Sanders loses ground

Daniel Sanders remains in charge of the 2025 Dakar Rally, but his advantage has been halved following navigation issues in the third stage.

Australia’s Sanders survived a tough Stage 3, but could only manage 17th, seeing his perfect record come to an end.

But critically he remains at the top of the standings with his advantage being cut from 12m36s to 6m51s.

However, Sanders revealed bad luck finally struck him with significant navigation dramas taking things out of his hands.

“I started off really well opening in the stones and navigation was perfect until just before the refuelling,” he told SBS.

“Literally when the rain hit was where the tracks disappeared and then they got tricky.

“So there were just a lot of tracks out there and I had to pick the right one and I lost a couple of minutes before the refuel, but that’s fine.

“And then after the refuel I lost signal with the tablet, so I lost my tracking of kilometres and compass heading for your degrees and without this you cannot navigate.

“I had to use other riders and follow them and tag along.

“Unfortunately they got lost during there too and I could not help because I was along for the ride.

“Hopefully we get some time back, but don’t know how to take it and it is out of my control.”

Stage 3 was shortened to 327km due to forecast storms between Bisha and Al Henakiyah.

Lorenzo Santolino topped the Bikes times after 3h44m34s of riding and was 4m clear of Ricky Brabec.

Importantly, Sanders’ nearest rival, American Skyler Howes, was third, just 4m10s away from the leader and 5m45s faster than the KTM leader.

Australian Toby Hederics had his best stage yet, being 22nd overall just under 5m shy of Sanders.

This pushed Hederics to 26th overall, four spots better than the day before.

Andrew Houlihan bounced back from a tough Stage 2 to be 78th, 1h49m off the leader’s pace, which puts him 109th overall.

Toby Price remained in touch with the leaders as Toyota continued its dominance.

Toby Price and Sam Sunderland of Overdrive Racing during the Stage 3 of the Dakar 2025. Image: Kin Marcin / Red Bull Content Pool

Having entered the stage in a strong fourth, Price pushed hard and only lost two spots on the overall leaderboard.

He now sits sixth, just 20m17s away from leader Henk Lategan.

Saood Variawa scored his first stage win at Dakar at the tender age of just 19.

Variawa made a late push to hold off Guerlain Chicherit and win it by 23s.

But most notably WRC legend Sebastien Loeb became the latest big name victim of the rally.

Loeb has been forced to withdraw polling his barrel roll with the FIA deeming his car too damaged to carry on.

Loeb’s Dacia Sandrider flipped over at the start of Stage 3 with bodywork scattered all over the sand.

Stage 4 is a 588km journey from Al Henakiyah to Alula where competitors will take on some volcanic terrain.

Main image: Marcelo Maragni / Red Bull Content Pool

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