Roma wins stage, Holowczyc heads cars' ranking

Spain’s Joan “Nani” Roma (Mini) won the third stage of the Rally Dakar 2012, from San Rafael to San Juan, before his teammate, Polish Krzysztof Holowczyc, who is the new leader in the cars category.

Roma ended 1:09 before Holowczyc and almost a minute and a half before Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah (Hummer), who was third. French Stephane Peterhansel (Mini), who was leading the overall before this stage, ended up in the seventh place, more than six minutes after the winner. Peterhansel dominated the partials during the first half of the stage, but a tyre was punctured twice and lost several minutes and the top in the overall.

South African Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) finalized in the fourth position, followed by US Robby Gordon (Hummer). The sixth place was for Argentine Orlando Terranova (Toyota).

“I’m very calm, because here one day you are happy and the next day you are down,” Roma said after ending the stage.

After the first three stages of the Rally, the overall classification is keenly-contested, with five drivers separates by less than three minutes. Holowczyz heads the overall with 54 seconds over Gordon. De Villiers is 1:40 after in the third place and “Nani” Roma follows with 1:50 after in the fourth place.

Peterhansel was left in the fifth place and Al-Attiyah sixth, 6:34 after the leader due to the time he lost in the first stage. The first Latin American driver is Argentine Lucio Ezequiel Álvarez (Toyota), who is eighth more than 20 minutes after the leader.