Spanish competitors had a great day in the Dakar Rally on Monday with Carlos Sainz and Isidre Esteve Pujol taking the overall lead in the car and motorbike standings.
Reigning motorbike champion Marc Coma of Spain won the 252km third stage between Nador and Rachidia in Morocco, in front of American Chris Blais and Pujol, while in the car section, South Africa's Giniel De Villiers won to push Sainz and Stephane Peterhansel of France into the minor placings.
Coma, who had started the race in Portugal cautiously, made his intentions clear once the race arrived on African soil, and he remains a strong contender to gain back-to-back titles.
It was a frustrating day however for the 2005 motorbike champion, Cyril Despres of France, who lost more than 20 minutes after the gearbox of his KTM broke.
"I am really not lucky," Despres told the Dakar Web site. "Nothing but bad luck. Anyway, the race is not lost yet. The other riders can also have problems. My problem right now is that I have to ride for 200km in first gear [until the bivouac]."
Portuguese rider Ruben Faria, winner of the opening stage, also had engine trouble with his Yamaha.
Fortune had swung the other way for Blais who had lost more than 11 minutes on Sunday because of an oil problem.
On Monday he made the most of a late start to give himself a chance of a stage victory, overtaking about 40 competitors and clocking the best time at the 113km first timing point though he lost time from then on in the fastest section to finish less than a minute behind Coma.
In the car event, there was a real cat-and-mouse battle between De Villiers and fellow VW driver Sainz, who had won the preceding stage in Portugal, though De Villiers edged the victory by 25sec and by 3min 18sec in front of Peterhansel's Mitsubishi. France's reigning champion Luc Alphand was fourth at 3:42 and finally moved into the top 10, in eighth spot.
Japan's Hiroshi Masuoka, who had been among the leaders at the first timing point, became the victim of a power steering breakdown and finished the stage in seventh spot nearly six minutes back.
Germany's Jutta Kleinschmidt, the only woman to win what many consider the most dangerous and toughest challenge in world motorsport, suffered a setback when her BMW went into a ditch and caught fire before the day's first checkpoint.
The flames were extinguished but Kleinschmidt lost time while she waited for help to get her stricken vehicle back on the road.
Six of the 510 crews who started from Lisbon pulled out of the event, which ends in the Senegalese capital on Jan. 21.
The competitors were in for a long day yesterday with the 679km fourth stage between Rachidia and Ouarzazate, which has a 405km timed section.
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