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Stephane Peterhansel takes Dakar lead as Carlos Sainz hits trouble

Stephane Peterhansel moved into the lead of the Dakar Rally as Carlos Sainz ran into problems on the third day of competition

Sainz's Red Bull team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah set the fastest time as the Qatari experienced a trouble-free day in his buggy as the rally moved from Pisco to Nazca.

Al-Attiyah's time was 1m18s faster than Robby Gordon's Hummer and 3m52 clear of Peterhansel, who was third fastest in his X-raid Mini.

Peterhansel, who began the day in second place, now leads Al-Attiyah by 6m33s overall.

Lucio Alvarez's fourth-fastest time moved the Overdrive Toyota man up to third overall, one place ahead of X-raid's Leonid Novitskiy.

Sainz, who started the day in the lead after being given back the time he lost to a satellite problem on Sunday, had another bad stage.

He remained within a minute of Peterhansel and Al-Attiyah for the first half of the 151-mile stage, but lost half an hour later on as an electrical problem caused his buggy to cut out several times.

The Spaniard is now 21 minutes off the overall lead and fifth overall.

One place further back is Giniel de Villiers - third overnight. The South African's Overdrive Toyota also losing ground.

There was bad news for another man touted as a potential winner as Krzysztof Holowczyc crashed out less than 30 miles into the day's timed section. The Pole had to be airlifted to safety with back and rib injuries.

Leading positions after stage three:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time/Gap
 1.  Stephane Peterhansel  X-raid Mini       5h34m26s
 2.  Nasser Al-Attiyah     Red Bull Buggy     + 6m33s
 3.  Lucio Alvarez         Overdrive Toyota  + 18m11s
 4.  Leonid Novitskiy      X-raid Mini       + 21m10s
 5.  Carlos Sainz          Red Bull Buggy    + 21m16s
 6.  Giniel de Villiers    Imperial Toyota   + 30m22s
 7.  Nani Roma             X-raid Mini       + 32m56s
 8.  Orlando Terranova     X-raid BMW        + 35m13s
 9.  Bernard Errandonea    SMG Buggy         + 38m32s
10.  Ronan Chabot          SMG Buggy         + 39m40s

Leading stage three times:

 1.  Nasser Al-Attiyah     Red Bull Buggy    2h30m14s
 2.  Robby Gordon          Gordon Hummer      + 1m18s
 3.  Stephane Peterhansel  X-raid Mini        + 3m52s
 4.  Lucio Alvarez         Overdrive Toyota   + 9m36s
 5.  Nani Roma             X-raid Mini       + 12m20s
 6.  Leonid Novitskiy      X-raid Mini       + 15m29s
 7.  Guerlain Chicherit    SMG Buggy         + 16m15s
 8.  Boris Gadasin         G-Force Nissan    + 23m25s
 9.  Christian Lavielle    Dessoude Nissan   + 24m45s
10.  Bernard Errandonea    SMG Buggy         + 25m09s

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