Stephane Peterhansel and Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart retained the lead after stage three of the Central Europe Rally.

Peterhansel finished runner up in the first special and sixth in the second, which was shortened from 76 km to 36 due to the build-up of mud.

Luc Alphand stayed in third after finishing fifth in the first special and seventh in the second. Nani Roma also kept hold of fourth place, after setting the third-fastest time in the first run and eighth-fastest in the second.

Dieter Depping (Volkswagen) prevented a Mitsubushi clean sweep of the top four by finishing the day in overall second.

"It was another good day, although it wasn't a perfect one either," Peterhansel said afterwards. "[The first special] went well, although it was a special with fog, clouds, poor visibility, rain...

"In the afternoon the special was shorter. The result was poorer because we lost a lot of time [relative to its length]."

Both specials were disputed in the same setting - as with stage two of the rally - although adverse weather conditions resulted in a tough task for all drivers and riders.

Repsol suffered their first withdrawal after Spaniard Carlos Sainz's Volkswagen accidentally ran over the foot of Hiroshi Masuoka's co-pilot - Frenchman Pascal Maimon - while they replaced a punctured tyre. Maimon was retired with a broken ankle.

Sainz himself had a poor day, losing eight minutes in the first special after he broke a gearbox, although team-mate Giniel de Villiers (South Africa) won the session.

In the biking section, KTM's Jaroslav Katinak (Slovakia) won both specials to go third while team-mate David Casteu retained the overall lead and another KTM rider, Francisco Lopez (Chile), stayed second.

Frenchman Hubert Deltrieu led the quad standings from fellow Polaris men Razvan Irimescu (Romania) and Slovakia's Martin Antal, while only the shortened second loop was contested by the trucks.

That was won by Alex Loprais on a Tatra, while Dutchman Hans Stacey built up a commanding overall lead by placing second.

Reda Maher / Eurosport