Dakar 2017, Stage 3: Nikolaev fastest, Van den Brink in trouble

2013 trucks champion Nikolaev was narrowly ahead of Martin Kolomy and Ton van Genugten in the first part of the stage and he maintained a similar advantage until the finish.

Despite starting the day ninth, the fact he was only 1m23s behind second place allowed Nikolaev to end up in that very position in the overall standings, just half a minute adrift Kolomy.

Federico Villagra was best of the rest in fourth and is now third overall, nearly five minutes behind the duo of Kolomy and Nikolaev.

Siarhei Viazovich and Peter Versluis follow the Argentinian as the top five is made up by five different manufacturers.

The latter is just ahead of Dmitry Sotnikov, who was 12 minutes off the pace and dropped from second to sixth as a result, and Hans Stacey.

The stage caught out a couple of big names, including Van den Brink, who already lost nine minutes before the neutralisation zone but lost even more in the second part of the running.

Reigning champion Gerard De Rooy was forced to stop twice due to punctures, which cost him half an hour.

UPDATE: Kolomy received a penalty of three minutes, thus giving overall first place to Nikolaev.

Trucks standings after Stage 3: