Nani Roma ended up in the Dakar Rally lead as the event’s three biggest names all hit trouble on Tuesday’s third stage.

The San Rafael to San Juan stage was altered prior to the start due to recent extreme weather, and a swollen river then forced the top crews to take a further diversion off the planned route.

Monday leader Stephane Peterhansel was worst affected, picking up six punctures while battling through vegetation and dropping 28 minutes to his stage-winning X-raid Mini team-mate Roma.

Nasser Al-Attiyah and Carlos Sainz were also delayed, losing 10 and 15 minutes respectively.

Roma had a trouble-free run and jumped from fourth to first in the overall standings.

He now leads fellow X-raid man Orlando Terranova – who stopped on the stage to give Peterhansel a spare tyre – by nine minutes overall, with Al-Attiyah just 54 seconds behind Terranova to complete an all-Mini top three.

Sainz and Peterhansel fell to fourth and fifth. Eleven-time winner Peterhansel will resume on Wednesday 24 minutes down on Roma.

Leading stage three times:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car         Time/Gap
 1.  Nani Roma             X-raid Mini      2h58m52s
 2.  Krzsyztof Holowczyc   X-raid Mini        +1m07s
 3.  Leeroy Poulter        Imperial Toyota    +3m19s
 4.  Orlando Terranova     X-raid Mini        +4m54s
 5.  Guerlain Chicherit    EVR                +6m52s
 6.  Robby Gordon          Gordon Hummer      +7m02s
 7.  Nasser Al-Attiyah     X-raid Mini       +10m09s
 8.  Erik Wevers           Riwald Ford       +10m39s
 9.  Federico Villagra     X-raid Mini       +10m54s
10.  Erik van Loon         XDakar Ford       +11m01s

Leading overall positions after stage three:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car         Time/Gap
 1.  Nani Roma             X-raid Mini      9h20m13s
 2.  Orlando Terranova     X-raid Mini        +9m06s
 3.  Nasser Al-Attiyah     X-raid Mini       +10m00s
 4.  Carlos Sainz          SMG Buggy         +12m02s
 5.  Stephane Peterhansel  X-raid Mini       +24m08s
 6.  Giniel de Villiers    Imperial Toyota   +26m23s
 7.  Christian Lavieille   Haval             +31m23s
 8.  Krzsyztof Holowczyc   X-raid Mini       +33m56s
 9.  Erik Wevers           Riwald Ford       +44m39s
10.  Leeroy Poulter        Imperial Toyota   +45m10s