Ford dominant as Mitch Guthrie strikes into general lead

Mitch Guthrie led a Ford 1-2 within the third stage of the Dakar Rally to grab the general lead from Dacia rival Nasser Al-Attiyah.

After a subdued exhibiting on Monday during which none of its entries completed inside the highest 10, Ford emerged as the category of the sector in Tuesday’s 421km take a look at round Al-Ula with the Raptors main all through.

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom set the early tempo to claim his standing as Ford’s benchmark, solely briefly shedding his benefit on the fourth checkpoint to team-mate Nani Roma.

Guthrie, in the meantime, made a low-key begin to proceedings and sat exterior the highest 10 early on, shedding nearly two minutes to the leaders. However come the midway level, he had closed the hole to Ekstrom to simply 16 seconds and he overtook him for the lead 303km into the stage.

Because the Swede dropped greater than seven minutes within the ultimate 100km, Guthrie consolidated his place, scoring his maiden stage win within the Final class by 2m27s. The late shuffling in place noticed MD Sport driver Martin Prokop bounce from fifth to second on the end, finishing a Ford 1-2 in his customer-run Raptor.

Toyota’s combined type within the 2026 Dakar continued in Stage 3. After securing a landmark 1-2-3-4-5 lockout on Monday, a lot of the Japanese producer’s line-up was by no means within the reckoning round Al-Ula. The one exception was Man Botterill, who leapt to 3rd late on aboard his manufacturing unit Hilux, 5m53s behind the leaders.

With Dacia’s star drivers Al-Attiyah and Sebastien Loeb shedding a heap of time, Lucas Moraes led the way in which for the Renault Group model, setting the fourth-fastest time of the day. The 2022 Excessive E champion Cristina Gutierrez backed up Moraes’ efficiency in fifth, having run as excessive as second throughout the day.

Roma completed in sixth after briefly main the stage a 3rd of the way in which by means of, whereas Carlos Sainz Sr was labeled seventh following one other stable however unspectacular day.

Matthieu Serradori impressed aboard his Audi-powered Century CR7, ending up only a second adrift of Sainz, whereas Ekstrom wound up ninth after a troublesome finish to the stage. M-Sport’s Denis Krotov made it six Ford entries inside the highest 10.

Toyota’s manufacturing unit World Rally-Raid Championship crew notably struggled, with Stage 2 winner Seth Quintero shedding a heap of time after stopping 275km into the stage as a result of mechanical points, leaving Henk Lategan because the crew’s highest-placed driver in nineteenth.

Dacia’s star duo Al-Attiyah and Loeb additionally endured a nightmare third stage, each conceding greater than 20 minutes to the leaders after regularly haemorrhaging time all through the day. This has allowed Guthrie to leap from 14th within the standings to take the general lead, 26s forward of a constant Prokop on the shopper Ford.

The duo are adopted by Ekstrom, Sainz and Roma in that order, finishing a 1-2-3-4-5 for Ford within the common classification heading into the two-part marathon stage on Wednesday.

Dacia’s Moraes is now the lead non-Ford driver in sixth forward of team-mate Gutierrez, with Serradori grabbing eighth for Century. The highest 10 is accomplished by Saood Variawa and Al-Attiyah, with their respective team-mates Lategan and Loeb in eleventh and twelfth respectively.

Dakar Rally – General outcomes after Stage 3:

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– The Motorsport.com Staff