Dakar update: Coma wins, Despres leads

KTM’s Marc Coma has picked up his firs stage victory in this year’s Dakar Rally, and is now only 14 seconds behind brand-mate Cyril Despres in the overall classification.

The third stage took riders on a massive 752km (521 of special stages) trek through desert canyons, up to an altitude of 3378m before descending down into the forested areas in the most northern provinces of Argentina just below the border with Bolivia. This area is new territory for the Dakar regulars.

“I'm happy with where I am," said Coma. “I took advantage of a little navigation mistake by Cyril Despres. Of course it’s important to win a special, but my aim is to win the rally.”

Despres, first out today after winning the first two stages, had mixed fortunes at the beginning of the special when he encountered a number of spectators crossing the piste, which was enough to momentarily disturb his concentration. Then after a small navigation error around the first waypoint, he settled down to do some serious damage control.

"Marc Coma caught up with me very quickly," he said. "I was very careful during the first 10km and then after 11km I got it completely wrong. I didn't lose two hours, but several precious minutes.

"In the end, I limited the damage, because I finished 20 seconds behind Marc. He must have gained 2 minutes 20 seconds on me. It's not huge amount of time, but I would've liked to have kept it for myself.”

Despite finishing fifth in stage three, Despres’ team-mate Ruben Faria remains in third position, nine minutes and 38 seconds (9:38) behind Despres, followed by BMW riders Paolo Goncalves (10:43) and  
Jose Rodrigues (16:07).

Jacob Smith (Honda) remains the leading Aussie, slipping back two positions to 22, 57:47 in arrears of Despres.

Tomorrow the riders will cross the Andes via the Paso de Jama at an oxygen-robbing 4800m altitude before plunging down to Calama in Chile and the notorious Atacama Desert, the world's driest region.