Giniel up to second as Hummer stops

Published Jan 5, 2012

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Top South African driver Giniel de Villiers, in the first of the 'works' Toyota Hilux bakkies, has moved up to second overall after the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally, a particularly tough test of navigation as well as endurance over 326km between San Juan and Chilecito in Argentina.

And he's just 5min 41sec behind the new overall leader, Dakar Rally legend Stephane Peterhansel, who won Stage 4 in a time of 3hr 49min 33sec.

The 46-year-old Mini driver, a six-times Dakar motorcycle champion and three-time car winner, endured a miserable day on Tuesday when he suffered two punctures but on Wednesday it was the turn of Qatar's defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah to have a nightmare.

Al-Attiyah's Hummer broke down after 288km of the stage and only got going again after a 15-minute stop, leaving Al-Attiyah seventh overall and more than half an hour off the pace.

While he fumed, Peterhansel came in 5min 19sec ahead of Argentinian driver Orlando Terranova (also in a South African-built Hilux), with De Villiers a further 6min 42sec adrift.

De Villiers' team mate, Dakar rookie Duncan Vos, finished eighth on Stage 4, 13min 49sec behind Peterhansel, and moved up to 12th overall.

Another South African, Mark Corbett, driving a CR4 buggy finished the stage 20th, 35min 14sec behind the leading Mini, after starting 60th due to two consecutive punctures on Tuesday's Stage 3.

He's now 19th overall and second in the two-wheel-drive category of the top T1 class, 22min 41sec behind the MD Ralive buggy of France's Pascal Thomasse.

Ironically Peterhansel wasn't happy that he'd re-taken the overall lead, saying: “I would have preferred not to lead the field on Thursday, because there will be no motorcycle tracks to follow.

“This is not what I would have liked from a tactical point of view, but I think the others made a lot of mistakes, so we'll just race at the front.”

With a quarter of the total race distance completed, three of the four South African drivers competing in the car category and all four of the motorcycle competitors have survived the first 2846 kilometres of the 8 500-km marathon through Argentina, Chile and Peru.

The only South African retirement so far has been that of Alfie Cox, who had to watch his hired Volvo rally raid prototype burn out on the first stage after it caught fire 30km into the race on January 1.

Thursday's fifth stage is expected to be the toughest yet, with more than three hours of racing through the feared white sand dune field of Fiambala. If they survive this 177km test between Chilecito and Fiambala, in the shadow of the snow-capped Andes Mountains that divide Argentina from Chile, the South Africans will be two stages away from a much-needed rest day at Copiapo in Chile on Sunday. - AFP

Results after Stage 4, a 362km special from San Juan to Chilecito

1 Stephane Peterhansel (France) Mini - 3hours 49min 33sec

2 Orlando Terranova (Argentina) Toyota +5min 19sec

3 Giniel de Villiers (South Africa) Toyota +6min42

4 Nani Roma (Spain) Mini +7min35

5 Krzysztof Holowczyc (Poland) Mini +10min51

6 Carlos Sousa (Portugal) Great Wall +11min40

7 Erik Wevers (Netherlands) Mitsubishi +13min17

8 Duncan Vos (South Africa) Toyota 13min49

9 Guilherme Spinelli (Brazil) Mitsubishi +14min11

10 Leonid Novitzkiy (Russia) Mini +14min13

OVERALL

1 Stephane Peterhansel (France) Mini - 9hours 43min 20sec

2 Giniel de Villiers (South Africa) Toyota +5min 41sec

3 Nani Roma (Spain) Mini +6min44

4 Krzysztof Holowczyc (Poland) Mini +8min10

5 Robby Gordon (US) Hummer +16min23

6 Leonid Novitzkiy (Russia) Mini +26min25

7 Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar) Hummer +30min44

8 Lucio Alvarez (Argentina) Toyota +33min11

9 Erik Wevers (Netherlands) Mitsubishi +36min42

10. Erik van Loon (Netherlands) Mitsubishi +41min47

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