In addition, there was enormous progress for Fernando Alsonso, who is starting to feel the heartbeat of the desert much better. Today he scored an amazing fourth place, after using his joker to secure a better starting position than yesterday's result normally would allow. Giniel de Villiers was also in good shape after his victory yesterday. After a somewhat cautious start he recovered in the later part of the day with a strong ninth place.

In the third stage of the Dakar Rally 2020, Bernhard ten Brinke and Tom Colsoul drove many kilometers in the dust of other cars. Once out of the dust, the Eurol-supported Toyota GAZOO team began an impressive climb through the ranks. After 427 quick kilometers, the Toyota Hilux reached the finish line in Neom as tenth car of the day. Due to that solid result, Bernhard and Tom climb two places in the general classification to a very nice 8th place.

Tim & Tom Coronel had a quiet day in The Beast, after resolving yesterday's slight power loss. Peter van Merksteijn also steered clear of trouble, with a decent 31st place as a result.

Trucks

For the trucks it was Pascal de Baar who put down a solid performance, he was the fastest Eurol truck of the day coming in 10th, with Martin van den Brink in the Mammoet truck again right behind him, like yesterday. For Gert Huzink in the experimental Renault C460 Hybrid, today has mainly been a technical battle. 125 kilometers before the finish, a bearing popped and a nut came loose, which took a lot of time. It is clear to all the racing speed is definitely there, now they just need a a hassle-free day to finish in the top 10. Ed Wigman ensured that he put in a stable performance again with his quick assistance, with a good balance between providing help where needed, while keeping speed.

Kees Koolen and Jurgen van den Goorbergh had a slightly harder time today in the increasingly popular side-by-side class, in 37th place they were more than two hours slower than the fastest SSV, while they were up in the Top 20 yesterday