Sanders keeps Dakar bike lead as teen wins car stage

Australia's Daniel Sanders has maintained his lead in the Dakar Rally motorcycle category, despite a disappointing third stage in which he finished 17th.

Having been handicapped by having to open up after winning the second stage "Chucky" finished 14 minutes 49 seconds behind Spanish stage winner Lorenzo Santolino. However, he was then re-credited nearly five minutes for a faulty navigation program, leaving him with a lead of six minutes, 51 seconds.

In the car category, a day of drama was topped by teenaged South African Saood Variawa winning after the morning withdrawal of defending champion Carlos Sainz was followed by nine-times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb emerging unscathed from a spectacular crash.

Sanders was 22nd before the faulty navigation issue was taken into account. The Yarra Valley rider began well on his Red Bull KTM, but the bonuses granted for opening up were eventually eroded over the ride.

Spain's Lorenzo Santolino took the stage, having mostly trailed South Africa's Bradley Cox, whose father Alfie won eight Dakar stages on a bike from 1998-2002.

But Cox took a wrong turn, and was also later penalised for speeding. That meant titleholder Ricky Brabec and American Skyler Howes were promoted to second and third, with Skyler now second overall.

In the cars, double Dakar motorcycle champions Toby Price of Australia and Sam Sunderland of Britain slid from fourth to sixth in their first Dakar on four wheels.

Sebastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin were able to walk away from this crash and, after repairs, continue racing.

That was a better fate than that which befell Loeb, who rolled his Dacia 12km into the stage. Fortunately he and co-driver Fabian Lurquin were unhurt and resumed after making repairs but finished the stage trailing South Africa's overall leader Henk Lategan by an hour and 14 minutes.

Having been sixth overnight, they finished the stage in 16th place.

However, an inspection conducted by the FIA's technical stewards after the stage led to Loeb being forbidden to continue because of damage to his car's roll bar.

Variawa, 19, eclipsed the previous record for youth set last Saturday by 22-year-old American Seth Quintero. Both are competing in the ultimate car category for only the second time.

Quintero ended up third on the stage, while South African, Henk Lategan held on to the overall lead.

"Towards the end, in the last five kilometres, we hit a big rock and got a puncture, but nonetheless it was a really good drive on our side," said Variawa, who is 43rd overall.

Wednesday's fourth stage is a 415km special from Al-Henakiyah to Al Ula.

The two-week rally, regarded as the world's toughest endurance event and now held entirely in Saudi Arabia, ends on January 17.

with AP