Also during the third stage, Erik van Loon in the Can-Am Maverick was fastest in his class. There was a lot of dust from other competitors, but good navigation work by Sébastien Delaunay put them first at the finish. Anja van Loon finished handsomely third by staying out of trouble and making no mistakes.
"That was quite a day," says Erik. "Due to a fault with the navigation tablets in some cars yesterday, the organization based the starting order on an intermediate position from yesterday halfway through the test. As a result, I had to start behind slower cars and the dust got stuck. We lost some time with that, but also due to a slowly deflating tire. We had to change those and at neutralization we were 8 minutes behind the fastest SSV."
The others soon came into sight again for Erik. "We saw them driving after about 10 kilometers. Not much later they made a navigation error, but Seb chose the right track. As a result, we were the fastest at the finish. We'll probably get another penalty for speeding though. Top done by Sébastien, but otherwise it was a dusty day."
Anja was also happy with her navigator. "Wouter did a great job, no mistakes made. We also had a lot of dust otherwise, but gained a lot of time by not puncturing and thus not making any navigation mistakes. Third time is great! It went really well again, so on to tomorrow."
Tomorrow's stage is from Tissint to Tazzarine over a 261-kilometer test. It's a nice mix of fast tracks and off-road sections with difficult navigation. The stage also goes through some sections where the Dakar Rally used to run and via Lake Iriki and the dunes of the Erg Chegaga the stage finishes with more fast tracks.
Automatic translation of the original Dutch version
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