Dakar 2026, Stage 3: Ford dominant as Mitch Guthrie moves into overall lead

Mitch Guthrie led a Ford 1-2 in the third stage of the Dakar Rally to snatch the overall lead from Dacia rival Nasser Al-Attiyah.

After a subdued showing on Monday in which none of its entries finished inside the top 10, Ford emerged as the class of the field in Tuesday’s 421km test around Al-Ula with the Raptors leading throughout.

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom set the early pace to assert his status as Ford’s benchmark, only briefly losing his advantage at the fourth checkpoint to team-mate Nani Roma.

Guthrie, meanwhile, made a low-key start to proceedings and sat outside the top 10 early on, losing almost two minutes to the leaders. But come the halfway point, he had closed the gap to Ekstrom to just 16 seconds and he overtook him for the lead 303km into the stage.

As the Swede dropped more than seven minutes in the final 100km, Guthrie consolidated his position, scoring his maiden stage win in the Ultimate category by 2m27s. The late shuffling in position saw MD Sport driver Martin Prokop jump from fifth to second at the finish, completing a Ford 1-2 in his customer-run Raptor.

Toyota’s mixed form in the 2026 Dakar continued in Stage 3. After securing a landmark 1-2-3-4-5 lockout on Monday, most of the Japanese manufacturer’s line-up was never in the reckoning around Al-Ula. The only exception was Guy Botterill, who leapt to third late on aboard his factory Hilux, 5m53s behind the leaders.

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With Dacia’s star drivers Al-Attiyah and Sebastien Loeb losing a heap of time, Lucas Moraes led the way for the Renault Group brand, setting the fourth-fastest time of the day. The 2022 Extreme E champion Cristina Gutierrez backed up Moraes’ performance in fifth, having run as high as second during the day.

Roma finished in sixth after briefly leading the stage a third of the way through, while Carlos Sainz Sr was classified seventh following another solid but unspectacular day.

Matthieu Serradori impressed aboard his Audi-powered Century CR7, ending up just a second adrift of Sainz, while Ekstrom wound up ninth after a tough end to the stage. M-Sport’s Denis Krotov made it six Ford entries inside the top 10.

Toyota’s factory World Rally-Raid Championship team particularly struggled, with Stage 2 winner Seth Quintero losing a heap of time after stopping 275km into the stage due to mechanical issues, leaving Henk Lategan as the team’s highest-placed driver in 19th.

Dacia’s star duo Al-Attiyah and Loeb also endured a nightmare third stage, both conceding more than 20 minutes to the leaders after gradually haemorrhaging time throughout the day. This has allowed Guthrie to jump from 14th in the standings to take the overall lead, 26s ahead of a consistent Martin Prokop on the customer Ford.

The duo are followed by Ekstrom, Sainz and Roma in that order, completing a 1-2-3-4-5 for Ford in the general classification heading into the two-part marathon stage on Wednesday.

Dacia’s Moraes is now the lead non-Ford driver in sixth ahead of team-mate Gutierrez, with Serradori grabbing eighth for Century. The top 10 is completed by Variawa and Al-Attiyah, with their respective team-mates Lategan and Loeb in 11th and 12th respectively.

Dakar Rally - Overall results after Stage 3:

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