Dakar 2024 - Stage 3 | All the results

January 8 ^th 2024 - 14:23 [GMT + 3]

RALLY GP | Kevin Benavides is awarded victory

Pablo Quintanilla, initially announced as the stage winner ahead of Barreda and Kevin Benavides, has in the end not picked up his 7th stage victory. The Chilean, but also Barreda, Brabec and Branch, among others, have received penalties for speeding on the special. As a result, Kevin Benavides is victorious ahead of Ricky Brabec and Adrien Van Beveren. The Argentinean thus opens his account for stage wins on this Dakar, bring his total to 8, equal to Sam Sunderland as well as KTM legend Alfie Cox, whose son Bradley also got caught by the speed gun in the Rally 2 class. In the general rankings, Branch still leads, 3’11’’ ahead of Cornejo and 5’08’’ in front of Brabec.

RALLY 2 | Dumontier wins in the Rally 2 class

Having taken the lead on the special after 249 km, Romain Dumontier withstood the attempts of Jacub Argubright, Bradley Cox and then Toni Mulec to dethrone him and has ridden to victory. Argubright was looking well set to finish on the podium, but the American has ground to a halt after 374 km due to a mechanical problem with his Honda. Dumontier now has a lead of almost 26’ in the general rankings over Cox.

ULTIMATE | Moraes wins his first stage

Lucas Moraes has achieved the best time at the finishing line of the special, beating Mattias Ekström by 9’’. After third place on his first Dakar last year, the Brazilian has picked up his first stage win today. Yazeed Al Rajhi completes the day’s podium, 1’09’’ behind the winner to move into the lead in the general rankings, 29’’ ahead of Carlos Sainz.

QUADS | Giroud gets back to winning ways

Alexandre Giroud has reached the finishing line with the best time, but only 18’’ ahead of Manuel Andújar. This is the Frenchman’s 11th victory on the Dakar and he is only one stage win behind Nicolás Cavigliasso, the third most victorious rider in the category behind Ignacio Casale (23) and Marcos Patronelli (18). In the general rankings, Giroud has started to regain time, reducing the gap with new leader Juraj Varga to 22'13’’.

ULTIMATE | Guthrie wins

Mitch Guthrie has triumphed in the Challenger class to give himself a new lease of life in the general rankings. The Taurus Factory Team driver has beat Eryk Goczał by 1’09’’ to bring a series of three consecutive victories to a close. However, the Polish driver still leads the general rankings by 15 minutes ahead of his father Marek. Although in second position on the evening of stage 2, Michal, Eryk’s uncle, lost time on the last part of the special, with a deficit of more than 1 hour and 30 minutes after 404 km. As a result, the likelihood of a Goczał 1-2-3 at the end of the rally is fading.

TRUCK | Victory for Loprais

Aleš Loprais has reached the finishing line on the special with the best time to open his stage win account on this Dakar. The Czech driver has taken advantage of the time lost by Janus van Kasteren, who was untouchable on the first few states, to take the lead and triumph today. Loprais has also taken command of the general rankings, with a lead of 3’15’’ over van Kasteren.

SSV | Seaidan wins at home

Yasir Seaidan has been the quickest to reach the finishing line of the special. As a result, the Saudi has won stage 3 to Al Salamiya by more than 4 minutes ahead of João Ferreira, who snatched second place from Gerard Farrés by a little less than 1’20’’. The Spaniard still commands the general rankings with a lead of almost a quarter of an hour over Sara Price.