Guthrie moves to the fore with victory on Day 3 of the Dakar Rally

After Seth Quintero triumphed on the second stage of the Dakar Rally on Monday, it was the turn of another American, Mitch Guthrie, to taste victory on the third day of the rally in Saudi Arabia.

With his win on the 421 km third stage – which like Monday’s run, also ended in Al-Ula – Ford Raptor T1+ driver Guthrie also vaulted to the top of the overall standings.

“That’s my first stage win in the Ultimate class,” said Guthrie. “I really don’t know what to say. I actually wasn’t expecting it, we just had a really clean day. We started at the back and Kellon killed it with the navigation.

“There were a lot of tricky spots, but we had no flat tyres. The car was great so we just kept moving all day, really. If it holds up, it’s the best day ever”.

Martin Prokop finished second in the stage and also moved to second overall as the only non Ford driver in the top five, 26 seconds behind Guthrie and ahead of Mattias Ekstrom, Carlos Sainz, and Nani Roma.

After the brand dominated the second day, Guy Botterill was the highest-ranking Toyota in third in the stage ahead of Dacia pair Lucas Moraes and Cristina Gutierrez, with Roma, Sainz, Mathieu Serradori (Century Racing Factory Team), Ekstrom, and Denis Krotov (M-Sport) rounding out the top-10.

Nasser Al-Attiyah started the day in the lead of the rally but slipped to 10th by the end of the day following two pictures which left him finishing 19th in the stage.

“Today was very tricky,” he said. “We had two punctures and it really wasn’t easy. We took it easy on the last one hundred kilometres because we just needed to survive and finish the stage.

“Today and yesterday, we just need to survive. But I’m quite happy, we didn’t lose too much time. Tomorrow will be a good day”.

In the Stock class, Defender were once again the team to beat, with Stephane Peterhansel leading teammates Rokas Baciuska and Sara Price. Baciuska holds the overall class lead ahead of Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body's Ronald Basso.

Brock Heger won the stage and took the rally lead in the SSV class ahead of Monday pacesetter Concalo Guerreiro, while Daniel Sanders continued to lead the bikes.