Opening the longest special (409 km) of the Desafío Ruta 40 YPF in San Rafael? "An opportunity for Daniels Sanders' rivals to haul themselves back into contention… or for him to pull another ace out of his sleeve", as we summed it up yesterday. B turned out to be the right answer. Sanders gave a masterclass in navigation on the Argentinian tracks (see Stat of the day) and hoovered up all the bonuses on offer for the first rider on the road to bag stage 3 by 58 seconds over his teammate Luciano Benavides and the Honda factory rider Tosha Schareina (+2′37″). Red Bull KTM Factory Racing continue to hog the stage wins in this edition. As for Sanders himself, he now sits atop a formidable lead of 13′38″ over Schareina and 15′58″ over Benavides, who bumped Ricky Brabec (+19′14″) from the podium.
As usual, Monster Energy Honda HRC got a consolation prize in Rally2, this time thanks to Martim Ventura, although Toni Mulec (+55″) came tantalisingly close to netting BAS World KTM the win. Ventura has jockeyed back into the overall lead, with his teammates Bruno Crivilin (+2′14″) and Preston Campbell (+7′48″) also on the provisional podium. Murun Purevdorj (Xraids Experience) remained untouchable in Rally3, while Antanas Kanopkinas (CFMoto Thunder) made it back-to-back victories in the quad competition.
Three of the main FIA contenders were unable to complete the longest special of the race. Carlos Sainz (Ford Racing) dropped out first due to a broken belt. Next, the reigning world champion, Lucas Moraes (The Dacia Sandriders), collided with João Ferreira (Toyota Gazoo Racing SA), who was leading both the stage and the rally (see A crushing blow). Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC) hit the front and never looked back until he rolled into San Rafael, nabbing his maiden stage win in the Desafío Ruta 40 YPF, his seventh in the W2RC. Nasser Al Attiyah (The Dacia Sandriders) also had a good day at the office. In spite of his position at the front of the field, he put in a show of force to fend off his rivals and finished just outside the podium (+5′15″). His brother in arms Sébastien Loeb (+1′36″) took the runner-up's spot, with Seth Quintero third (+4′23″) in his Toyota.
This makes Lategan the third Toyota driver to hold the lead, after Eryk Goczał (Energylandia) and Ferreira. His teammate Quintero remained second overall (+1′39″). Al Attiyah (+5′28″) clambered onto the podium for the first time this week. Loeb, on his part, gained three places (fifth) but only made a little dent on his time deficit (from +9′26″ to 8′09″).
Puck Klaassen (KTM X-Bow powered by G Rally) opened her account in Challenger, but Alexandre Pinto (Old Friends Rally) maintained the overall lead. Rokas Baciuška (Defender) also claimed his second consecutive win in Stock, while Jeremías González Ferioli (Can-Am Factory) scored a hat-trick in SSV.
The convoy is heading back to San Juan tomorrow! Join us on the Race Center from 8:30 am (UTC-3) for live coverage of stage 4, a 634 km romp with 324 km against the clock.
