Dakar: Grabham makes costly error

Just a day after logging his best ever result in the Dakar Rally – sixth place -- Australian Ben Grabham (KTM) has tumbled down the general classification in stage three after a navigation error between San Rafael and San Juan, Argentina.

Grabham wasn’t alone, with stage two winner Sam Sunderland (Honda), Juan Pedrero (Sherco), Paulo Goncalves (Honda) and Ruben Faria (KTM) also making the same navigational blunder.

Grabham is now 33nd overall, over two-and-a-half-hours behind leader Joan Barreda, who has won two of the opening three stages on his factory Honda.

“We all went down the wrong mountain,” said Grabham. “In the first 20 metres we knew it was wrong but it was just way too steep to get back. We tried for about an hour but it was damaging the bike too much.”

And then to complicate matters, Faria crashed heavily and required airlifting, so Grabham, Sunderland and Goncalves waited with him for the helicopter to arrive.

“Then to get out of where we were was quite a mission,” said Grabham, “all of us had to help each other lift our bikes down rock ledges and that took us a lot of time and energy. I’m not happy about it but there’s not much I can do about it.”

It’s still unclear whether the three riders who waited alongside Faria will be credited with any time for assisting him. Either way, Faria is out of this year’s event after finishing third in 2013.

Defending champion Cyril Despres (Yamaha) is now in second place overall, 13 minutes and four seconds (13:04) behind Barreda, followed by Marc Coma (KTM, 13:56), Alain Duclos (Sherco, 16:38) and Francesco Lopez (18:39).

South Aussie Shane Diener (Yamaha) is in 44th spot, 3.01:49 behind.

In stage four, riders must nurse their bikes through a further 550km in the second successive marathon leg, including 352km of special stage.

For full results and standings in the 2014 Dakar Rally, visit www.dakar.com/index_DAKus.html.