Sébastien Loeb had some momentum going into the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge’s marathon after winning Stage #2 to take the overall lead. Unfortunately, a stout showing by his teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah and a two-minute speeding penalty on Tuesday have dropped him down two places.

Loeb entered Stage #3 with a 41-second advantage over Lucas Moraes and 3:52 on Al-Attiyah. The latter went on to dominate the stage, clearing the field by four minutes; Seth Quintero was the only competition to finish closer than that, though only by 3:59.

Originally, Loeb finished fourth and 4:38 back of Al-Attiyah. While this run would have cost him the overall lead anyway, he would have been P2 and trailing by just only 46 seconds had he not gone 67 kilometers per hour at Waypoint 81, which mandated a 50 km/h speed limit. The penalty sinks him to third and 2:46 back while Moraes moves up to second.

Moraes is 49 seconds behind Al-Attiyah.

Only the first 12 cars—all Ultimate—reached the stage finish. The rest of the stage was canceled due to high wind, so the FIA had to allocate final stage times to everyone else.

Loeb wasn’t the only class leader to lose first place on Tuesday. Yasir Seaidan had a mechanical issue that kept him stalled for half an hour and cost him the top spot in Challenger as he fell to fifth. Further adding insult to injury, Seaidan was given a three-minute false start penalty; it was his second false start after getting one in Stage #1.

With Seaidan’s issues, fellow Saudi driver Dania Akeel now leads the Challenger overall with 4:31 on stage winner Pau Navarro. Nicolás Cavigliasso narrowly lost to Navarro by 48 seconds, but earned himself four bonus points as he continues to scrape together all he can for the championship. Puck Klaassen was third quickest but received 20 hours in penalties because she changed her engine between stages.

While Michael Docherty maintains his Rally2 advantage with another stage win, the leads in the other two FIM classes changed hands. Daniel Sanders struggled to find his pace as the first bike out and finished sixth of the seven remaining RallyGP riders. Tosha Schareina won despite a navigation glitch to retake first with a 1:25 edge on Sanders.

“We had a mission to attack because we started behind the other riders, so I tried to push from the start,” Schareina commented. “Unfortunately until the refueling I had a problem with the tablet, I couldn’t change the notes so I was given some time back. I tried to push again and I’m happy to have won the stage.”

Marek Łój, racing a backup Yamaha Raptor that he borrowed from Rafał Sonik, finished third and with a shredded rear tire to take the overall lead in Quad. Antanas Kanopkinas went into Tuesday with 3:33 on Łój but now trails by 9:19 after running out of fuel. Rally2 rider Justin Gerlach stopped to provide fuel, forcing him to race more conservatively. Still, Kanopkinas feels the cut tire for Łój could leave him in a precarious spot on Wednesday as marathon rules prevent him from changing it overnight.

Kanopkinas’ teammate Gaëtan Martinez also ran out of fuel, and in perhaps the most ironic location possible.

“The funny part is that it happened just 300 meters before the refueling zone,” Martinez remarked. “I lost some time, but nothing too serious.

“In the second part of the stage, we faced massive dunes again—some were so steep I couldn’t climb them on the first try. Standing on top of the biggest dunes, you feel like you’re on top of the world—you can see the entire desert stretching around you.”

Mattias Ekström retired from the race prior to the stage because of an illness he had been battling since Monday. Marek Goczał bowed out after hurting his back by landing on a cut dune. Alex McInnes’ frustrating ADDC ended with the axle snapping at KM 110; the axle and swingarm bolt had given him fits on Tuesday that resulted in chassis damage.

“Tough day for me. Went down 40 kilometers in, took the handlebars right to the rib cage,” Carl Searles said about his Tuesday. He finished 29th in Rally2, two spots ahead of his brother Craig. “All good though, thanks to Craig for dragging me through the day.”

Stage #3 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia Sandriders	3:15:28
Challenger	14	304	Pau Navarro	BR Motorsport	3:32:37
SSV	16	415	Jeremías González Ferioli*	Can-Am Factory Team	3:34:14

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	68	Tosha Schareina	Monster Energy Honda HRC	3:09:58
Rally2	8	22	Michael Docherty	SRG Motorsports	3:17:37
Quad	17	174	Abdulaziz Ahli	Abu Dhabi Team	4:18:12

Leaders after Stage #3

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia Sandriders	9:27:30
Challenger	12	310	Dania Akeel	BBR Motorsport	10:13:47
SSV	15	415	Jeremías González Ferioli*	Can-Am Factory Team	10:16:55

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	68	Tosha Schareina	Monster Energy Honda HRC	9:21:43
Rally2	8	22	Michael Docherty	SRG Motorsports	9:39:17
Quad	17	115	Marek Łój	Poland National Team	12:55:34

Featured image credit: Matteo Gebbia / Edophoto