Ruben Faria, who today finished the 3rd stage of the Dakar2016 rally only in 26th position, was delayed by a fuel problem, just 18 kilometers from the end of the special.
«I started the special with a calm pace, once again following the outlined strategy. About 18 kilometers from the end of the stage, I noticed that something was wrong when I wanted to change gasoline from the rear tank to the front. I realized at that time that I was running out of gas, which forced me to roll very slowly until the end, losing some time for the first ones», explained the Algarve driver from the official Husqvarna team.
With this setback in a stage that, once again due to bad weather, was shortened by the organization to just under 200 kilometers, Ruben also dropped some places in the overall standings, going from 2nd to 8th.
Starting once again from second to the stage, Ruben Faria had soon started to gain time to Toby Price, and, in CP2, he was already the first driver to open the special, having overtaken the American KTM.
In the end, Ruben Faria ended up losing some time, due to the fuel problem, and thus dropped to 8th place overall, just 3m57s from the now leader, the Spaniard Joan Barreda.
This 3rd stage, which had a podium entirely composed of Honda riders (Barreda in 1st, Kevin Benevides in 2nd and Portuguese Paulo Gonçalves in 3rd), turned out to be favorable to Gonçalves, who thus rose to the 4th position of the general.
As for the remaining Portuguese on motorcycles, Helder Rodrigues (Yamaha) was 26th (and is 15th in General), Mário Patrão (KTM) was 36th (33th in General) and Pedro Bianchi Prata (Honda) was 55th (64th).
Tomorrow, the 6th of January, the 4th stage will start and finish in San Salvador de Jujuy, with a total of 629 kilometers, with a timed section of 429 kilometers. This, of course, if bad weather doesn't cause surprises again. This is the first part of the marathon stage, in which, at the end of the day, assistance on motorcycles will not be allowed.
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