Toby Price wins Abu Dhabi Stage Three to move into P3 overall

Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2023
Stage Three

In a Special Stage 266 kilometres long, Pablo Quintanilla was the first on the chronograph but his stage win was lost after a two minutes penalty for speeding which relegated him to second place on the stage and saw Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) declared the stage winner by 16-seconds.

Toby Price

“Stage three is done, and I was a little happier today. It was still tough out there with some unpredictable dunes but I was able to find a better rhythm and keep up a good pace. It would still be easy to make a mistake and risk injury so you have to stay completely focused all the time. A stage win today, which is great, it just doesn’t give me the best start position for tomorrow’s long stage four. All-in-all I’m happy and the bike is working really well. We’ll see what the final two days bring – I’m looking forward to it.”

Pablo Quintanilla

“The second part of the marathon stage was good for me, since I was able to keep a strong pace. I am happy with the outcome and to see how our team is performing here in these very demanding terrain in Abu Dhabi, so now let’s continue with all our determination in the last two stages.”

Skyler Howes (Husqvarna Factory Racing) came in third, 19 seconds off the pace.

Skyler Howes

“That was a really tough stage today, I’m definitely feeling the fatigue to my whole body. It was also overcast with a lot of cloud cover and that makes visibility in the dunes really bad, so it’s difficult to see any dune cuts, or much of anything for that matter. I caught up with the guys in front just before the refuelling, but it was definitely Luciano and Nacho (Cornejo) that took the reins opening the stage and did a really good job keeping the pace high. I’m actually quite happy with the day, but man it was physically demanding for sure. I’m looking forward to getting a bit of rest now ahead of the final two days.”

Meanwhile, Adrien Van Beveren, fifth on the day at 1′03″, defended his lead with 43 seconds to spare over his team-mate Quintanilla in the outright standings while Toby Price moves up into third place.

Adrien Van Beveren

“It was difficult today, I did not have much visibility because of the weather. At the beginning it all looked the same. It was not so easy but we did a good job. We gave our best on the second day of the marathon stage and I am happy about that. Also glad that my Honda CRF 450 Rally was always reliable during this tough stage. The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is a very physical and demanding race so now I have to rest and focus on the last two days.”

At the close of day three, and after close to 11 hours of racing against the clock, Toby Price now trails the overall rally leader by a mere three-minutes with two long stages left to cover.

Tomorrow’s Stage 4 will keep the circuit style around Qasr Al Sarab but in a longer way. Special stage will be 308 kilometers long – added by a liaison of 149 km. The landscape and terrain will remain the same, with most of the day to race on big dunes and sand tracks.