US driver Guthrie wins first major Dakar Rally stage and takes overall lead

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ALULA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Mitch Guthrie won his first major Dakar Rally stage and led overall for the first time after a stunning second half drive in the Saudi desert on Tuesday.

Guthrie wasn't among the fastest cars until the checkpoint 167 kilometers into the 421-kilometer loop outside AlUla but was up front from that point and led without peer after 300 kilometers.

The American won by 2 1/2 minutes from Czech Martin Prokop. Guy Botterill, who was running ninth with 100 kilometers to go, crashed the party in third place. Prokop and fifth-placed Cristina Gutiérrez achieved their best major stage results in their 11th and 10th Dakars respectively.

“Best day ever,” Guthrie said. “I wasn’t expecting it, we just had a really clean day.”

Tosha Schareina of Spain won the motorbike stage to remind the field of his ambition and threat. Schareina overcame two crashes and a collarbone injury to press Daniel Sanders to the end of the 2025 Dakar, finishing second to the Australian by less than nine minutes.

Schareina's Honda was now just over a minute behind Sanders' KTM in the general standings.

The four-hour stage three promised difficult navigation and sandy canyons and blew up the car rankings.

Of the top six leading drivers at the start of the day, only Nasser Al-Attiyah remained in the top 10. He crawled home after two punctures with 100 kilometers to go and fell from first overall to 10th, nearly 12 minutes behind Guthrie.

Dacia teammate Sebastien Loeb also suffered two punctures and ran out of spare tires but with 300 kilometers left. He's five more minutes after Al-Attiyah.

“I'm just really happy to be at the finish because at one point I didn't think we'd make it,” Loeb said.

The new top five, led by Guthrie, were all in Fords. Prokop, Mattias Ekström, four-time champion Carlos Sainz and one-time champion Nani Roma were within four minutes of Guthrie.

Seth Quintero, second overall overnight, dropped to more than an hour behind, while motorbike rider Stefan Svitko, a top-10 finisher the last two years, withdrew after crashing and injuring a collarbone.

Honda claimed before stage three that Schareina hadn't gone hard but that changed on Tuesday in the hardest stage yet. He became the leader after more than 100 kilometers and gradually increased his gap to 22 seconds after 200, one minute after 300 and 2 minutes, 17 seconds by the finish.

Schareina's third career stage win was where he won his first in 2024, and he believed he was ideally placed for the marathon stage starting on Wednesday.

“I have a good position and I'll try to open all day,” he said. “It's just the third day, anything can happen, but we are there in the battle.”

Teammate Ricky Brabec, who caught Sanders opening the way about 80 kilometers from the finish, was second and Sanders third thanks to more than six minutes in bonus time. Luciano Benavides and Skyler Howes were the only other riders within 10 minutes of Schareina.

Brabec and Schareina improved to second and third overall, just over a minute behind defending champion Sanders. Edgar Canet dropped from second to fourth, nearly nine minutes behind.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing