Duo secure 3rd place in Dakar

GINIEL de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz (Toyota Imperial Hilux) successfully defended their third place overall in the Dakar Rally when they finished a frustrated seventh on Monday’s special stage eight, the first in Chile after seven stages and a rest day in Argentina.

The 302km racing section, which followed a 522km liaison (untimed) section from Salta in Argentina, that saw the Dakar cavalcade cross the Andes Mountains through the Paso de Jama at just under 5 000m above sea level was the second high altitude test in a row and was characterised by high speeds and narrow roads with limited overtaking opportunities at an average altitude of around 3 000m.

The 2009 Dakar champions were stuck behind the Mini of Russian and Ukrainian duo, Vladimir Vasilyev and Vitaliy Yevtyekhov for 150km.

“Despite making use of the Sentinel system, which signals the driver ahead that you want to overtake, he didn’t make space, even when we were right next to him,” said De Villiers. “We lost a lot of time, at least three minutes as a result. Any chance we had of making up time on our rivals today was gone. It was very frustrating.”

The stage, which ended in Calama was won by Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah and Spanish co-driver, Lucas Cruz, in a Mini, who finished one minute 12 seconds ahead of defending champions, Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean Paul Cottret of France (Mini) and two minutes 36 seconds in front of Spain’s Carlos Sainz and German co-driver, Timo Gottschalk (SMG Buggy).

De Villiers and Von Zitzewitz were nine minutes 21 seconds behind the leaders and just two seconds slower than sixth placed Nani Roma of Spain and Michel Perin of France (Mini).

Roma and Perin remain in the overall lead with a reduced gap of 23 minutes 46 seconds to PeterHansel and Cottret. De Villiers and Von Zitzewitz are 48 minutes 25 seconds in arrears and are now under threat from Argentina’s Orlando Terranova and Paulo Fiuza of Portugal (Mini), who have closed the gap to three minutes 30 seconds.

Toyota Imperial teammates, Leeroy Poulter and Rob Howie made a good recovery from their steering problems on Sunday, that saw them drop some three hours behind the leaders. They finished 29th in the stage, improved their overall position to 28th and are now 10 hours 30 minutes and 28 seconds behind the leaders.

“We had a better day today and were able to pass a few cars and improve our position in the general classification,” said Poulter.

“Overtaking was not easy as the tracks were narrow and the pace was very fast.

“We’ll have a much better start position for Tuesday’s stage and will be looking to make further progress through the field.”

Stage nine, from Calama to the 2014 Dakar’s most northern point at Iquique starts with a 27km liaison section, followed by a 422km racing section that reveals the Pacific Ocean for the first time and re-introduces competitors to the dunes of the Atacama Desert said to be the driest place in the world where no rain has ever been recorded in some places.

The spectacular descent of a giant sand dune to the overnight bivouac is guaranteed to attract thousands of enthusiastic spectators.

The rally leaders will leave Calama at 08:48 (13:48 South African time) and the first arrival in Iquique is expected at 14:48 (19:48 South African time).