Nasser Al-Attiyah claimed a narrow triumph in the third special stage of the Dakar Rally to close on overall leader Carlos Sainz.

Al-Attiyah (BMW), who won on day one, completed the 695km Puerto Madryn-Ingeniero Jacobacci stage in four hours 29 minutes and 27 seconds, with Sainz following him home only 35 seconds back in his Volkswagen.

The Qatari driver has reduced the time deficit in the overall standings to only 3mins 40secs on Sainz.

In the motorbikes, Marc Coma claimed his second victory of three stages to extend his lead.

The Spaniard, who won the opening stage on Saturday, overcame the problems he suffered on his KTM on Sunday to win with a time of 5hrs 18min 17secs.

He was 17min 49secs ahead of both his compatriot Jordi Viladoms (KTM) and Norway's Pal Anders Ullevalseter (KTM).

Coma, who was reportedly given oil by an eight-year-old child to allow him to continue the race yesterday, has stretched his overall lead up to 39min 11secs over David Fretigne (Yamaha), who finished seventh.

Title holder Cyril Despres suffered more troubles as he developed a bulge on his wheel which badly restricted his speed. The Frenchman ran more than one hour behind the leader to end 47th.

In the trucks, the Russian trio of Vladimir Chagin, Sergey Savostin and Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz), who started today fourth, won the special stage in 5hrs 15min 59secs.

Czech driver Josef Machacek (Yamaha) arrived at the end of the third stage 1min 47secs ahead of Frenchman Christophe Declerck (Yamaha) in the quads.

However, having won the first two stages, Declerck still leads by more than half an hour.

In the fourth stage, the competitors go from Ingeniero Jacobacci to Neuquen and will cover 488km, of which 459km will be timed.

Leading Positions in Stage 3 (Puerto Madryn - Jacobacci, 694km)

Cars: 1 Al Attiyah (Qat) & Thorner (Swe) BMW 04hrs 29mins 27secs, 2 Sainz (Spa) & Perin (Fra) Volkswagen 04:30:02, 3 Depping (Ger) & Gottschalk (Ger) Volkswagen 04:31:07, 4 De Villiers (Zam) & Von Zitzewitz (Ger) Volkswagen 04:33:28, 5 Peterhansel (Fra) & Cottret (Fra) Mitsubishi 04:34:58, 6 Miller (USA) & Pitchford (Zam) Volkswagen 04:37:27, 7 Terranova (Arg) & Guehennec (Fra) BMW 04:38:31, 8 Roma (Spa) & Cruz Senra (Spa) Mitsubishi 04:38:42, 9 Chicherit (Fra) & Baumel (Fra) BMW 04:41:15, 10 Gordon (USA) & Grider (USA) Hummer 04:43:02, 11 Holowczyc (Pol) & Fortin (Bel) Nissan 04:53:14, 12 Van Merksteijn (Ned) & Chevaillier (Bel) BMW 04:55:37, 13 Spinelli (Bra) & Vivolo (Bra) Mitsubishi 04:56:50, 14 Lavieille (Fra) & Forthomme (Bel) Proto 04:57:34, 15 Alphand (Fra) & Picard (Fra) Mitsubishi 05:02:28, 16 Kahle (Ger) & Schuenemann (Ger) Honda 05:03:41, 17 Errandonea (Fra) & Garcin (Fra) Buggy 05:06:47, 18 De Azevedo (Bra) & Haddad (Bra) Mitsubishi 05:08:17, 19 Palik (Hun) & Darazsi (Hun) Nissan 05:08:31, 20 Szalay (Hun) & Bunkoczi (Hun) Opel 05:08:54

Leadings Overall Positions after Stage 3:

Cars: 1 Sainz (Spa) & Perin (Fra) Volkswagen 09hrs 04mins 48secs, 2 Al Attiyah (Qat) & Thorner (Swe) BMW 09:08:28, 3 De Villiers (Zam) & Von Zitzewitz (Ger) Volkswagen 09:10:33, 4 Peterhansel (Fra) & Cottret (Fra) Mitsubishi 09:13:35, 5 Roma (Spa) & Cruz Senra (Spa) Mitsubishi 09:19:10, 6 Miller (USA) & Pitchford (Zam) Volkswagen 09:20:33, 7 Terranova (Arg) & Guehennec (Fra) BMW 09:22:29, 8 Holowczyc (Pol) & Fortin (Bel) Nissan 09:39:13, 9 Gordon (USA) & Grider (USA) Hummer 09:39:20, 10 Alphand (Fra) & Picard (Fra) Mitsubishi 09:43:35, 11 Spinelli (Bra) & Vivolo (Bra) Mitsubishi 09:54:15, 12 Van Merksteijn (Ned) & Chevaillier (Bel) BMW 09:55:51, 13 Lavieille (Fra) & Forthomme (Bel) Proto 10:04:34, 14 Szalay (Hun) & Bunkoczi (Hun) Opel 10:12:59, 15 Depping (Ger) & Gottschalk (Ger) Volkswagen 10:15:30, 16 Palik (Hun) & Darazsi (Hun) Nissan 10:21:12, 17 Tollefsen (Nor) & Evans (Gbr) Nissan 10:22:02, 18 Magnaldi (Fra) & Leneveu (Fra) Buggy 10:22:05, 19 Kuipers (Ned) & Palmeiro (Por) BMW 10:29:10, 20 Van Deijne (Ned) & Rosegaar (Ned) Mitsubishi 10:34:09

More news from SportingLife.com