Australia’s Toby Price was only 33rd on Stage 3 of the rally after stopping to give his teammate Seth Quintero his only spare tyre.

The tough AlUla terrain forced Price to conserve. He ultimately set a time 33m13s away from Stage 3 winner Mitch Gutherie in the faster Ford Raptor to top drop from seventh to 16th overall.

“It was a crazy day again,” said Price.

“We knew the conditions would be tough, and they were. We got one flat at about 120 km then I saw Seth had a puncture – his second – and he was without tyres.

“I gave him my other spare, so we ran all afternoon without any spare tyres. That was not ideal, and we lost a lot of time.

“The standings don’t look great right now, but it’s only day three. We got through it, which is the most important thing.”

Quintero suffered four punctures and wound up losing more than an hour to the leaders. His time was only good enough for 57th, an ugly 1h15m2s off the pace.

While grateful to have been supported by Price, the American couldn’t help but bemoan his bad luck.

“We made a good start, despite opening the stage, and were doing well,” said Quintero.

“We got our first puncture early on and the second came soon after. We got a third when we were driving in a straight line going about 20 km/h.

“Toby gave us a wheel so thanks to him we could keep going. We were driving very slowly, and I pulled over for another car to pass.

“I didn’t even get back on the line and we got another puncture. It’s really disappointing but now we will try to fight for a top 10.”

Henk Lategan was the only shining light for Toyota. The South African was 23rd through Stage 3 after he copped two punctures.

“There were a lot of rocks on the stage today, and it felt like there was always a risk of a puncture,” said Lategan.

“We were going quite well at the beginning until we got two punctures within a few kilometres. Then it was game over in terms of pushing.

“With no spares, if we had another puncture, it could be the end of our rally. So, we just tiptoed across the rocks – and there were so many of them today.

“We did 300 km with no spare tyre, so it was a difficult day.”

Ford’s near-perfect run was in stark contrast to Toyota’s horror show.

Gutherie and teammate Martin Prokop made it a one-two for the Blue Oval in the overall standings.

“That’s my first stage win in the Ultimate class,” said Guthrie.

“I really don’t know what to say. I actually wasn’t expecting it, we just had a really clean day.

“We started at the back and Kellon killed it with the navigation.

“There were a lot of tricky spots, but we had no flat tyres. The car was great so we just kept moving all day, really. If it holds up, it’s the best day ever.”

Stage 1 winners Guillaume de Mevius and Mathieu Baumel fell from third in the standings to 60th overall on a day where they suffered punctures and made mistakes.

All told, they were 6h29m30s behind the leading pace – 142nd on Stage 3.

“Unfortunately, I think we messed up our Dakar today,” said De Mevius.

“We got punctures and made several mistakes. First of all, we had to wait for Lionel Baud who gave us a spare wheel, but he had a puncture further on so we had to give him it back.

“We drove how we could and in the end it was Maria [Gameiro, the third Mini in the race] who gave us her wheel to complete the last fifteen kilometres.

“It’s not been an easy day to digest. It’s very frustrating.”

Competitors will begin their first marathon on Wednesday, with 838 kilometres of running across two days. No outside assistance will be allowed at the end of Stage 4.

2026 Dakar Rally Cars Top 10 after Stage 3