, in a day shortened to 327 kilometres (almost 500 were planned) on the way to Al-Henakiyah, Sebastien Loeb has been able to give up his chances of taking home his first Touareg.

He had barely gone 12 kilometres when, in a broken but fairly fast section, the French star took a poor approach to a barely visible hole, landing with the car out of position and causing it to roll over in spectacular fashion due to the high speed.

The images seemed to foreshadow the final disaster for Loeb, but the nine-time world champion and his co-driver Fabian Lurquin managed to get the car going again with just under 50 minutes over the head, which at the start of the day was marked by Mattias Ekström's Ford. The good thing for the Dacia driver is that from there to the end he didn't lose too much additional time: 1 hour and 3 minutes (he is now 1:14 behind Lategan)

Al-Attiyah is left alone against the Toyotas (image above). MCH Photo

Nasser Al-Attiyah once again completed a clean stage, while seeing his rivals eliminate themselves: "It was a difficult stage, with lots of stones and navigation. I lost time behind three Toyotas, but when I passed them I was able to set a faster pace to make up for it. In the last 100 kilometres I opened the track and it was time to regulate myself."

Al-Attiyah's fifth partial position is not enough to put the Qatari in the lead, as Henk Lategan and his Toyota are keeping up the pace. The South African is 7:17 ahead of the Qatari, 9:34 ahead of Ekström, 11:45 ahead of Al-Rajhi and 19:40 ahead of Moraes. Among the Spaniards, Nani Roma was able to resume his participation in the Dakar after Ford engineers changed the engine of his Raptor (which earned him a penalty of 20 additional hours to the 50 he had yesterday for not completing the stage). The Catalan rode at a good pace, finishing seven minutes behind the leader. Cristina Gutiérrez, for her part, finished 10:28 behind the winner... and that was despite having to stop to give one of her wheels to Loeb and, from then on, having to slow down her pace to avoid a puncture.

Variawa, the youngest winner... As happened in motorcycles, the day had an unexpected winner. In this case the very young Saood Variawa(image above), who gave Toyota its fourth stage victory (Lategan in the prologue, Quintero in stage 1, Baciuska in the 48 hours and now the South African) at just 19 years old, the youngest winner in history in cars. However, the one who seems to be their best bet for the general classification, the Saudi Yazeed Al-Rajhi, today lost more than 10 minutes to Al-Attiyah.

Tomorrow, stage 4 will be contested, the first part of the marathon that will take the drivers to the doors of the rest day the day after tomorrow. It will be 434 kilometres of special between Al-Henakiyah and Al-Ula, with the peculiarity that they will not have the support of the assistance services when completing it. Only the rapid assistance trucks in the race.

-Provisional classification of stage 3 in cars

Dakar 2025:

Saood Variawa (Toyota) 3h 16:52

Guerlain Chicherit (Mini) at 33 s.

Seth Quintero (Toyota) at 1:48

Guillaume de Mevius (Mini) at 1:55

Joao Ferreira (Mini) at 3:15

Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia) at 3:34

Mattias Ekström (Ford) at 3:49

Mathieu Serradori (Century) at 5:00

Lucas Moraes (Toyota) at 6:14

Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) at 6:32

-General car classification, stage 3

Dakar 2025:

Henk Lategan (Toyota) 19h 04:53

Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia) at 7:17

Mattias Ekström (Ford) at 9:34

Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota) 11:45

Lucas Moraes (Toyota) at 19:40

Toby Price (Toyota) at 20:17

Mathieu Serradori (Century) at 21:15

Mitch Guthrie (Ford) at 11:40 p.m.

Joao Ferreira (Mini) at 32:07

Seth Quintero (Toyota) at 35:04

Reporter: Enrique Naranjo