A ‘good day’ for Giniel in the Dakar

JOHANNESBURG: South African Giniel De Villiers rose to third overall in the car standings after the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally in Arequipa, Peru, on Tuesday.

De Villiers and German codriver Dirk von Zitzewitz finished the 288km timed section of the stage in fourth place in 3hr 33min 3sec behind Nasser AlAttiyah (3:28:46), Guerlain Chicherit (3:29:22) and Stephane Peterhansel (3:30:03).

The South African, who won the race in 2009, trails race leader Peterhansel by 33 minutes and remains in the hunt despite losing time to the Frenchman.

Al-Attiyah, who is second overall, secured his second consecutive stage win to pull to within 5:16 of Peterhansel.

“We had a good day today,” De Villiers said at the end of Tuesday’s stage. “It was a very long stage, over 3½ hours of hard driving and navigating, the first really hard stage of the rally so far. The Hilux ran well.”

Meanwhile, fellow South African Riaan van Niekerk enjoyed another successful day on his bike, finishing the stage in 11th place and settling in 19th position overall, with countryman Darryl Curtis 21st in the stage and retaining his 13th overall ranking.

Yesterday’s fifth stage was set to start with a 337km liaison section and a crossing of the Andes Mountains into Chile.

A 172km special stage was expected to see a big change in terrain with stony tracks, river crossings and a series of valleys, as the race headed into the mountains. – Sapa