Mistakes cost dear in third stage of Dakar Rally

Jan 4, 2012, 14:35 GMT

San Juan, Argentina - French motorbiker Cyril Despres and Polish driver Krzysztof Holowczyc took the Dakar Rally overall standings by storm Tuesday, as they made the most of mistakes by the race leaders.

Despres won the third motorbike stage, after previous race leader Marc Coma of Spain made a navigation mistake and lost 13 minutes, four seconds.

'Endurance alone is not sufficient without a little attention to detail,' the official stage report noted.

Despres now leads the overall bike standings, with a 10:12 lead over defending champion Coma. The two men have won every edition of the Dakar Rally since 2005.

'When you make a mistake, you shouldn't be surprised that the gaps open up. That's racing for you. Yesterday was my day, but today definitely wasn't,' Coma said.

Despres noted that he is 'never happy about other people's setbacks.'

Spain's Nani Roma won the car section of the third stage of the race, with a 1:09 lead over Holowczyc.

Stephane Peterhansel of France, who has won the Dakar Rally a record nine times, lost 5:14 to the Pole and dropped out of the top spot in the overall standings. Peterhansel initially led the stage standings but punctured twice and lost a lot of ground.

'It was a good stage, for sure, a good stage without technical problems,' said Holowczyc, racing in a Mini.

In the general standings, the Pole has a lead of 54 seconds over Robby Gordon, of the United States, and of 1:40 over South African Giniel de Villiers, winner of the 2009 Dakar Rally. Peterhansel slipped back to fifth place overall, with a 2:41 delay.

The third stage of the prestigious offroad race took participants from San Rafael to San Juan, Argentina, over a course of more than 500 kilometres, with 270 kilometres for the bikes and 208 kilometres for cars in a timed special.

On Wednesday, the race is to go from San Juan to Chilecito, still in Argentina, over a total of 714 kilometres with a 326-kilometre timed special.

The Dakar Rally is being held for the fourth straight year in South America. The endurance race took place in Africa from 1979-2007. It was moved to Argentina and Chile after fears of terrorist attacks in Mauritania led to a cancellation of the annual event in 2008.

Over 14 stages ending January 15 in Lima, Peru, 469 vehicles - cars, motorbikes, quads and trucks - started out to cover more than 8,000 kilometres, including more than 4,000 kilometres of timed specials.

This year, Peru will become the 27th country to host the Dakar rally in the race's more than three-decade history.

Argentina is to host five stages but will probably be mostly a springboard for further action.

In Chile, in five stages, the race is to wind up through the Andes and the challenging Atacama Desert. Finally, in Peru, participants are to meet sand dunes that organizers bill as a major attraction.