The best Portuguese in the 3rd stage of Dakar2015, now played between San Juan and Chilecito, with 220 timed kilometers, was Paulo Gonçalves (Honda), who finished 5th, 2min49sec behind the winner, young rookie Matthias Walkner (KTM).
The Algarvian Ruben Faria, also from the KTM armada, reached the 7th best time in the stage, with 3min26s more than the Austrian Walkner.
Hélder Rodrigues (Honda) was 15th, 7min01sec behind the winner, while Mário Patrão (Suzuki) was 30th (plus 20min29sec).
The winner of yesterday's stage, the Spaniard Joan Barreda Bort (Honda), was this time placed 3rd, right after another Spaniard, Marc Coma (KTM), but Barreda kept the command of the General classification, where he remains firm in the 2nd post the Portuguese Paulo Gonçalves.
Ruben Faria is now 5th in General, Hélder Rodrigues 9th and Mário Patrão 33rd.
With his performance today, the young Austrian Matthias Walkner, three times world champion in MX1-MX3, is definitively among the riders to watch carefully, while Marc Coma is also under surveillance by his rivals.
Coma, winner of last year's Dakar, after losing more than 10 minutes yesterday, managed a good recovery today, finishing the stage just 40 seconds from Walkner.
“We're still fighting, it's been a good rally. Very difficult, demanding, but both me and my Honda CRF 450 Rally have lived up to it. We are in the lead, Barreda is doing an excellent job, I'm the same, I'm second, if we manage to continue like this until the end, it will be an excellent result», said Gonçalves, cited by his advisor.
For his part, Ruben Faria, quoted on the official Dakar website, commented: “It was a shorter stage, I think it was easier, but the last 30 kilometers were complicated. In the river bed there were many stones and water. But I'm glad to be here, it's another day out of date, day-by-day, step-by-step. I am very satisfied with my position”.
In cars, Ricardo Leal dos Santos was the best Portuguese in this 3rd stage, taking his Nissan to 17th position, 23.25 minutes from the winner, Argentine Orlando Terranova (Mini). Leal dos Santos is now 22nd overall.
Carlos Sousa (Mitsubishi) ranked 18th in the tirade, maintaining 9th place overall.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, the Dakar enters Chile, with the connection between Chilecito and Copiapó, with cars and motorcycles having a special of 315 kilometers.
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