Tomas Mickus initially bagged Stage 3 of Rallye Breslau for SSVs. Unfortunately, he got railed by a penalty and Tuesday’s winner Paul Spierings notched his second in a row instead.

The third leg, nicknamed “El Grande Hannibal”, was the longest as it took the rally from Żagań to Drawsko Pomorskie. Besides deep holes and tough terrain, the stage required everyone to drive on public roads and through a double railway crossing.

Since the crossing does not have any barriers, organizers required all competitors to stop before going past with the “highest level of attention.”

Unfortunately, some didn’t seem to get the memo. Mickus and CC Truck Small Prologue winner Pablo Calabria received five-minute penalties for not stopping. While it did not impact Calabria’s stage finish as he was too far back to catch Hans van der Sanden for second, Mickus had only beaten Spierings by 4:25.38. Thus, the infraction dropped him to second while promoting Spierings to the stage victory.

Spierings officially edged out Mickus by 35 seconds. Had another minute been tacked on, Mickus would have dropped another spot to Jeroen Van Kasteren.

Of course, it wasn’t all easy for Spierings. Besides having to find the route himself with no tracks in front since he started first, the navigation tablet on his Taurus glitched out multiple times (an issue that plagued many on Tuesday because of anti-drone training). Still, a second straight stage win gets him back into the battle for the SSV overall, where the top four are separated by just four minutes.

“We really drove a great stage,” said Spierings. “The Taurus buggy performed flawlessly and Jan-Pieter (van der Stelt) was razor-sharp again. Navigation was tight, and the handling felt just like it should.

“We’re making real progress and learning more about the car every day. The setup we’re using now is working brilliantly and we feel it during the stages.”

Spierings is fourth overall while Arūnas Simanavičius leads Van Kasteren by just 33 seconds.

The top four in Enduro were the only riders to break the two-hour barrier, all separated by just 42 seconds. Three of them wer Lithuanians, led by Edvard Sokolovskij who beat Modestas Siliunas by just nine seconds. Dutchman Berend de Ruiter was third, 26 seconds back, and overall leader Dovydas Karkas ranked fourth with 42 seconds behind Sokolovskij.

Jim Marsden won Extreme Car Limited in a rebound from a slow start plagued by a rash of issues with the power distribution module.

Stage 3 winners

Cross-Country

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Total Time
ATV	3	Adam Krysiak	Polaris Polska Racing Team	2:03:02.79
Car Limited	202	Robbert van Lutterveld	Saris 4×4 Rally Team	2:38:50.23
Car Open	210	Herman Jasper	Dutch Off Road Rally Team	1:58:17.73
Enduro	91	Edvard Sokolovskij	AG Dakar School	1:59:03.44
SSV	434	Paul Spierings	Rebellion Spierings	1:48:52.77
Truck Big	601	William Van Groningen	Dust Warriors	2:09:37.25
Truck Small	605	Jürgen Hellgeth	Hellgeth Engineering	2:56:53.17

Extreme

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Total Time
Car Limited	317	Jim Marsden	Gigglepin Racing	2:04:14.57
Car Open	308	Serge Lestrade	Lestrade	2:51:01.15
Truck Big	664	Heiko Seidel	SOK-Hornet	2:47:02.22
Truck Small	658	Felix Muellenheim	Bronco Racing	2:18:36.45

Featured image credit: Boris Barbolov / RBI Media