Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA
Breaking news

KTM boosted as Dakar revises stage results

Results in the bike category of Stage 3 of the Dakar Rally were altered due to a technical problem with the GPS system, with KTM duo Matthias Walkner and Toby Price the two biggest name to benefit from the decision.

Watch: Dakar 2020: Day 3 Highlights - Bikes and Quads

The decision means the last 38 kilometres don't count and the stage ends at checkpoint #53, at the 389km mark.

There was confusion at the end of the stage for riders such as Price and Xavier De Soultrait as the duo got lost, which cost them a significant amount of time.

As Price explained, his problem stemmed from GPS showing a checkpoint in a wrong position.

"Right at the end there is a WPC [Control Waypoint, to which no directions are supplied by GPS] that was... it’s in the roadbook but not in the correct place," Price said. "So I spent a lot of time trying to find this and lost a lot of time there.

"Finally found it. But the WPC is not meant to have an open arrow [on the GPS]. And the arrow opened for it, and it was sitting basically on the top of a rocky mountain ridge. So I thought there might have been a road on the back side of it.

"So I tried to climb up and over and get to the other side and yeah, just a bit of chaos and carnage."

Ricky Brabec still won the stage from Jose Ignacio Cornejo but by only 5m56s instead of his original 9m39s gap.

Joan Barreda dropped from third to sixth but Kevin Benavides still completed an all-Honda top three on the day.

Meanwhile, Walkner and Price have moved up to fourth and fifth, as more than half of their original deficit was erased.

In the overall order, Brabec leads Kevin Benavides by 4m43s, with Walkner up to third followed by two more Hondas in Barreda and Cornejo.

Amended standings after Stage 3 (Bikes, top 10):

Pos. Rider Bike Time/Gap
1

United States Ricky Brabec

Honda 10h39m04s
2

Argentina Kevin Benavides

Honda 4m43s
3

Austria Matthias Walkner

KTM 6m02s
4

Spain Joan Barreda

Honda 11m02s
5 Chile Jose Ignacio Cornejo Honda 11m19s
6

Australia Toby Price

KTM 11m58s
7

Argentina Luciano Benavides

KTM 14m20s
8

Chile Pablo Quintanilla

Husqvarna 15m40s
9 United Kingdom Sam Sunderland KTM 17m10s
10 France Xavier de Soultrait Yamaha 19m55s

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Brabec wants Dakar's new 'blind' stages to be the norm
Next article Alonso dreaming of "magical" Dakar stage win

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA