Toyota Gazoo Racing

On a gruelling loop stage around Wadi Ad-Dawasir, the top Toyota’s in the ranking were in the fight for the win. Nasser Al-Attiyah took a commanding second win during the third stage of the Dakar, but he had a lot of resistance from teammate Henk Lategan during the stage. The South-African impressed with fastest split times in the first half of the stage, in the end he could quite follow the high pace of Al-Attiyah. Nevertheless, Toyota Gazoo Racing team impressed the opposition with Lategan in second.

Giniel de Villiers faced an uphill battle once again. After a tough second day, De Villiers gritted his teeth on the third day. Although the result wasn’t ideal, the South African is still in the race. The same can be said for Shameer Variawa, who’s facing a tough learning curve in only his second Dakar. The South African driver finished in P49 on Tuesday.

Tim & Tom Coronel

“This was a proper Dakar stage”, Tom Coronel said after climbing out of The Beast. The Coronel-brothers once again saw a lot of things on the road, but had decent speed all the way to the finish. Slowly but surely Tim and Tom are climbing in the overall classification.

Bernhard ten Brinke

After a somewhat difficult start of the week, Bernhard ten Brinke started to find his rhythm yesterday and today. But it was all for nothing as the Dutchman crashed with 40 kilometres to go in the third stage. The damage to the Overdrive Toyota Hilux is very severe and the team is working hard to keep Ten Brinke and his co-driver Tom Colsoul in the race.

Mammoet Rallysport

Mammoet Rallysport-driver Martin van den Brink had another decent day on Tuesday. Where other competitors in the truck category hit trouble early on, the man from Harskamp drove a steady pace through the stage. “I’m very happy with what we’ve achieved so far, but we have to keep it up”, Van den Brink said after an 11th place in stage 3. He now sits well inside the top-10 in the overall classification. His son Mitchel had another big day to gain an enormous amount of experience. Van den Brink Junior did well by keeping it on all four wheels and he got a taste of the top-20 in his first rally as a full-fledged driver himself.

Pascal de Baar

After Gert Huzink was forced to leave the race on the second stage, Pascal de Baar is now the one and only driver of the Riwald Dakar Team. De Baar had a solid third stage, where he closed in on the top-10.