De Villiers Captures Penultimate Stage of Dakar Rally

Topics:  Dakar Rally, Giniel De Villiers

VOA Sports
January 16, 2005

South Africa's Giniel De Villiers has captured the penultimate stage of the Dakar Rally, while Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel safely negotiated the 15th stage of the race to close in on the overall victory.

De Villiers drove his Nissan to victory in the 225-kilometer special stage from Tambacounda to Dakar Saturday, clocking a time of two hours, 21 minutes and 15 seconds. He beat Frenchman Bruno Saby's Volkswagen by 57 seconds, while Carlos Sousa of Portugal was third, another minute back in his Nissan.

Peterhansel finished fifth, but the Mitsubishi driver increased his overall lead to 27 minutes and 13 seconds over countryman Luc Alphand. He is more than three minutes and 23 minutes ahead of third-place Volkswagen driver Jutta Kleinschmidt of Germany.

Cyril Despres of France rode a KTM to victory in the motorcycle race in two hours, 27 minutes and 37 seconds. That was one minute and 24 seconds ahead of countryman Alain Duclos. Despres now leads Spain's Marc Coma in the overall standings by nine minutes and 45 seconds.

Sunday's final stage is a 31-kilometer special stage around Dakar.

Some information provided by AFP.