Australia's Daniel "Chucky" Sanders has continued his dream start to the Dakar Rally, winning his third stage on the trot to open up a 12-and-a-half minute lead over his pursuers in the motorcycle race.
While the Yarra Valley rider sets a hot pace in the Saudi Arabian desert, Toby Price, the two-time bike champ who Sanders hopes to emulate as the second Australian to win at the famous rally, was continuing to make great strides on his car debut, moving up to fourth after the marathon 48-hour stage two.
Sanders, on his Red Bull KTM, maintained his breathtaking start on Monday, ending the marathon 967km stage seven minutes 37 seconds faster than his nearest pursuer, American Monster Energy Honda rider Skyler Howes.
🛁+🧊+📱= recovery time for stage winner Daniel Sanders 🥶#Dakar2025 #DakarInSaudi pic.twitter.com/s7iieUcXMp
— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 6, 2025
It took his overall lead after winning the opening prologue and the first two stages to 12min 36sec over Howes as he became the first rider to win three stages in a row at the race since Spain's Joan Barreda in 2017.
It's a significant advantage even if it's still early days in the fortnight-long endurance classic and Sanders is concerned about leading off in stage three with its potential navigation and mystery dune pitfalls.
"It wasn’t too bad, pretty hard in the soft dunes, it was very tough for a lot of us. When opening, you didn’t know if it was going to be a soft dune or a hard dune. It was pretty tough," said 30-year-old Sanders.
"But, overall, the body feels good and I don’t feel tired at all, I just saved a lot of energy, ready for next week ... I’m committed and ready to take on the challenge tomorrow”.
Hat-trick for Daniel Sanders! 👏
— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 6, 2025
4️⃣ days, 3️⃣ stage wins, and a nice twist with his final time on the 4️⃣8️⃣-hour chrono... 😅#Dakar2025 #DakarInSaudi pic.twitter.com/FS3CYT4sIw
In the car race, driver Price and his navigator, another former two-time bike winner, Britain's Sam Sunderland, finished ninth on the stage to move up to fourth overall, 11min 44sec behind South African leader Henk Lategan.
The two four-wheel rookies can hardly credit that they're doing so well in their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux.
"It was a good stage for sure. As rookies, me and Sam, we don’t really have an idea of what we’re doing, so, sure, it was a lot more difficult than what we were thinking," admitted Price, who does at least have experience of car racing.
"When you get into that dust, you can’t see all those less visible tracks. We had one little bit of an issue before the section of sand dunes, when we were searching for a way point there for a little bit.
🎙 @tobyprice87 when learning that he and @Sundersam are currently 4th in the overall classification : "We didn't get stuck, didn't have any issues, all very good" 🚗💪#Dakar2025 #DakarInSaudi pic.twitter.com/wt2TWlZ6UI
— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 6, 2025
"Sam’s doing a great job as a complete, green rookie to the whole thing and I feel bad because I’ve given him a few head knocks and rattles in there, but all in all, we’re stoked”.
All-time great Carlos Sainz, though, has written off his chances of defending his title after finishing the stage more than an hour and half behind Lategan.
The 62-year-old Spaniard, dad of F1 driver Carlos Sainz Jnr, had flipped his Ford Raptor onto its roof in the desert dunes on Sunday and lost more time on Monday with a puncture and route-finding problems.
