San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina - Sebastien Loeb's sensational Dakar Rally debut continued on Tuesday when he topped the podium for the second time in two days with victory in the third stage of the gruelling two-week rally-raid.
France's nine-times World Rally Champion, driving a Peugeot, clocked 2hr 9m39s over 190km between the Argentinian towns of Termas de Rio Hondo and Jujuy to consolidate his place at the top of the overall standings.
Top South African contender and 2009 Dakar winner Giniel de Villiers moved up to second overall in the leading Toyota Gazoo Racing SA V8 Hilux after a gritty drive to fourth on Stage 3.
“We had a slow puncture about 30km from the finish,” explained De Villiers at the end of the stage.
“We decided not to change it and pushed on, but we lost about 25 seconds as a result. The tyre was completely flat about 10km from the end, which kept us quite busy. If not for that, we would have finished third on the stage.”
For Leeroy Poulter in the second works Hilux the stage started with a bang. He was second fastest to the first checkpoint, trailing Loeb by only four seconds. But then the heavens opened in mid-stage and, with an eye to the long game, Poulter eased off as a precaution.
After 190km of racing, he posted the seventh fastest time on the stage, 3min03s behind the stage winner, dropping one position overall, from fifth to sixth.
Defending champion Nasser al-Attiyah of Qatar, drving a Mini, was fifth overall after Stage3, 6m50s adrift of Loeb, and just behind the Mini of Finland's Mikko Hirvonen, Loeb's former World Rally Champiobnship rival who is also making his Daker debut.
“It seems that the times will be very close between the drivers,” said the 41-year-old Loeb, adding that the desert stages would be a real test.
“I pushed hard and I had a good stage with no mistakes. Everything is OK at the moment.”
Loeb, who has been racing in the World Touring Car Championship since effectively retiring from WRC rallying after the last of his nine consecutive world titles in 2012, added: “For the moment, for sure, I'm enjoying it. It has been two good days for me.
“The car is going very well. I have a good feeling with the car. It's performing well so at the moment I'm enjoying it,” said the Frenchman, who spent his illustrious WRC career at the wheel of a Citroen.
“At the moment we are on tracks... so I've got a good feeling on this type of road. But when we go to the desert it will be different, with long and hot stages. That is something that I don't know very well, so we will see.
“We will continue for the moment and I'll try to do my best and we'll see where we are in a few days,” said Loeb.
Colin Matthews in the South African-built Century Racing prototype finished 39th on Stage three, moving him up four places to 35th overall, while Nissan Navara driver Sean Reitz upped his game - after finishing 88th on Stage 2 - to come in 48th on Stage 3 and make up 18 places overall, from 88th to 70th.
MOTORCYCLES
Argentina's Kevin Benavides, on a Honda, won the motorcycle section of the stage, shortened because of bad weather, after the initial winner Joan Barreda Bort was handed a one-minute penalty for speeding.
That bumped the Spanish Honda rider down to fifth on the stage, with Portugal's Paulo Goncalves (Honda) and Frenchman Antoine Meo (KTM) moving up to second and third respectively.
South African KTM riders Kobus Potgieter and Wessel Bosman finished 114th and 121st respectively on Stage 3, dropping Potgieter two places to 114th overall, while Bosman made up two places to 123rd.
It was, however, a fantastic stage for Team Rhide’s Brian Baragwanath. The Yamaha quad rider won Stage 3 by four seconds, after finishing second on Stage 2. He is still in second overall, but has clearly established himself as a strong contender.
His team-mate Ted Barbier also did well, finishing 31st for the day and moving up two places to 38th overall.
AFP