The 2025 Dakar Rally is barely a quarter in, and contenders have been dropping like flies. Sébastien Loeb was the latest victim on Tuesday after his Dacia hit a rut, hooked sideways, and rolled twice back on his wheels.

Cristina Gutiérrez, who was out of contention after her steering issue in the Chrono Stage, stopped to provide parts to her teammate. This allowed Loeb to continue to the finish, but the FIA ruled him as out of the race due to the substantial damage to his roll cage. A similar fate befell defending winner Carlos Sainz the day before, who also flipped and reached the finish with a wounded Ford Raptor but could not proceed on FIA orders.

Unlike Sainz, Loeb’s retirement was enforced by a mandated disqualification under Article 283-1 of the FIA’s International Sporting Code Appendix J, which states, “A vehicle, the construction of which is deemed to be dangerous, may be excluded by the Stewards of the competition.”

While Dacia agreed on the roll cage’s damage, the team’s representatives argued the bent piece “does not have a significant role on the strength of the structure’ and thus does not impact the car’s safety. The stewards ultimately deferred to the FIA Technical Delegate, who upheld the rule.

With Loeb’s exit and Gutiérrez’s issues, Nasser Al-Attiyah remains the only Dacia in contention. After finishing Stage #3 in sixth, he currently sits second and 7:17 back of leader Henk Lategan.

Lategan’s lead coupled with Saood Variawa scoring the stage win capped off a strong outing for Toyota Gazoo Racing South America. It was the first stage victory for the latter.

Daniel Sanders, who leads the bikes after winning the Prologue and first two stages, saw his streak snap when he finished 13th in RallyGP. Besides the disadvantages of starting first, Sanders was hamstrung by continued issues with his navigation system, especially after refueling. This allowed Skyler Howes to slice in half his deficit on Sanders in the overall from 12:36 to 6:51.

It was not all disappointment for Red Bull KTM, however, as Edgar Canet won in Rally2.

With Sanders so far back, RallyGP newcomer Bradley Cox led much of the day before Lorenzo Santolino took the lead and eventually the win for Sherco. Previous stage winners for the Italian brand include David Casteu (2010 Stage #1), Joan Pederero (2014 Stage #4 and 2017 Stage #1), Alain Duclois (2014 Stage #6), and Michaël Metge (2019 Stage #9).

“Today’s stage was quite technical, with lots of stones and rocks from the very beginning up to kilometer 100,” said Santolino. “I pushed hard, taking it to the limit, while staying extremely focused on navigation. I managed to catch up to the leader, who started five minutes ahead of me, in the fast section. We rode together, and I was able to maintain the lead.

“Winning a stage is simply incredible, really hard to believe. The stage alternated between very fast zones and more technical sections with demanding navigation over the final 150 kilometers. Despite the risks I took, it was absolutely worth it.”

Cox initially finished second for bikes but was relegated to 11th after receiving six minutes in speeding penalties.

Coming off what was frankly a disastrous Chrono Stage, Century Racing’s difficult week continued as Brian Baragwanath lost power steering for the third day in a row; as a precaution, the team replaced third and fourth gears on his gearbox ahead of Stage #4. Marcelo Gastaldi had to complete the stage in two-wheel drive after hitting an object in the ground that took out his rear driveshaft. William Battershill also had a broken rear caliper.

Dave Klaassen retired from the stage after the wishbone in his Red-Lined REVO+’s suspension broke along with the bracket at KM 43, which he surmised was due to the stress placed on the metal in the Chrono. A service truck came to provide help, but its generator was unable to relay power to the welding machine to fix the part and forced them to try with a gas-based welder. Upon fixing it enough, Klaassen tried to gently drive the car before it broke again; with no welder and being “nothing of civilization in the surrounding of 100 km,” he called it a day. Still, he plans to continue on Wednesday.

Simon Vitse’s MD Optimus also had a gearbox failure that forced him to drop out, while Martin Prokop had a more dramatic incident when a right rear wheel bearing came off and his Ford briefly caught fire. Florent Vayssade’s Polaris also technically retired after finishing 30 minutes beyond the time limit, set back by a late mechanical issue. Even the trucks weren’t safe as Maurik van den Heuvel’s International Scania had some bolts detach from the cooling fan connected to the engine just ten kilometers after starting, forcing his team to spend one and a half hours fixing it.

Amid Vayssade’s problems, his Polaris teammates Brock Heger and Xavier de Soultrait tried to fill the void but were unable to catch the Can-Am Maverick R of Francisco López Contardo, who scored the first SSV stage win of the race for his manufacturer.

Mathieu Dovèze had a “slow motion” crash that caused his bike’s navigation tower to snap off. He improvised some cabling to keep it together to little success, ending his stage.

Stage #3 was shortened from 496 kilometers to 327 km in timed sections due to stormy weather.

Stage #3 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	218	Saood Variawa	Toyota Gazoo Racing South africa	3:16:52
Challenger	29	300	Yasir Seaidan	BBR Motorsport	3:39:56
SSV	38	404	Francisco López Contardo*	Can-Am Factory Team	3:46:37
Stock	109	500	Akira Miura*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	4:46:51
Truck	22	601	Aleš Loprais*	InstaTrade Loprais Team De Rooy FPT	3:36:21

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	15	Lorenzo Santolino*	Sherco Rally Factory Team	3:44:34
Rally2	8	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	3:50:03

Other

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Points
Dakar Classic	700	Carlos Santaolalla	Factory Tub	45
Mission 1000	1040	Jordi Juvanteny	KH-7 Ecovergy Team	15

Leaders after Stage #3

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	211	Henk Lategan	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	19:04:53
Challenger	17	301	Nicolás Cavigliasso	BBR Motorsport	20:24:43
SSV	22	400	Xavier de Soultrait*	Sébastien Loeb Racing	20:48:16
Stock	108	501	Ronald Basso*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	30:02:39
Truck	27	600	Martin Macík Jr.*	MM Technology	21:06:10

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	20:05:00
Rally2	11	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	20:54:53

Other

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Points
Dakar Classic	701	Lorenzo Traglio	Tecnosport	241
Mission 1000	1040	Jordi Juvanteny	KH-7 Ecovergy Team	80

Featured image credit: DPPI / Red Bull Content Pool